Question about calories
jorda13456
Posts: 62 Member
Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
0
Replies
-
1200 is the minimum for women
1500 is the minimum for men
As a male you should be netting at least 1500 calories. Lose weight too fast and you will lose a larger chunk of muscle and put unnecessary stress on your body. From what you say in your post, you are averaging 1428 per day.
So what did you cut out when you started counting that you consumed before? Add some of those things back in.
I don't see 2900 calories to maintain as "insane" for a 20 yr old guy. Currently my estimated maintenance is around 2400. I'm 25, female, 5'4.5" and have a BMI of 21.3. So, ya, I see 2900 for a guy as completely possible.0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
This is not meant to be rude. But. If you are overweight and are looking to lose 30lbs, surely you have had no problem eating past 1600 calories previously?
If the online calculators are throwing up a 2900 calorie maintenance, they are throwing that number up because of the data you entered. If that data is correct, then 2900 is the online calculators best guess at your maintenance, it won't be exact, but it won't be massively off, and can be used as a starting point.
What are your activity levels? What is your job? How much exercise do you do?
If the information you entered in to the online calculator is correct, and 2900 is what you need to maintain then you should be eating far more than 1200 calories. A 20% daily deficit, which is considered high, would leave you with 2320 calories a day. That's a 580 calorie daily deficit, which is a 4080 weekly deficit, which is a healthy and sustainable 1lbs a week loss.
That's 2320 calories of the food you like eating. People would kill to be able to do that and lose weight.0 -
shadow2soul wrote: »1200 is the minimum for women
1500 is the minimum for men
As a male you should be netting at least 1500 calories. Lose weight too fast and you will lose a larger chunk of muscle and put unnecessary stress on your body. From what you say in your post, you are averaging 1428 per day.
So what did you cut out when you started counting that you consumed before? Add some of those things back in.
I don't see 2900 calories to maintain as "insane" for a 20 yr old guy. Currently my estimated maintenance is around 2400. I'm 25, female, 5'4.5" and have a BMI of 21.3. So, ya, I see 2900 for a guy as completely possible.
I just ate a lot of cheddar cheese ( the solid one ). I would cut huge chunks out and mix it into everything... then I found out that is too much calories so I just use 1 slice cheese for 50 calories rather than 500+ for the big clunk I would eat. Addition to cheese is bad and not eating that much is hard but I stopped pretty easily as long as I was able to have sliced cheese. Why do I have that much? It was because I cut it all up and put it into tuna and mix it together. Haven't had that in almost a month and thats why im here now. I also cut out maccoroni and cheese because when I had that I would make the whole box which would be 1K calories..
What I do now: I eat once in the morning which is something between 500 calories and 800 calories. Then workout at 4PM to burn off 400 of that and eat once again at 9 - 10PM anything to equal 1200.
That night when I realized this much was 200 calories: http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uuuploads/what-200-calories-look-like-food/what-200-calories-look-like-food-55.jpg
Was a nightmare,, because I would have 10x that amount in 1 serving.0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
This is not meant to be rude. But. If you are overweight and are looking to lose 30lbs, surely you have had no problem eating past 1600 calories previously?
If the online calculators are throwing up a 2900 calorie maintenance, they are throwing that number up because of the data you entered. If that data is correct, then 2900 is the online calculators best guess at your maintenance, it won't be exact, but it won't be massively off, and can be used as a starting point.
What are your activity levels? What is your job? How much exercise do you do?
If the information you entered in to the online calculator is correct, and 2900 is what you need to maintain then you should be eating far more than 1200 calories. A 20% daily deficit, which is considered high, would leave you with 2320 calories a day. That's a 580 calorie daily deficit, which is a 4080 weekly deficit, which is a healthy and sustainable 1lbs a week loss.
That's 2320 calories of the food you like eating. People would kill to be able to do that and lose weight.
I'm currently 170 pounds and yes as I explained in the post before this I would digest so much cheese ( solid one ) big huge clunks which is stacked with calories. So it wasn't me eating different variety of foods, burgers etc.. I eat the same stuff meaning Bread and cheese, Tuna, Waffles, Eggs. The problem was adding too much cheese into them. Now that I haven't had that solid cheese in a month I can't get dont get alot calories each day.
I eat at 10AM ( 500 - 800 Calories ) -> Workout at 4PM ( burn 400 calories, 50 minute video ) -> I don't have a job.
That night when I realized this much was 200 calories: http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uuuploads/what-200-calories-look-like-food/what-200-calories-look-like-food-55.jpg
Was a nightmare,, because I would have 10x that amount in 1 serving.0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »shadow2soul wrote: »1200 is the minimum for women
1500 is the minimum for men
As a male you should be netting at least 1500 calories. Lose weight too fast and you will lose a larger chunk of muscle and put unnecessary stress on your body. From what you say in your post, you are averaging 1428 per day.
So what did you cut out when you started counting that you consumed before? Add some of those things back in.
