Calorie Goal

jemhh wrote: »

McKittyJane wrote: »

Hi! I'm lost about calorie goal...
My stats are correct in MFP, and my goal is set at -1.5 lb/week with lightly active level.
MFP says my calorie goal is 1,520 (female, 5'8, 165-170).
This is supposedly a deficit, but if I ate 1500 cal every day I would GAIN weight.
I shoot for around 1000 calories a day instead.
Keeping that up steadily, i lost 5lb in 3 weeks. I eat fresh and healthy as much as possible, and work out (mostly weights, and some cardio-usually walking or running) when I can.
So does the MFP calorie goal not work for me because of metabolism/body type etc?
Just wondering what y'all might think

Unless you have a medical condition affecting weight loss, there's no way you'd gain eating 1500 calories. If you have in the past, it's because you weren't counting calories accurately.

^agreed

If you really think you would gain on that you should see a doctor.


So you think your eating 1000 calories a day (my guess is your eating more...I'll share a video in a few mins as for why)...even then the math doesn't add to you gaining at 1500.

3500 = 1 lb
5 lbs in 3 weeks = 1.6 lbs per week
1.6 lbs per week = 5,833 calorie deficit per week
5,833 cal deficit a week = 833 cal deficit per day

That means "IF" you are eating 1000 cals, your maintenance is 1833 calories per day. I suspect you are eating more than 1000 per day and as such your maintenance is actually higher than that.

From your diary, it doesn't appear as if you weigh your food. There's a lot of generic amounts. It's possible that you are eating more than you think.
As a young 20-year old, it doesn't seem possible that you would gain on 1500 calories. Double check your food intake. MFP works.
A 1.5 lb/week goal may be a bit aggressive as well. If you are trying to lose 10-15 lbs, a 1 lb/week goal may be more sustainable.
Whatever you decide, 1000 calories per day is not enough.

I think you should read this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

I'm about your height, started near your weight, and I'm more than twice your age, and I dropped several sizes and down to 135-140lbs on 1800-2000 cals a day.

1000 cals a day is not healthy, nor is it sustainable. 5lbs lost in 3 weeks isn't either - it may have been an early loss with some water weight coming off, but losing that much at that rate isn't realistic. Most likely before long you'll find yourself overworked and under-fueled, with little to no energy for workouts or daily life, and a stall in weight loss.

Based on my own stats and comparing them to yours, 1520 is a reasonable goal and certainly has you at a deficit - and that's without exercise. If you're burning off more cals through workouts, you should be eating at least a portion of those cals back. Eating low and then burning more leaves you with a cavernous deficit, and that can lead to all sorts of problems in the long run.

You don't have a lot to lose - do it right, sustainably, so you can keep it off for good. Eat your calories, exercise, drink water, take rest days, get good sleep, and have patience. You may not lose 5lbs every 3 weeks, but you will lose the weight, and it's totally worth it.

McKittyJane wrote: »

Also if My maintenance cal is over 1800, i still feel like that would be too much; if I eat 1800 or even 15-1600 a day I feel like I've overeaten and yucky.

That sounds more mental than anything. Have you struggled with food issues in the past?

And do you measure with cups or weigh food on a scale? Measuring foods with cups/spoons is not actually all that accurate.

Your using "Homemade" entries which can be highly inaccurate (which is why I recommend reading the thread I linked to above).

McKittyJane wrote: »

My homemade recipes are only when ive measured everything and i know it is always the same.

I use a mix of weight and cups.

As far as issues with food... I gained weight much too quickly around adolescent/ early middle school, a little while after that i couldnt eat anything fried at all or id be sick, then i got several inches talker without gaining much weight, so i seemed thinner. Then its just been a few years of being lazy and eating more for convenience than health that caused me to pick up extra weight that im trying to get rid of now.

Also, you have to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight, so shouldnt i eat only what i can burn? When i do workout its high effort, but more often than not i am too busy to squeeze in a whole lot of physical activity, so i try to only eat what i need.

You know you burn a great deal of calories merely existing, right? It's not just when you exercise. At 5'4, 179lbs as a 36 year old female, I would burn over 1500 a day if I was in a coma....

McKittyJane wrote: »

Yes, i know exercise isnt the o ky thing that burns cals. Thats what i meant by trying to only eat what i need

I think the disconnect is between what you think you need, and what you actually need.

