Calories: How much is too little and too much?

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skinnyhopes
skinnyhopes Posts: 402 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a daily goal of 1200. Some days I go as much as 400 over without exercise included ( and still lose) and 100 under.
What do you think is too over from your daily goal? What about too under?

Replies

  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    Anything under 2000 and my body freaks out. I can go a couple of days over by a couple hundred (up to 2400) and won't see any difference in my weight (this is without exercising). If I'm working out a lot, it wants a minimum of 2200-2300. So, I always eat back my exercise calories to make sure I won't be under.
  • makena78
    makena78 Posts: 162 Member
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    my goal with my exercise is about 1600. I normally eat 200-400 less. I'm not sure yet if that's good or bad. I've lost 5lbs since I started a month ago. I try not to ever go over my limit though. I just can't force myself to eat food to reach my calorie goal if I'm not hungry. I'm going to listen to my body.
  • raelea77
    raelea77 Posts: 1 Member
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    How the heck are you keeping it under 1200?? My daily goal is 1250 and I workout pretty much daily with a workout goal of 400-600 cals burned (I wear HR Monitor to help keep track).... secrets please!
  • skinnyhopes
    skinnyhopes Posts: 402 Member
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    How the heck are you keeping it under 1200?? My daily goal is 1250 and I workout pretty much daily with a workout goal of 400-600 cals burned (I wear HR Monitor to help keep track).... secrets please!

    I usually am 1200-1350 on a good day. Rarely, I'll have 1100-1150.
  • makena78
    makena78 Posts: 162 Member
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    Eating 1200cal or less seems low and unhealthy but not everyone is built the same. A petite person just doesn't need as much. Before I had kids I weighed 98lbs and I didn't track food but I'm sure it wasn't much more than 1200. And 98lbs was very healthy for me.(I'm 5ft). Now my goal is just 112 which is still overweight for me. I believe in listening to your body and not just what the new trend to stay fit is. I never ran marathons or worked out for an hour straight. A simple workout and eating right is all you really need. So maybe skinnyhopes secret is she is naturally petite and her body doesn't crave extra calories to lose weight.
  • NatashaAlexandra
    NatashaAlexandra Posts: 70 Member
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    The problem is that it is completely different for every single person. No two people will have the same calorie intake and recieve the same results.
    Dependant on your BMI and your daily activities, it varies.
    If you have a healthy BMI, I'd go with 1350 calories a day, and then eat back all your exercise cals. BUT if you work in an active job 4 or 5 days a week, for example as a retail assistant or as a waitress - then I'd higher it up to 1500 as your body will just go into starvation mode and you would'nt lose anything!!

    Try and calculate it for your own typical day, don't trust what MFP tells you about calorie intake, and edit your goals yourself rather than using the guided option. 1200 is pretty low and will probably end up making your weight loss stop altogether after the first few months.

    :)
  • FireQueenII
    FireQueenII Posts: 5
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    Hi, I'm new to this forum and have only just started to use myfitnesspal. I noticed reading all of these posts, that you talk about "eating back all your exercise cals" .... what do you mean by this?
    At the moment I don't exercise, but will be starting soon once my working schedule calms down, so this is something of interest to me.
  • Helena4
    Helena4 Posts: 124
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    Hi, I'm new to this forum and have only just started to use myfitnesspal. I noticed reading all of these posts, that you talk about "eating back all your exercise cals" .... what do you mean by this?
    At the moment I don't exercise, but will be starting soon once my working schedule calms down, so this is something of interest to me.

    I don't understand this either - because surely, if you burn it off, you don't want to eat it back again - as it defeats the object of exercise?
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    Hi, I'm new to this forum and have only just started to use myfitnesspal. I noticed reading all of these posts, that you talk about "eating back all your exercise cals" .... what do you mean by this?
    At the moment I don't exercise, but will be starting soon once my working schedule calms down, so this is something of interest to me.

    I don't understand this either - because surely, if you burn it off, you don't want to eat it back again - as it defeats the object of exercise?

    When you put your information into MFP and it gives you your daily calorie needs for a day it has already worked in a deficit. It knows you want to lose 1lb a week and has accounted for that when it gave you your calories. If you eat less than you aren't eating the amount MFP wants you to eat to lose weight in a healthy way. Let's say MFP tells you to eat 1500 calories a day and then you go to the gym and you burn 500 of those calories. Now, you're only eating 1000 calories - which is too low based on the info you put into MFP. If you eat back the 500, you're back at the amount MFP has recommended for you to eat.

    1500 (calories eaten) - 500 (exercise) = 1000 + 500 (calories eaten back) = 1500 (which is your original goal). Now, MFP is going to show that you have eaten 2000 calories TOTAL, but remember that you burned 500 of them .. so, you're still at the 1500 goal it set for you. Eating too little will put you into starvation mode. Which makes the body hold onto fat stores and you won't lose weight. However, as we all know eating too much will make you gain weight too. It's all about learning what is best for YOUR body. I recommend eating back the exercise calories as a starting point. If you consistently eat them back and are gaining weight or not losing -- then try only eating back half of them. It is all trial and error.

    Like I've said, I HAVE to eat mine back or my body freaks out on me. This is something I've learned in the last year or so. Can't go under an average of 2000 calories a day and I have to eat my exercise calories back.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    I don't really ever go over. I know I will start putting the weight back on if I do. I know what my body does.
  • jcl1981
    jcl1981 Posts: 60 Member
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    i have started eating back some of my exercise calories and it has helped me to break a plateau! i know we are kind of hard wired to not eat those back but it does help and you are giving your body something to build muscle with! more muscle=more fat loss, hope this helps.
  • skinnyhopes
    skinnyhopes Posts: 402 Member
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    i have started eating back some of my exercise calories and it has helped me to break a plateau! i know we are kind of hard wired to not eat those back but it does help and you are giving your body something to build muscle with! more muscle=more fat loss, hope this helps.

