is my daily calorie intake too low?

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dccordell
dccordell Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
First of all, first post here and I think it's great! I'll be doing lots of searching and reading on here...

First question... lately I've read several articles saying how it's not wise to eat less than x amount of calories/day to keep from starvation mode. I've read the articles on here regarding that and I understand. This number is different in every article I've read, but it seems to be around 1800cal/day. That brings up my question... MFP shows my daily cal goal to be around 1390. I've been sticking to that for a couple weeks now and it doesn't seem real hard to do, just have to keep it in mind every time I want to eat. I don't feel like I'm starving myself at all.

From the few cal/day calculators out there, with me being a male, age 26, 5'11", 200lb, slightly active, my cals/day to maintain weight is around 2700, so I'm basically cutting that in half every day with 1390. So basically, I'm cutting around 1300 cal/day, so throughout the week I should have cut (1300 x 7) 9100 calories from my (maintenance) diet, so I should be losing around (9100 / 3500) 2.6lb a week. (??)

My question: Am I doing the math right, and am I eating too few calories? I didn't know it was very low until today when I used those calculators to figure out my maintenance and weight loss caloric intake levels. Any thoughts?

I'll add (if it matters for this question) that I go to the gym at least 5 times a week and do 40mins elliptical, burning around 550 cals, plus some weight machine training. I push pretty hard on the elliptical, usually keeping my hr around 175-180 the entire time.

Thanks! :)

Replies

  • thor9424
    thor9424 Posts: 40 Member
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    the big question is: Are you eating back those exercise calories? If not, you are definitely eating too few!! For now, you can eat less than 1400 and see results. When you stop seeing results, you should up it to atleast 1600-1700 and you will see more results. Sometimes we are more active than we admit to on MFP and we are giving fewer calories than necessary. See how your weight loss goes for the next couple of weeks to a month. If it is on the decline, increase your caloric intake! :)
  • cckeimig
    cckeimig Posts: 194 Member
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    I personally haven't messed around with other types of calculators, but what I can definitely tell you is that the recommendations from the site work for me. Activity level is important to consider, though. Do they categorize by that or just by your height and such?

    Also, be sure to eat back your exercise calories as much as possible. AND drink the 2 liters of water *8 cups( per day.
  • Melissajojo3
    Melissajojo3 Posts: 100
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    If you feel as if your not hungry, then don't stuff your self.. eating healthy and keeping under your calorie goal is fine. Iam the same way. My calorie goal a day is about 1600, then I workout and burn 500 cal or more, and usually eat about 1200 calories, so with that being said, you will lose about 2lbs per week, they say its not healthy and a lot of people don't do it because its a little harder for you to follow this pattern. I myself am doing the same thing, and trust me it works, I'm not starving and I eat about 1200 calories, this impacts my diet in a great way... Oh yeah and I drink 80 ounces of water per day, which really helps to keep full most of the day!! :) hope this helps...... good luck on your journey :)
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    Men shouldn't *net* below 1500. That means eating back your exercise cals. Eating too few calories won't harm you in the short term, but it can cause fatigue and health problems if you continue at such a high deficit for a long time. Also, if you're trying to build muscle (I'm assuming you are since you're doing weight training), you need to eat more so your muscles can grow. You can still work at a deficit, but it's going to be hard to build muscle eating as little as you're eating now.
  • eagles0080
    eagles0080 Posts: 15
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    seems to me that your HR is too high first of all...and when you keep your HR in that zone for more than a few minutes at a time..you actually become anaerobic which means you're defeating the whole purpose of exercise because you're not burning fat.

    1300 calories is too low to eat on regular basis. MFP should tellyou based on your activity level & exercise, how many calories you should be eating a day...it's advised to never go below a 1000 calorie a day deficit...that's what puts your body into starvation mode. 1800 calories may be what your BMR tells you you need to eat to maintain your current weight even if you did no exercise at all..have you had MFP calculate your BMR?
    seems to me that an overhaul in what & how much you're eating is in order...and the fact that you'e able to eat so little and not be hungry COULD be a sign that your metabolism is slowing down and your body going into starvation mode..
  • MissConduct11
    MissConduct11 Posts: 3
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    You should try to stick around 2 lbs as a maximum weight loss for the week. Anything over and the success rate is lower.

    Your calories seem low for a male. While you should never dip below 1200 calories, men can eat more calories than women and still lose weight.

    For a man with your dimensions, you should stil be able to eat 2100 calories and lose 2 lbs a week. If you want to aim a little lower, go with 1800, but I wouldn't strive for anything lower than that.

