How Many Calories Did You Eat Before MFP?

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  • Cortneyrenee04
    Cortneyrenee04 Posts: 1,117 Member
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    According to a calculators... Looks like about 2000ish. I'm 5'3" and now eating about 1400 calories/day, sometimes more.

    I'm definitely a fan of gradual changes. You dropped from 3000 to 1200... That's not going to be easy. I would bump up a bit to 1400-1500 and change your goals to lose half a pound a week. Focus on foods that make you feel full and focus on your foods (no mindless snacking). Make good choices and you don't have to feel hungry :) also, water, water, water! A glass before you eat, while you eat and after you eat. It helps me so much!
  • getalife9353
    getalife9353 Posts: 100 Member
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    I was eating between 3000 and 3800. Didn't take but a couple of days to figure out why I was obese.

    I am 6'0" and started in Nov at 247 Lbs.
    CW is 220 lbs.
    GW is 170 lbs.
    My calorie goal is to average 1700 / day. Since Jan 1, I have averaged 1686 /day, and am within .2 lbs. of my projected weight, so it seems to be working out even though there are weeks that I am over and weeks that I am under. If I continue on my projected plan I will reach my goal weight in April 2016.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    No clue
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    barbecuesauce wrote: »
    ana3067 wrote: »
    hollyrayburn wrote: »
    I've no idea, as I wasn't counting them then!

    This. For all I know I ate 1500 half of the week and 3500 the rest of the week, etc.

    Yeah. I know I definitely had low days and high days, but I almost intentionally turned a blind eye to nutrition labels.

    I didn't, they just weren't something that I noticed period. Like... might as well have had it all written in some ancient now-lost language because it just didn't exist to me. I don't think I'd have been able to tell you what calories were or how it influenced weight management until I joined MFP. I just assumed that, like probably most people, weight loss was due to eating "healthy" and working out.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,751 Member
    edited March 2015
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    You are asking one question. I (perhaps wrongly) hear another.

    How FAST were you gaining at 3000cals? With your stats you were either gaining more than a couple of pounds each and every week, or you are extremely active.

    If you are very active and spending close to 2800cals a day, 1200 cals represents a >50% cut from your TDEE. i.e. it is more than extreme.

    You shouldn't be THAT hungry in order to succeed.

    If you are that hungry you're cutting more than you should, you are making yourself miserable, and you are increasing the likelihood of failure.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://fit101.org/the-step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal/

    In particular consider whether you are trying to lose weight by indiscriminately losing both muscle and fat, or whether you would prefer to do everything you can to lose mostly fat. Or whether your real goal is just to be stronger. Or whether your goal is to have six pack abs.

    Hint: only one of the above goals can be accomplished on a 50% cut off TDEE, and it is the one that involves the highest loss of lean mass.

    If you take 100 females who are the same age and height as you, 53 weigh more than you do today. At your goal weight, 71 would weigh more than you do.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    Before I quit smoking in 2004, I was easily eating 4,000 calories a day. No kidding. Breakfast at a greasy spoon restaurant, lunch at a fattening sandwich place, a full bar of Snickers for a snack, dinner out, and then at least a bottle of wine every night. I quit smoking and QUIT EVERYTHING else, but still gained weight like crazy. Just as I was getting it under control, a catastrophe happened which resulted in moving to a new state, and the weight piled on. Now I refuse to eat out AT ALL, cook my own meals measuring and weighing everything, and I have FINALLY started losing weight!
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
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    I can at least account for two, usually three or four strawberry frosted Pop-Tarts. I ate those every day.

    screen.png
    I tried my hand at recreating a day. What I really want to do is try recreating the Wednesdays when I would go to Kroger and buy as much as I could to eat that day. That'll probably be a little easier as I would typically eat the entire package to hide the evidence from my family.
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
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    too much
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
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    SabrinaLovesPandora wrote: »
    (You don't have to answer if you don't want to :) )

    To begin with, I'm 5'3, 125 lbs and naturally pretty small framed and my GW is 110. I averaged about 3000 calories a day and, since starting MFP 3 days ago, I only eat around 1200 a day now.

    It's hitting me pretty hard, as I used to be constantly eating.

    What did/do you do to help when you stopped eating so much? Did it get any easier? And does your stomach really shrink when you stop frequently over-eating?


    Thanks for the advice!!