I don't see 2900 calories to maintain as "insane" for a 20 yr old guy. Currently my estimated maintenance is around 2400. I'm 25, female, 5'4.5" and have a BMI of 21.3. So, ya, I see 2900 for a guy as completely possible.
I just ate a lot of cheddar cheese ( the solid one ). I would cut huge chunks out and mix it into everything... then I found out that is too much calories so I just use 1 slice cheese for 50 calories rather than 500+ for the big clunk I would eat. Addition to cheese is bad and not eating that much is hard but I stopped pretty easily as long as I was able to have sliced cheese. Why do I have that much? It was because I cut it all up and put it into tuna and mix it together. Haven't had that in almost a month and thats why im here now. I also cut out maccoroni and cheese because when I had that I would make the whole box which would be 1K calories..
What I do now: I eat once in the morning which is something between 500 calories and 800 calories. Then workout at 4PM to burn off 400 of that and eat once again at 9 - 10PM anything to equal 1200.
How are you determining caloric intakes and burns?
I ask, because if you're not weighing all solid foods and measuring all liquids, it is quite easy to underestimate your caloric intake significantly.
Likewise, depending on what method you're using to measure a 400 calorie burn at the gym, that could be significantly overstated as well.
I don't find it all hard to believe that a relatively active 20 year old male could have a maintenance level of near 3,000 calories, especially if you're overweight.0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
You're male and 170lbs and your TDEE is 2900 calories?
That seems high
Age, height, what do you do for a living, what's your exercise programme?
0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »shadow2soul wrote: »1200 is the minimum for women
1500 is the minimum for men
As a male you should be netting at least 1500 calories. Lose weight too fast and you will lose a larger chunk of muscle and put unnecessary stress on your body. From what you say in your post, you are averaging 1428 per day.
So what did you cut out when you started counting that you consumed before? Add some of those things back in.
I don't see 2900 calories to maintain as "insane" for a 20 yr old guy. Currently my estimated maintenance is around 2400. I'm 25, female, 5'4.5" and have a BMI of 21.3. So, ya, I see 2900 for a guy as completely possible.
I just ate a lot of cheddar cheese ( the solid one ). I would cut huge chunks out and mix it into everything... then I found out that is too much calories so I just use 1 slice cheese for 50 calories rather than 500+ for the big clunk I would eat. Addition to cheese is bad and not eating that much is hard but I stopped pretty easily as long as I was able to have sliced cheese. Why do I have that much? It was because I cut it all up and put it into tuna and mix it together. Haven't had that in almost a month and thats why im here now. I also cut out maccoroni and cheese because when I had that I would make the whole box which would be 1K calories..
What I do now: I eat once in the morning which is something between 500 calories and 800 calories. Then workout at 4PM to burn off 400 of that and eat once again at 9 - 10PM anything to equal 1200.
How are you determining caloric intakes and burns?
I ask, because if you're not weighing all solid foods and measuring all liquids, it is quite easy to underestimate your caloric intake significantly.
Likewise, depending on what method you're using to measure a 400 calorie burn at the gym, that could be significantly overstated as well.
I don't find it all hard to believe that a relatively active 20 year old male could have a maintenance level of near 3,000 calories, especially if you're overweight.
Well I do the math in my head and I eat foods that are straight forward.
Example: It's exactly what the bag/box says
2 Pieces of bread ( 190 )
1 Slice of cheese ( 50 Calories )
Ketchup ( 30 teaspoon ) so I just are little as possible to a teaspoon
Tuna Package ( 120 )
- I don't drink juice anymore so liquid isn't a problem as I only drink tea and I add 1 teaspoon of sugar and theres like 30 calories in 1 tea spoon.
- I don't like snacks / chocolate / ice cream / no sweet stuff
Everything I eat is similar to the stuff I listed above so it doesn't really have anything to do about measurements but only adding. I'm very picky when it comes to eating stuff thats why my range hardly changes.
The workout video I do is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcN37TxBE_s + 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvau9wZ6_8k every other day. Other time is spent doing sit ups / push ups.
I'm telling you I can't reach 3000, there is no way I'm going there now that I have cut out solid cheddar cheese, mayonaise and butter.0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
You're male and 170lbs and your TDEE is 2900 calories?
That seems high
Age, height, what do you do for a living, what's your exercise programme?
5,9
19
Spend most time of the day on the computer and about 2 hours is spent doing physical stuff ( exercise, stretches etc)
I posted videos above0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
You're male and 170lbs and your TDEE is 2900 calories?
That seems high
Age, height, what do you do for a living, what's your exercise programme?
5,9
19
Spend most time of the day on the computer and about 2 hours is spent doing physical stuff ( exercise, stretches etc)
I posted videos above
Well, given the above info I would venture a guess that you've entered something inappropriately in the calculators.
I used the iifym tdee calculator, and got about 2480 for your TDEE based on the above stats, a sedentary lifestyle, and 5 days a week of light exercise for 120 minutes a day.
0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
You're male and 170lbs and your TDEE is 2900 calories?