    I'll do the same when I reach a plateau.
  • skinnyhopes
    skinnyhopes Posts: 402 Member
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    Couldn't have said it better
    Hi, I'm new to this forum and have only just started to use myfitnesspal. I noticed reading all of these posts, that you talk about "eating back all your exercise cals" .... what do you mean by this?
    At the moment I don't exercise, but will be starting soon once my working schedule calms down, so this is something of interest to me.

    I don't understand this either - because surely, if you burn it off, you don't want to eat it back again - as it defeats the object of exercise?

    When you put your information into MFP and it gives you your daily calorie needs for a day it has already worked in a deficit. It knows you want to lose 1lb a week and has accounted for that when it gave you your calories. If you eat less than you aren't eating the amount MFP wants you to eat to lose weight in a healthy way. Let's say MFP tells you to eat 1500 calories a day and then you go to the gym and you burn 500 of those calories. Now, you're only eating 1000 calories - which is too low based on the info you put into MFP. If you eat back the 500, you're back at the amount MFP has recommended for you to eat.

    1500 (calories eaten) - 500 (exercise) = 1000 + 500 (calories eaten back) = 1500 (which is your original goal). Now, MFP is going to show that you have eaten 2000 calories TOTAL, but remember that you burned 500 of them .. so, you're still at the 1500 goal it set for you. Eating too little will put you into starvation mode. Which makes the body hold onto fat stores and you won't lose weight. However, as we all know eating too much will make you gain weight too. It's all about learning what is best for YOUR body. I recommend eating back the exercise calories as a starting point. If you consistently eat them back and are gaining weight or not losing -- then try only eating back half of them. It is all trial and error.

    Like I've said, I HAVE to eat mine back or my body freaks out on me. This is something I've learned in the last year or so. Can't go under an average of 2000 calories a day and I have to eat my exercise calories back.
  • lilbigginz
    lilbigginz Posts: 36
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    this is what i'm having problems with, my food diary wants me to eat 3400 calories a day and i'm usually between 1600-2000 a day. plus everyday i bicycle for an hour at a leisure pace which is 1000 calories burned. how am i suppose to eat all those calories? is it different for super obese people?
  • FireQueenII
    FireQueenII Posts: 5
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    chevy88grl thanks for the information, it sure does make a whole lot of sense when you explain it the way you did.

    Something else I would like to know .... I work in an office all day and then have a second job working from home in the evenings. So exercise for me is out of the question at the moment. The only exercise I'm getting is walking the 300m between where my car is parked and my office.

    MFP says that I have to eat 1680 calories a day, and I'm finding it very hard to reach that. It's only on the weekend that I manage to do that and sometimes go over ..........

    How does one manage to eat all the calories MFP recommends and still loose the weight when you don't have the time to exercise?
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    why is your daily goal that?

    you should be going on your BMR..if your BMR is already very low because you are thin..and you still want to lose fat..then reduce your BMR by 10%.

    hey..if you eat too little one day dont worry about it..its not going to harm you. if you eat too much the next it shouldnt harm your weight loss..unless you ate 1000's over.
  • FireQueenII
    FireQueenII Posts: 5
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    why is your daily goal that?

    you should be going on your BMR..if your BMR is already very low because you are thin..and you still want to lose fat..then reduce your BMR by 10%.

    hey..if you eat too little one day dont worry about it..its not going to harm you. if you eat too much the next it shouldnt harm your weight loss..unless you ate 1000's over.

    Gosh I wish I was thin already .... I currently way 94.4kg and want to get down to 80kg ... I told MFP that I want to loose 1pound a week. So that is why my calorie goal is 1680 :smile:
    How do I check my BMR?
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    It would be worth looking at your maintenance calories - as you aren't very far from your goal, you probably only need a small deficit, so anything within maybe 200 cals or so of maintenance should be fine. Anything up to mainenance level should still have you losing weight, just not so fast.
  • FireQueenII
    FireQueenII Posts: 5
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    It would be worth looking at your maintenance calories - as you aren't very far from your goal, you probably only need a small deficit, so anything within maybe 200 cals or so of maintenance should be fine. Anything up to mainenance level should still have you losing weight, just not so fast.

    Thanks Rubybelle ... I'm still very new to all of this .... how do I check what my maintenance calories are? :embarassed:
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Lilbignz, I think you can get away with a bigger calorie deficit when you have a lot more weight to lose. Eating back all your exercise cals seems to be more important when you are closer to goal weight. Make sure you keep your net calories over 1500 (for men, or 1200 for women) unless you have medical advice to do otherwise.

    Firequeen, MFP has calculated a calorie deficit for you that does not include exercise. So, if you eat the calories MFP recommends you should lose weight (if you are accurately recording!) without exercising. Adding in exercise will increase your daily calories as your body needs more fuel when you are working out. Eating the cals you burn doesn't change the deficit MFP has given you. Of course, there are lots of other benefits to exercise like increasing the health of your heart and bones and building muscle which burns more calories, but if you can't do it you can still lose weight. Have a think about whether you can fit in even 5 or 10 mins of walking, take the stairs instead of the lift, park further away and walk a little - even these small things are better than no exercise.
    You can work out maintenance calories by going to your goals page and choosing "maintain my current weight". This tells you how many calories a day would keep you at your current weight. When you choose "lose 1 pound a week" or "lose 2 pounds a week" MFP will subtract 500 or 1000 cals a day from the maintenance amount. So, as long as you are eating under your maintenance amount you can lose weight but the amount varies on how big your calorie deficit is (plus all kinds of other factors, these numbers don't tell the whole story but they are a good way to understand calories in and out and losing weight).

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