    You only have 15 pounds to lose - you should be eating more, IME. Your goal should be set on here to lose .5lbs/week.

    For your original question, I have no idea. A lot probably, but I also had some untreated medical conditions.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
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    screen.png

    Okay, the first one is a typical Wednesday brunch. The oreos are there because I remember picking up those over the donut holes a lot of times.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    I'm staying at under 1500 calories a day, tops. Usually under 1200. My metabolism is gone, but thanks to MFP, I'm doing the right thing now and am slowly losing the weight instead of gaining more. Still have 40 pounds to go, but that's okay. I'll get there.
  • haysavam
    haysavam Posts: 74 Member
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    Oh I was easily at 3,000 calories a day. Pastas. I would eat a full plate of pasta from Olive Garden (which is around 1,000 calories and then have like three of their breadsticks and the salad) And that was lunch. That's like- my entire day now.

    Pshhh. I may or may not have eaten an entire hot and ready over the span of and evening.

    I never want to go back there again. That was a slippery slope.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    It wouldn't surprise me if it was close to 4000 calories a day. I was the, "OMG I work out so I can eat anything I want," girl.
  • LoveMyBabes3
    LoveMyBabes3 Posts: 53 Member
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    When I first started on February 6th I didn't change how I ate and I logged everything I ate the first day so I had an idea of how much work I needed to do. I ate almost 2200 calories. I had about 30 pounds to lose so I am eating between 12 and 15 hundred calories a day now. It really isn't hard. I eat about 200 calories for breakfast about 300 for lunch about 500 for dinner and the rest are for small snacks between meals. At first I was hungry often but now I can't eat as much as I used to before getting full. I've lost almost 10 pounds and my stomach is smaller. Many people have noticed my Weightloss in my face. It's definitely a life style change for me.
  • r5d5
    r5d5 Posts: 219 Member
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    TheVirgoddess wrote: »
    SabrinaLovesPandora wrote: »
    (You don't have to answer if you don't want to :) )

    To begin with, I'm 5'3, 125 lbs and naturally pretty small framed and my GW is 110. I averaged about 3000 calories a day and, since starting MFP 3 days ago, I only eat around 1200 a day now.

    It's hitting me pretty hard, as I used to be constantly eating.

    What did/do you do to help when you stopped eating so much? Did it get any easier? And does your stomach really shrink when you stop frequently over-eating?


    Thanks for the advice!!

    You only have 15 pounds to lose - you should be eating more, IME. Your goal should be set on here to lose .5lbs/week.

    For your original question, I have no idea. A lot probably, but I also had some untreated medical conditions.

    I agree. I too am trying to lose about 15lbs currently and am also 5'3".
    Eating 1200 might not be such a great idea, for a variety of reasons.
    One that's immediate is that you get tired and feel hungry constantly. There's no need for that :)
  • SteveMFP123
    SteveMFP123 Posts: 298 Member
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    I just put in one of my old typical days and it came out to 3500 calories, probably 4000 on a takeaway night.
  • RhineDHP
    RhineDHP Posts: 1,025 Member
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    Before MFP......I was probably eating more than 3000 calories.


    On another note, unless you're a really sedentary person, 1200 calories, I believe, is too low to maintain for long. I'm 5'1 and eat between 1700-1900 calories a day, and have managed to lose 10 pounds. Slowly? Sure, but I've kept it off for awhile now.

    Here's a couple of good forum posts that might be very useful to you. They helped me a lot:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1214490/the-wisdom-of-trogalicious/p1

    community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1

    community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

    community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

  • minties82
    minties82 Posts: 907 Member
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    Probably a good 3200cal.
  • Sophiasmomma
    Sophiasmomma Posts: 155 Member
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    I counted a few days prior to my new lifestyle of eating ;)
    And I am.amazed looking back that I only gained 20ish lbs from how many calories I was consuming out of boredom
    My daily calories now are usually 1200-1350 before a regualr day was over double eek!!
    I find that my mind set is so different knowing that I can have all the things I love just dont so much at one time. So dont deprive yourself or this wont be a lifestyle change but u will feel like its a diet
  • JVClubs
    JVClubs Posts: 139 Member
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    at my heaviest i was eating in the neighborhood of 7,000 calories easy on the high end, and on the low wend maybe in the neighborhood of 4500. that was 2 years ago

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