McKittyJane wrote: »

My homemade recipes are only when ive measured everything and i know it is always the same.

I use a mix of weight and cups.

As far as issues with food... I gained weight much too quickly around adolescent/ early middle school, a little while after that i couldnt eat anything fried at all or id be sick, then i got several inches talker without gaining much weight, so i seemed thinner. Then its just been a few years of being lazy and eating more for convenience than health that caused me to pick up extra weight that im trying to get rid of now.

Also, you have to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight, so shouldnt i eat only what i can burn? When i do workout its high effort, but more often than not i am too busy to squeeze in a whole lot of physical activity, so i try to only eat what i need.

I'm not talking about the recipes. I saw a few "homemade " things that were pulled from the database.

example: " Homemade - Seasoned Broiled Potatoes, 1/2 cup cooked "
"Generic - Baked Carrots, 0.5 cup "

^ Stuff like that pulled from the database can be highly inaccurate.

McKittyJane wrote: »

Yes, i know exercise isnt the o ky thing that burns cals. Thats what i meant by trying to only eat what i need

That's just it though. Your BMR (calories your body needs to function before any daily activity or exercise is factored in....calories your body needs to keep your organs working) is higher than 1000. So you are eating less than you need.

Your estimated BMR is 1569. So your body burns 1569 calories at rest. This doesn't include walking to the bathroom or kitchen or any exercise. That is your base calorie burn. So by eating 1000 calories, you are 569 calories below what your body needs approximately for basic functions.

Calories to maintain with little to no exercise/desk job: 1833 (lines up with what I said above and your loss)
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

paperpudding wrote: »

rankinsect wrote: »

McKittyJane wrote: »

This is supposedly a deficit, but if I ate 1500 cal every day I would GAIN weight.
I shoot for around 1000 calories a day instead.

1500 calories per day is roughly what a 7 year old girl eats. 1000 calories is about the typical intake for a two year old girl. Even if you were totally sedentary, you burn more calories than either of those.

I agree with most of the advice in this thread.

However, 2 year olds and 7 year olds are growing - understandably they need proportionately more calories than an adult aiming to lose.

I lost steadily on 1470, so almost exactly the 1500 you say a 7 year old eats.

I was 52, lightly active and 5ft 4in. And lost at slow rate of 1/2 lb week.

I can see that somebody less active, shorter, older than me would gain on 1500. For SOME adults, that is too much to lose on.

None of which is true for the original poster, she is 5'8", 20 years old. She does not fall into the same category as people like you and I who are around 50. Her energy needs, baring a medical condition, would be far higher not just because of height and weigh, but her age as well. As others have calculated, her BMR is over 1520. Her TDEE is likely quite a bit over that.

McKittyJane wrote: »

Yes, i have tried eating an accurate 1500 consistently for a good bit of time, at best that keeps me maintaining, not losing.

How long is a good bit? Based on what you've posted in this thread, 1500 would be about 1/2 lb per week on average. So it would be very slow loss and sometimes feel like your not going anywhere.

McKittyJane wrote: »

2 months committed, longer before that but i wasnt as strict then
Scale wouldnt move, neither did waistline

Did you log every single day? Because currently looking at your log, it's very spotty (I looked all the way back through to Nov).

Your current rate of loss based on what you think you consume does put your maintenance at just over 1800 calories. If it was 1500, you would have only lost 3 lbs in the past 3 weeks. The math doesn't add up to what you think you maintain at. Your loss says you maintain at more than 1500.

My recommendations:
- Log everything for 4 weeks straight
- weigh your food on a food scale / use measuring cups for liquids
- avoid " Homemade " entries from the database (seriously read the thread that I posted a link to above, there is a lot of inaccurate stuff in the database).
- weigh yourself at least once a week and use an app like Happy weight or libra that will show trends (the more weigh in's you have the better, but if it causes too much stress once a week is fine).
- Eat at least 1200 calories (that is the MINIMUM for women for health as set by the National Institute of Health)

(want to talk slow, in the past 3 months my trending weight has only dropped 1.9 lbs. If I hadn't screwed up so bad in January, I'd be looking at maybe 3lbs...granted I tried to maintain my weight...but I still wasn't at what it would take me to maintain)