    Remember, if you're eating an insufficient amount of calories your body believes it's starving and you'll likely miss the nutirition your body needs.

    Hope this helps. :)
  • dccordell
    dccordell Posts: 6
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    Ok, wow fast responses on here! So I have mfp setup like this:

    Current weight: 200lb
    Goal weight: 170lb
    Weight loss goal: 2lb/week
    Exercise: 5x/week
    Activity Level: Sedentary (which may be more or less true on different days)

    Ok, given that info, mfp gives me the 1390cal/day. Maybe it is set to try to achieve this weight too fast? I don't see on here where to change the "target day", but I think I do remember setting that up when I first got the app.

    1390 is the net calories so after eating and the gym, I usually try to get it close to 1390 net. So yes, I do eat back the calories. I don't think I could eat just 1390 cals a day. I guess I wasn't clear on that in my first post. Looks like on a typical day, I might eat around 1900-2000cal, and then burn off enough cals to get it back down to around 1400 (even if I have to go to the gym again after supper to do it).

    I am trying to build some muscle, but not trying to bulk up or anything like that. Basically, doing the weight training is something to do in between two cardio sessions to keep my heart pumping and mix it up. Instead of 40mins cardio, I do 20mins twice with weights in the middle. My goal right now is to get my weight back down to around 185 or so, then I will probably start doing more weight training. At this point, I just want to make sure to keep the muscle I already have and not lose it along with the fat.

    I do drink plenty of water, not sure how much exactly but I know I go through a gallon of water every couple days, not counting what I drink at the gym (water fountains)... and I drink a lot there (at least 40oz).

    Ok so it sounds like I might can try this low cal for a little while and see what the results are, and then bump it up when the results slow down or nothing at all. I check weight every day, so even though it fluctuates, I can usually get a good idea throughout the day if it's up or down.
  • dccordell
    dccordell Posts: 6
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    Wew, that last post was long so wanted to break it up. I wanted to address the high hr. Why is my hr too high? I do notice that when I start working out after not working out for a long period of time, my hr will get higher and stay higher using less effort. But as I exercise (and presumably get in better shape over weeks), it is harder and harder to get my hr high and keep it there. I have only been back in the gym for about 2 weeks after more than a year, so I just figured it will take a little more time to get my hr to come down during an intense cardio session.

    I figured my max hr was around 194 (220-26), but that's not always accurate. If it is, then I'm working around 90-95% of my max hr. Seems high... it should come down as I exercise more and more.
  • Ms_Natalie
    Ms_Natalie Posts: 1,030 Member
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    HI dccordell,
    Welcome to MFP...looks like you have the vital stats all sorted, so good luck!

    It is not always beneficial to push yourself as hard as possible when it comes to cardio. There are a number of heart rate zones that you should avoid or aim for. It's a little tricky, but i'll try to explain.

    When jogging/running you shouldn't be totally out of breath and should be able to stay at a particular pace for a considerable time...this can be built up with interval training. The heart rate zone you choose to stay in depends on what you are aiming for...if you want to burn fat, you don't need to overstretch yourself or make yourself uncomfortable.

    Heart%2BRate%2BZone.JPG

    This diagram briefly shows the different heart rate zones and what happens to the body when an individual trains in a particular zone. Check out this website for further information on heart rate zones.

    http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm

    Hope this helps a little :flowerforyou:
  • dccordell
    dccordell Posts: 6
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    Thanks for that Ms Natalie... the elliptical trainers at my old gym would tell me when I was in the right hr zone, but at the gym I'm at now they don't tell me and I couldn't remember what my zone was. Looks like I've been waaaay overdoing it. I'll try to bring it down some.

    I know all ellipticals are different, but I've been doing mine on about Level 7, keeping around 130-145 strides/min on the Fat Burner mode. This usually results in around 800cal/hr burned and MET of around 9-10. Is this too much, too little, any thoughts?
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    I would say that for 30 lbs to lose, 2 lbs per week is far too high of a loss goal. You should be right around 1 lb per week. And as someone else mentioned, hunger cues are not reliable in the beginning and lack of hunger can actually be a sign that your metabolism is slowing.

    I would go with 1.5 lbs per week at most, and preferably 1 lb per week. May help to read these threads to help determine a healthy, realistic goal/deficit:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics
  • dccordell
    dccordell Posts: 6
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    Thanks LadyHawk... I'll read those threads when I have a little more time. I had no idea bout the 2 lbs/week being high. I obviously need to do more reading!

    Btw, there used to be a user on msn chats years ago by the username LadyHawk... that wasn't you was it? Just curious...

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