Calories in & Calories Out??

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  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,180 Member
    edited July 2015
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    I think the lowest recommend number of calories here is 1200. I'm not shell1005, but when MFP dropped me to that amount, I couldn't sustain it, so I upped myself to 1250 cal.

    And I lost weight quite quickly and easily.


    I should add that my 1250 cal was net calories.

    So if I didn't do any exercise, I ate 1250 calories.

    If I walked 1 hour, and burned 200 cal, I could eat as much as 1450 cal ... but I usually only ate about 1350 cal (1250 + half my exercise calories).

    If I cycled 1 hour, and burned 400 cal, I could eat as much as 1650 cal ... but I usually only ate about 1450 cal (1250 + half my exercise calories).

    If I cycled 6 hours and burned 2400 cal, I could eat as much as 3650 cal ... but I usually only ate about 2450 cal.

  • MelissaSchlaikier05
    MelissaSchlaikier05 Posts: 20 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    I think the lowest recommend number of calories here is 1200. I'm not shell1005, but when MFP dropped me to that amount, I couldn't sustain it, so I upped myself to 1250 cal.

    And I lost weight quite quickly and easily.

    Upped to 50 more calories is stuff all? Thats like half a banana more? and that helped you sustain your diet better?
  • MelissaSchlaikier05
    MelissaSchlaikier05 Posts: 20 Member
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    What about everyone else how many cals a day? : )
  • MelissaSchlaikier05
    MelissaSchlaikier05 Posts: 20 Member
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    shell1005 wrote: »
    shell1005 wrote: »
    Please please do not eat only 1000 calories per day.
    Hey Shell, how many calories a day are you currently on?

    I just headed into maintenance, so mine would be a little different. However, my TDEE is between 2000 and 2400 on most days. I was eating around 1500 - 1800 calories a day during much of the weight loss phase.

    The bare minimum for women is 1200 calories per day and that is often too low. If you eat only 1000 calories or god forbid less, it may initially seem like a good idea because you get a bigger deficit and therefore would lose more faster. However, it just isn't. One, you aren't fueling your body the way it needs to be. You are more likely to be fatigued and maybe binge. Secondly....long periods of undereating at that level can really have some negative physical effects. Hair loss, nails breaking and horrible skin, etc. Thirdly, when you undereat at that level you aren't losing more fat in most cases. You will lose fat, but you'll also lose a bunch of lean muscle mass. That usually isn't what we are looking for. I often reference losing weight as the story of the tortoise and the hare. Sure, we all want to jump out like the hare, but if you go slow and steady like the tortoise....you're much more likely to actually see the finish line.

    Thanks for the advice : )
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,180 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    I think the lowest recommend number of calories here is 1200. I'm not shell1005, but when MFP dropped me to that amount, I couldn't sustain it, so I upped myself to 1250 cal.

    And I lost weight quite quickly and easily.

    Upped to 50 more calories is stuff all? Thats like half a banana more? and that helped you sustain your diet better?

    Yup ... I was just a little bit hungry on 1200. The extra 50 allowed me just a bit more flexibility.

    Plus ... see my edited comment above.

  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
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    I lose when averaging 1800-2000 per day.
  • KeairaSedai
    KeairaSedai Posts: 138 Member
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    I'm at 1400 a day, give or take (and trying to lose about 9 pounds, sedentary job, but cycle at least half an hour a day). Mostly I eat when I'm hungry.. so some days I only do 1000-1200, but I always make up for being so low a day after, by eating 1400-1600. I average out at 9800 a week.
  • arnoldmq
    arnoldmq Posts: 5 Member
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  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    What about everyone else how many cals a day? : )

    That's irrelevant really because it's linked to your height, weight, activity level and exercise programme

    I lost most of my weight on around 1800 calories

    I maintain on around 2300
  • MelissaSchlaikier05
    MelissaSchlaikier05 Posts: 20 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    I think the lowest recommend number of calories here is 1200. I'm not shell1005, but when MFP dropped me to that amount, I couldn't sustain it, so I upped myself to 1250 cal.

    And I lost weight quite quickly and easily.

    Upped to 50 more calories is stuff all? Thats like half a banana more? and that helped you sustain your diet better?

    Yup ... I was just a little bit hungry on 1200. The extra 50 allowed me just a bit more flexibility.

    Plus ... see my edited comment above.

    Wow that's interesting thanks for your help : )
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Ok thank you but still confused is this photo example is there enough calories out vs the in?

    you should be eating about 500 cals less than the calories burned, so If cals out = 2346 you should be eating 1846 to lose 1 lb/week. Than is assuming the 2346 is TDEE, and not 2346 from exercise only.

