Is my calorie deficit too much?

benjaminkjames
benjaminkjames Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 6 foot 5 and 25 stone. I've started going to the gym with friends but mostly doing strength training and I'm currently eating 1500 calories a day. Is this way too steep and am I endangering my health doing it? I am comfortable at this level of calorie intake after a week of doing and really want to continue...

Replies

  • terricherry2
    terricherry2 Posts: 222 Member
    I'm almost a foot shorter than you, female and eating more than you to lose. So yes, if I were you I would increase calories. You may feel fine at that level now, but you're more likely to stick with it long term if you have a more reasonable deficit. Also, you'll be burning through quite a bit of lean body mass (muscle) at that level as well.
  • 311snowwhite
    311snowwhite Posts: 30 Member
    that seems very steep to me
  • forgtmenot
    forgtmenot Posts: 860 Member
    What does MFP tell you to eat?
  • trinatrina1984
    trinatrina1984 Posts: 1,018 Member
    At your size you could eat a lot more and still lose weight. What I would do is find out your BMR - this is the very minimum you should eat to keep your body going if you were in a coma. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator and it slightly above this. You will find it much easier to sustain if you don't make drastic changes but just change things gradually.
  • sixxpoint
    sixxpoint Posts: 3,529 Member
    edited May 2015
    25 stone is about 350 lbs, correct? I would think your daily calorie intake would be double that.


    You most definitely are eating too little and will it endanger your long-term health if continued.

    You should never cut calories too drastically. It is counter-productive.
  • Silentfool
    Silentfool Posts: 189 Member
    it does seem steep... I am 6 foot 4 and 25 stone, should be on 2200 but i am doing ok at 2000 a day. I would recommend upping to 2000 but focusing on macros too. that way your extra calories are not rubbish.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    You're a male. That's all I need to know to say yes, that's too low.

    You're also really tall and pretty young. I'm a 25-year-old female standing at 5'5" 116 lbs, I was eating 1600 calories during my cut, and I was hungry and miserable the whole time. I lost the majority of my weight at 1850 calories per day and maintain around 2000-2200. That's with lifting on a 5 day split and limited cardio.

    You need to eat more, dude. You may be risking your health, yeah, but you're certainly risking losing a lot of muscle mass along with fat. Strength gains will be sad at best.

    At your age, height, and sex, you should be able to eat 2500 calories per day without exercise and lose 1 lb/week. Since you are exercising, you should be able to eat more like 3000 per day. You're eating half that. That's insane and totally unnecessary.
  • Arliah
    Arliah Posts: 266 Member
    Have you calculated your BMR and TDEE? Here's a decent calculator that will tell you those numbers. There are others out there, but this one gives you a good idea. It's never 100% accurate, of course, but a good estimate is all you need to start, and then you can adjust: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator
  • benjaminkjames
    benjaminkjames Posts: 13 Member
    My bmr is 2665 according to that calculator. Still seems quite high though if I want to lose weight?
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    As a bit of a rule of thumb, thinking of your BMR as a minimum intake is a good idea (unless you are working with a doctor who has experience supervising very low calorie diets). Why not up your calories and I bet you'll be surprised at how good you can feel and still lose. Two things to keep in mind: be prepared for a bump up when you first increase which will be mostly related to water weight, and make sure you are logging accurately (see the sticky threads for good guidance on how to do so).
  • colors_fade
    colors_fade Posts: 464 Member
    Here's the thing: if you listen to your body at all, you probably already know the answer. You're probably HUNGRY on that deficit.

    Mild hunger on a cut is normal. But I find that if I attempt too great of a deficit, by week's end I'm starving. And that "starving" feeling breaks down the willpower/determination/concentration necessary to keep making good decisions. That starvation leads to binge eating.

    Don't starve yourself.

    A mild deficit, every day. That's what you shoot for. 500 calories so you have a 3500 deficit by week's end.
  • benjaminkjames
    benjaminkjames Posts: 13 Member
    Ok scrap that. I'm 131 kg so just over 20 stone... so my bmr is 2352. Turns out the scales at work are dodgy lol. So is a 2k calorie per day diet still a bit too much? How heavily should I rely on that bmr number
  • Arliah
    Arliah Posts: 266 Member
    What you want to pay attention to is your TDEE. BMR is what your body needs to function every day, without exercise or anything. So basically just living. TDEE - 20% is what you can look at, and then tinker with that number. You may find you can even cut it by 25%, depending on how much you have/want to lose.
  • trinatrina1984
    trinatrina1984 Posts: 1,018 Member
    BMR = calories needed to keep you alive if you are in bed all day - not moving at all
    TDEE = calories consumed doing normal day to day stuff - obviously this will change depending on how active you are. - eating at TDEE should result in maintenance, no loss or gain.

    Go here - http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ get the numbers then pick a goal somewhere between BMR and TDEE, it will likely be around 2800 cals. Hope that makes sense :)
  • trinatrina1984
    trinatrina1984 Posts: 1,018 Member
    trinatrina1984 wrote: »
    BMR = calories needed to keep you alive if you are in bed all day - not moving at all
    TDEE = calories consumed doing normal day to day stuff - obviously this will change depending on how active you are. - eating at TDEE should result in maintenance, no loss or gain.

    Go here - http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ get the numbers then pick a goal somewhere between BMR and TDEE, it will likely be around 2800 cals. Hope that makes sense :)

    ETA - it can take a bit of trial and error before you find a goal you are comfortable with.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    I'd probably shoot someone with that intake. I'm 5'10" and 40 with a desk job. I hit the gym a few nights per week to lift and ride a few days per week. I lose weight pretty steadily on about 2200 calories per day.
  • bigd66218
    bigd66218 Posts: 376 Member
    I'm 6'6.5" and 230 pounds with my calories set at 2100 for a one pound weight loss each week. I stated out at 278 pounds on the 1st of January. Anything less than 2000 calories and I'm pretty hungry with little or no energy. My go to exercise is cardio so I need to eat more to push thru a workout. 1500 calories is way to little..

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