That seems high
Age, height, what do you do for a living, what's your exercise programme?
5,9
19
Spend most time of the day on the computer and about 2 hours is spent doing physical stuff ( exercise, stretches etc)
I posted videos above
Well, given the above info I would venture a guess that you've entered something inappropriately in the calculators.
I used the iifym tdee calculator, and got about 2480 for your TDEE based on the above stats, a sedentary lifestyle, and 5 days a week of light exercise for 120 minutes a day.
Yeah I thought so too, tried about 6 different calculators but i'm not sure what I entered incorrectly. Read the instructions but still somehow kept getting 2900. What should I do at this point? Do I stop with the 1200 and go to 1500 instead? I just want to do what's safe.0 -
jorda13456 wrote: »juggernaut1974 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
You're male and 170lbs and your TDEE is 2900 calories?
That seems high
Age, height, what do you do for a living, what's your exercise programme?
5,9
19
Spend most time of the day on the computer and about 2 hours is spent doing physical stuff ( exercise, stretches etc)
I posted videos above
Well, given the above info I would venture a guess that you've entered something inappropriately in the calculators.
I used the iifym tdee calculator, and got about 2480 for your TDEE based on the above stats, a sedentary lifestyle, and 5 days a week of light exercise for 120 minutes a day.
Yeah I thought so too, tried about 6 different calculators but i'm not sure what I entered incorrectly. Read the instructions but still somehow kept getting 2900. What should I do at this point? Do I stop with the 1200 and go to 1500 instead? I just want to do what's safe.
I would operate under the assumption that 2500 is a somewhat closer estimate to your true TDEE.
Based on that, and the fact that about 1 lb per week would be a healthy rate of weight loss with 30 to lose, I'd aim for a daily caloric intake of about 2,000. I would do that for 4-6 weeks and evaluate your results after that time. If you're losing at the appropriate rate on average, keep it up. If not, make a small calorie adjustment as necessary.
The caveat I would give you is that I wouldn't rely on the labelling alone to give you accurate calories. Get a food scale and weigh your solid portions.
Just as an example - your bread that you say is 95 calories per slice. Do you think the slice on each end of the loaf has the same number of calories as a slice in the middle? You ever get a loaf that has a big air bubble in the middle so some slices have a big hole in the middle?
Point being, the label gives you the stats for an 'average' slice at best.
Weigh (in grams, preferably) all solid foods, and compare it to the serving size weight on the label. In my experience, the actual weight of many things (even pre-packaged stuff) can vary by 10-20% or more. This would be even more true for items like say, a banana where there is no 'standard' serving size.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »juggernaut1974 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »jorda13456 wrote: »Hello,
I try to use different calorie deficit calculators and I enter my height, age, gender etc and it always comes to saying to maintain where I am I need to eat 2900 calories a day which is insane, I don't even understand what I could possibly eat to reach 3000 because it's hard enough even eating past 1600. I'm trying to lose 30 pounds right now and it's been 23 days so far and i've been eating at 1200 calories on weekdays and 2000 on weekends.
Is what I'm doing unsafe because every time I enter on the calculator it says its unsafe but why is it unsafe... I thought 1200 was safe and minimum.
Thanks
You're male and 170lbs and your TDEE is 2900 calories?
That seems high
Age, height, what do you do for a living, what's your exercise programme?
5,9
19
Spend most time of the day on the computer and about 2 hours is spent doing physical stuff ( exercise, stretches etc)
I posted videos above
Well, given the above info I would venture a guess that you've entered something inappropriately in the calculators.
I used the iifym tdee calculator, and got about 2480 for your TDEE based on the above stats, a sedentary lifestyle, and 5 days a week of light exercise for 120 minutes a day.
Yeah I thought so too, tried about 6 different calculators but i'm not sure what I entered incorrectly. Read the instructions but still somehow kept getting 2900. What should I do at this point? Do I stop with the 1200 and go to 1500 instead? I just want to do what's safe.
I would operate under the assumption that 2500 is a somewhat closer estimate to your true TDEE.
Based on that, and the fact that about 1 lb per week would be a healthy rate of weight loss with 30 to lose, I'd aim for a daily caloric intake of about 2,000. I would do that for 4-6 weeks and evaluate your results after that time. If you're losing at the appropriate rate on average, keep it up. If not, make a small calorie adjustment as necessary.
The caveat I would give you is that I wouldn't rely on the labelling alone to give you accurate calories. Get a food scale and weigh your solid portions.
Just as an example - your bread that you say is 95 calories per slice. Do you think the slice on each end of the loaf has the same number of calories as a slice in the middle? You ever get a loaf that has a big air bubble in the middle so some slices have a big hole in the middle?
Point being, the label gives you the stats for an 'average' slice at best.
Weigh (in grams, preferably) all solid foods, and compare it to the serving size weight on the label. In my experience, the actual weight of many things (even pre-packaged stuff) can vary by 10-20% or more. This would be even more true for items like say, a banana where there is no 'standard' serving size.
Alright, thanks a ton.0
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