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srw11291
srw11291 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a couple questions to start out my quest to lose weight. The first question is how low is it ok to take your calorie intake. My BMR on a few calculators suggest between 2500 and 2900 a day. I am currently shooting for 1800 a day. Is that ok?

The next question is if it is OK for a meal to be about 200+ more calories than other meals. My dinner always seems to come out that way.


Thanks for any help guys and gals.

Replies

  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
    edited April 2016
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    The very minimum is 1200 calories a day for what an individual should eat, but even then, that is considered pretty low for most people. I weigh 271 lbs and eat an average of 1400-1600 calories per day and lose weight with that. 1800 calories per day sounds okay for me, but since I do not know your weight/height/male/female, it can be hard to tell. 1800 calories with someone who weighs 110 lbs may make them maintain their weight, but 1800 calories for someone at 250-300 lbs will make them lose weight. If you give a little more info, we may be able to help you more :)
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
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    As for the meals, it is definitely okay for some others to have more calories than the others. ^^ It would not change your results as long as you are not overeating throughout the entire day
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    Maybe it is best if you use the calories MFP here suggests. I don't know how much you weigh or your height but I suppose you can set a 1-1.5lbs lose per week and MFP will calculate how much to eat a day.

    To your second question - of course. It doesn't matter how you spread your calories between meals. You should spread them in such a way that feels easiest for you to keep to the limit. The whole point of a small deficit is to find a way through experiment to feel completely normal, satisfied (within reason) and not starving. You can eat them all in one meal even and it wouldn't matter.
  • srw11291
    srw11291 Posts: 5 Member
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    Sorry. I am 6'4, male, and about 330. MFP suggested about 2500 or so can't remember because I have sinced changed it. I just feel like that is still alot of food so I switched to the 1800.

    Thanks for the quick response.
  • Odiaa
    Odiaa Posts: 34 Member
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    2500 calories can be blown out in 1 sitting, Big Mac combo, large fries, large coke, Mcflurry and bam there's 2500 calories right there, or very close to it.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    srw11291 wrote: »
    Sorry. I am 6'4, male, and about 330. MFP suggested about 2500 or so can't remember because I have sinced changed it. I just feel like that is still alot of food so I switched to the 1800.

    Thanks for the quick response.

    At your stats you probably maintain around 3000cal/day assuming you are sedentary.
    You need to eat 2500ca/day to lose 1lbs/week and 2000cal/day to lose 2lbs/week.
    1800cal would make a 40% deficit which does not sound very healthy. But I'm not a dietitian or a doctor.
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
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    srw11291 wrote: »
    Sorry. I am 6'4, male, and about 330. MFP suggested about 2500 or so can't remember because I have sinced changed it. I just feel like that is still alot of food so I switched to the 1800.

    Thanks for the quick response.

    Wow, I plugged in your stats into the Scooby Calculator which I have used, and set you for mildly active. I got your BMR as 2916 and then to lose about 1.6 pounds a week you can eat about 3207.

    Make sure you don't eat TOO little otherwise you run the risk of getting too hungry and crashing and burning. I would not go any lower than your BMR if I were you.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    emdeesea wrote: »
    srw11291 wrote: »
    Sorry. I am 6'4, male, and about 330. MFP suggested about 2500 or so can't remember because I have sinced changed it. I just feel like that is still alot of food so I switched to the 1800.

    Thanks for the quick response.

    Wow, I plugged in your stats into the Scooby Calculator which I have used, and set you for mildly active. I got your BMR as 2916 and then to lose about 1.6 pounds a week you can eat about 3207.

    Make sure you don't eat TOO little otherwise you run the risk of getting too hungry and crashing and burning. I would not go any lower than your BMR if I were you.

    These calculations don't make much sense unless you plugged a lot of activity for the OP. Eating under BMR for someone not very active is in fact essential to lose weight.
  • srw11291
    srw11291 Posts: 5 Member
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    I work an office job and have minimum activity a week, which is why I felt I really needed to cut on the calories.
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
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    gebeziseva wrote: »
    emdeesea wrote: »
    srw11291 wrote: »
    Sorry. I am 6'4, male, and about 330. MFP suggested about 2500 or so can't remember because I have sinced changed it. I just feel like that is still alot of food so I switched to the 1800.

    Thanks for the quick response.

    Wow, I plugged in your stats into the Scooby Calculator which I have used, and set you for mildly active. I got your BMR as 2916 and then to lose about 1.6 pounds a week you can eat about 3207.

    Make sure you don't eat TOO little otherwise you run the risk of getting too hungry and crashing and burning. I would not go any lower than your BMR if I were you.

    These calculations don't make much sense unless you plugged a lot of activity for the OP. Eating under BMR for someone not very active is in fact essential to lose weight.

    Even at sedentary, his BMR would be around 3,000, but yeah OP, do whatever makes sense to you. I only recommend this calculator because I've been fairly successful with it, but either way, good luck!
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
    edited April 2016
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    emdeesea wrote: »
    gebeziseva wrote: »
    emdeesea wrote: »
    srw11291 wrote: »
    Sorry. I am 6'4, male, and about 330. MFP suggested about 2500 or so can't remember because I have sinced changed it. I just feel like that is still alot of food so I switched to the 1800.

    Thanks for the quick response.

    Wow, I plugged in your stats into the Scooby Calculator which I have used, and set you for mildly active. I got your BMR as 2916 and then to lose about 1.6 pounds a week you can eat about 3207.

    Make sure you don't eat TOO little otherwise you run the risk of getting too hungry and crashing and burning. I would not go any lower than your BMR if I were you.

    These calculations don't make much sense unless you plugged a lot of activity for the OP. Eating under BMR for someone not very active is in fact essential to lose weight.

    Even at sedentary, his BMR would be around 3,000, but yeah OP, do whatever makes sense to you. I only recommend this calculator because I've been fairly successful with it, but either way, good luck!

    BMR is basal metabolic rate. It does not depend on activity. It is how much your body needs to live if you lie down and don't even digest. His BMR is about 2500. You probably mean TDEE which is indeed around 3000 at sedentary. That is why eating at 3200 to lose 1.6 a week makes no sense. My post above gives the accurate figures.
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
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    This is the calculator I used to plug in your stats: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    I put in "sedentary" and got a BMR of 2916. a TDEE of 3499, and a daily calorie count of 2799 to lose about 1.4 pounds a week.

    Obviously if you have a day or two of exercise that number goes up, but this was for sedentary.
  • ElviraMarieCerri
    ElviraMarieCerri Posts: 31 Member
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    Make an investment in a nutritionist. One visit & then maybe one followup can help you immensely to educate yourself to make wise choices. Every quest should begin by finding the right tools, and the professional advice you can get from a nutritionist (preferably connected to a legit medical practice) is worth your time and effort.

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