    Besides that with only 7 lbs to lose you should be aiming for 0.5lbs/week which would give you 2096 calories (2346-250), as you need a deficit of 250/day to lose 0.5lbs/week.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

    Set your goal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • gypsyish
    gypsyish Posts: 78 Member
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    What about everyone else how many cals a day? : )

    Keep in mind as rabbitjb said, it's based on height, weight, age, etc.

    I've been eating at 1200 since the end of March. For me (5'2", started around 150 and down to 123, lightly active) it has been sustainable, effective, and I've never felt like I was starving. But it definitely doesn't work for everyone.
  • MelissaSchlaikier05
    MelissaSchlaikier05 Posts: 20 Member
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    erickirb wrote: »
    Ok thank you but still confused is this photo example is there enough calories out vs the in?

    you should be eating about 500 cals less than the calories burned, so If cals out = 2346 you should be eating 1846 to lose 1 lb/week. Than is assuming the 2346 is TDEE, and not 2346 from exercise only.

    Besides that with only 7 lbs to lose you should be aiming for 0.5lbs/week which would give you 2096 calories (2346-250), as you need a deficit of 250/day to lose 0.5lbs/week.
    Don't they say the lighter you are the more calorie deficit you should be? Cause your smaller weight?
  • gypsyish
    gypsyish Posts: 78 Member
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    Don't they say the lighter you are the more calorie deficit you should be? Cause your smaller weight?

    The smaller you are, there's often less of a deficit you can have. My TDEE is just about 1600. I don't want to go below 1200 so that leaves me a very small deficit available. I have to count on light activity to get me those extra hundred calories a day to get a pound a week of weight loss.
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    erickirb wrote: »
    Ok thank you but still confused is this photo example is there enough calories out vs the in?

    you should be eating about 500 cals less than the calories burned, so If cals out = 2346 you should be eating 1846 to lose 1 lb/week. Than is assuming the 2346 is TDEE, and not 2346 from exercise only.

    Besides that with only 7 lbs to lose you should be aiming for 0.5lbs/week which would give you 2096 calories (2346-250), as you need a deficit of 250/day to lose 0.5lbs/week.
    Don't they say the lighter you are the more calorie deficit you should be? Cause your smaller weight?

    No it should not be a greater deficit. You will be allowed less calories though the smaller you get. Obviously someone who is 100 pounds over weight is going to burn a lot more calories just by moving around than someone who is lighter. A person overweight by 100 pounds could have a maintenance level of 2800 calories as an example. So they could do 1000 calorie deficit and still eat 1800 calories and still lose 2 pounds per week. But as they lose weight their maintenance level would drop to the point they could no longer have a 1000 calorie deficit because that would put them below the 1200 limit for women. So that person would then have to lower their deficit to 500 calories and accept that they are only going to lose one pound per week. As you get closer to your goal weight your deficit will get smaller and you will lose weight more slowly.
  • LiftAndBalance
    LiftAndBalance Posts: 960 Member
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    erickirb wrote: »
    Ok thank you but still confused is this photo example is there enough calories out vs the in?

    you should be eating about 500 cals less than the calories burned, so If cals out = 2346 you should be eating 1846 to lose 1 lb/week. Than is assuming the 2346 is TDEE, and not 2346 from exercise only.

    Besides that with only 7 lbs to lose you should be aiming for 0.5lbs/week which would give you 2096 calories (2346-250), as you need a deficit of 250/day to lose 0.5lbs/week.
    Don't they say the lighter you are the more calorie deficit you should be? Cause your smaller weight?

    No. The lighter you are, the smaller your deficit and therefore slower your weight loss should be. You want to lose fat, not just any weight, but there's only a certain amount of fat your body can burn. If you have less fat, there's less to burn. So if your deficit is too big, your body will turn more to lean body mass for energy and that's not the kind of weight you want to lose. Also, the lighter you are, the lower your calorie burns (both living and exercise) so you can't realistically create as big of a deficit as an obese person.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I did 1250 when I first started out, but I had a lot to lose, so going for a deficit of 1000 was appropriate, and I also wasn't that active (it was a net 1250, though, so I ate back exercise calories when I started getting them). MFP put me on 1200, but I changed it to 1250, since I didn't like being told I was either over or under no matter what I did so I wanted to have a range to aim for (1200-1250), and as it turned out I consistently lost more than MFP predicted because I was closer to lightly active, even at the beginning, than sedentary.

    As I lost I raised my calories and then I switched over to TDEE method (not eating back exercise). I've been practicing maintenance for a while, but the last time I was actively losing (going from 140-125) it was on about 1700-1750, and I was losing about 1 lb/week or close to it.
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    What about everyone else how many cals a day? : )

    That's irrelevant really because it's linked to your height, weight, activity level and exercise programme

    I lost most of my weight on around 1800 calories

    I maintain on around 2300

    This is correct. I am shorted and heavier than rabbitjb, but I only eat 1200 calories on my rest day and less than 1600 the other days.