Not sure how much I should I be eating???

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rejectedprincesssupportgroup
rejectedprincesssupportgroup Posts: 16
in Getting Started
I see a lot of people on here saying that other members may not be consuming "the right number of calories" if they're consuming what MFP tells them to, and I get that. But exactly HOW do I figure out how many calories I should be consuming?

A little about me: I'm 23 and currently about 210 pounds. I'm a sales associate at a store, so I spend several hours a day on my feet. Recently I was laid off one job so I am only working part time, but am searching for another sales position and if I'm fortunate enough to find one I will be on my feet even more. I also take a walk at least once a day, at least half an hour. Not intense exercise, I know, but I just want to get moving. I'm not currently doing any strength exercises, but regularly lift and move heavy boxes and equipment at work. When I can comfortably make my rent payments then I would like to join a gym and regularly do strength exercises, though. My primary goal right now is just losing weight, mostly for health reasons, and keeping it off.

Just a note: I had a MFP account a few years ago, when I started at about 300 pounds, so I'm familiar with it. But I just used it to track my intake with guidelines given to me by a doctor, I didn't pay much attention to what MFP told me to consume. But now I'm back and doing this on my own this time and I want to make sure I'm doing it right. So any advice would be appreciated!

Replies

  • megomerrett
    megomerrett Posts: 442 Member
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    There are calorie counter calculators out there that could help - here's one: http://www.calorieking.com/interactive-tools/how-many-calories-should-you-eat/?ref=nav

  • auroranflash
    auroranflash Posts: 3,569 Member
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    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ This will give you a good idea, as well as
    http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/

    Don't eat below your BMR. Eat below your TDEE to lose weight. It's okay to go below calories a few days, it's okay to go above a few days, but watch for trends. Adjust as necessary. Keep notes on how your clothes fit, not just what the scale says. Take measurements. Stay active. Drink water. Weigh your food.

    It works, promise!
  • rejectedprincesssupportgroup
    rejectedprincesssupportgroup Posts: 16
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    These seem really helpful, thanks a lot!
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
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    The MFP method is actually fine, it's just that it can be a bit confusing to newcomers.

    The calories it tells you to eat depend on the goal you tell MFP you want to hit every week. So many people come in, and say 2 lbs per week, don't eat back their exercise calories (and go crazy on the exercise), and aim to stay under their goal because they view it as a limit. This can cause major burnout, binging, etc because you're undereating and overworking. Others see overinflated calorie burns, eat back all those calories, aren't logging accurately (eyeballing, measuring instead of weighing, using inaccurate database entries, not logging everything, etc) and so are eating more than they think, and see no or slow progress.

    Give MFP your info. Give it a goal of up to 2 lbs per week -- noting that 2 lbs is quite aggressive actually, and that it may not be right for you. You can change your goal any time you like, to find something sustainable for you. Set your activity level correctly, as well -- this is movement outside of exercise. Then log if and when you DO exercise, and eat back about 50-75% (not 100%) of those calories. Weigh your food and pick the best database entries you can, creating your own when needed.

    If, after a month or so, you have not lost about what you told MFP you wanted to, reevaluate. You may even want to give it longer, since we tend to drop a bunch of water right off the bat. But you can compare how much weight you've lost over several weeks to how much MFP targeted for you to lose in that period, and then either adjust your goal/calorie target, or take a closer look at your logging, exercise burns, adherence, etc.

    (And note that MFP bottoms out at 1200 calories net for females. So the closer you get to goal, the slower your weight loss will go. It may not be possible to healthily lose 2 lbs per week when you have less to lose, basically.)
  • KatiAuchinleck
    KatiAuchinleck Posts: 101 Member
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    If I may ask, what's TFEE?
  • rejectedprincesssupportgroup
    rejectedprincesssupportgroup Posts: 16
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    KatiAuchinleck wrote: »
    If I may ask, what's TFEE?

    I believe TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure (someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
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    Here's a newbie help post with links to useful info such as sexypants, realistic goal setting, exercise, motivation, accurate measurement & logging of food.

    That goal setting post has a link to several resources, one of which is this calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine, which will tell you not only your BMI, but a reasonable calorie goal & how many servings of various foods to eat to maintain a particular weight given different activity levels.
    If you enter your healthy goal weight, this will help you plan your food intake.

    Another approach, the one my dietician & doctor used at first, is to multiply my goal weight x10 & eat that many calories. When I hit a plateau, I dropped 50-100 calories & waited a couple weeks to see that I started losing again.
    And BTW, that's _total_ calories, not net. Ignore net, ignore exercise.

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