Brand new this week. Here are questions

Ajontheguitar
Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
edited September 2024 in Introduce Yourself
I've obviously become this over-weight through bad nutrition and lack of excersize. I was looking at how many calories I was intaking a day (a ball-park figure obviously) and thinking, "Wow! I consumed so much!" Wellllll here's the question.

Since I'm doing this, is cutting your caloric intake that drastically bad for you at first? Or am I good as long as it's a healthy caloric intake in general?

Replies

  • gods_gal
    gods_gal Posts: 301
    Don't go too far under the recommended calorie intake or your body will think it's starving and you won't lose. At least, that's what I've been told. I've been here for about a week and absolutely love it. It's working for me in all the right ways and is very motivating. Good luck!
    Bonnie
    P.S. I'm in Old Hickory!
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    Pretty much what I figured. Good ol' old hickory! Just don't add "road" to the end of it, you could be talking about a 20 mile radius! haha.
  • WifeMomDVM
    WifeMomDVM Posts: 1,025 Member
    A deficit of 700 calories is the "sweet spot" for weight loss. Not everyone can do this, the smaller you are, the less room you have for a deficit of this size.

    Don't forget to update your weight as you lose, and you can keep lowering your calories as you get closer to your goal.

    NEVER go below 1200 calories though, and if you eat only 1200 and you exercise, make sure you eat back your exercise calories.

    Hope this helps!

    Edited to add: As an example I'm at a 200-300 calorie deficit right now, because I am close to my goal.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    This may help:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics
  • EuroDriver
    EuroDriver Posts: 254
    Lower 200-250 cals every week/week n half until u start loosing pound to a 1.5 pounds a WEEK(made mistake)... If u do a big drop what are you going to do when u plateau? Eat as much as a mouse cuz u had lower cals even more?

    Also... Everyone is diffrant.. Some need a 700cal deficit vs someone else just lowering a fat intake will get them to loose weight. Depends on your body and matabolism, but the way i stated is the best thig to do as a beginner to ensure you have room to do something when you plateau...
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    Good information! It seems based on how much I weigh and my height etc, I was always consuming over 3000 a day! I'm on a 1500 a day curb which I assume is Ok.
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    @Eurodriver.

    Well the plan would be to get to my ideal weight, then up the cals to a "standard" or maintain healthy weight based on my weight and height then. (Apologies, wordy sentence.)

    Obviously coupling that with staying active.

    @LadyHawk.
    Thanks!
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
    To the OP: I found it difficult to go right to the goal MFP set for me and went over almost every day. It just took some time for my body to get used to eating less. It also took time for me to know what good foods worked for me. Now I'm able to plan out every day the night before and stick to it. Check out my diary if you need any ideas, we don't have the same goals, but it might help.
    Lower 200-250 cals every week/week n half until u start loosing atleast pound a day... If u do a big drop what are you going to do when u plateau? Eat as much as a mouse cuz u had lower cals even more?

    A pound a day? Yea, that's not healthy. I really hope you meant a pound a week.
  • JMun
    JMun Posts: 409
    Add friends and snoop thru their diaries. It'll keep you're diet varied

    Also, eat small and eat often. I try to eat every 2-3 hours. Keeps my metabolism jumping.

    Good luck to you :)
  • EuroDriver
    EuroDriver Posts: 254
    Good information! It seems based on how much I weigh and my height etc, I was always consuming over 3000 a day! I'm on a 1500 a day curb which I assume is Ok.

    Whats ur height and weight? How active are you? Gonna hit the weights or just diet?
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    5'9, 240 lbs when I started. I have not been active enough, but have recently gone back to being fairly active. Good swims a few times a week, and I play a few hours of pick-up basketball with the 30 minute elliptical here and there. Will eventually hit the weights again but want to find a weight buddy and lose a few lbs first.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Good information! It seems based on how much I weigh and my height etc, I was always consuming over 3000 a day! I'm on a 1500 a day curb which I assume is Ok.

    Hmm probably not. Based on your ticker, you don't have enough to lose (enough fat stores) to handle a 1500/day deficit. Only someone who is morbidly obese should even attempt that (and even then, experts don't recommend a deficit that high on a regular basis.)

    The less you have to lose, the less readily-available the fat is to supplement your daily energy requirements. If you have too high of a deficit, you'll likely lose a lot of lean mass, in addition to fat, and may have other issues as well.

    For where you're at, a 1 lb per week loss goal is appropriate (500 cal per day deficit).
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    What if staying to the 1500 per day has usually been remedied by excersize? In other words, I've been probably closer to 2000 a day.
  • EuroDriver
    EuroDriver Posts: 254
    5'9, 240 lbs when I started. I have not been active enough, but have recently gone back to being fairly active. Good swims a few times a week, and I play a few hours of pick-up basketball with the 30 minute elliptical here and there. Will eventually hit the weights again but want to find a weight buddy and lose a few lbs first.

    A big mistake that people make is leave the weight training for later... Extra pounds of muscle not only burn more calories, raise your matabolism for the next 24hrs+ also when you are loosing weight it will make you look leaner quicker! simply because as the fat is melting more muscle will start to show, also at your weight after about a month or two you will be pushing alot more weight because your body has the energy stored for it... e.g. im stronger when im bulking and im higher weight than when im cutting or im lean...

    you said you were eating 3000cals.. for 240 pounds thats not alot at all.. i think you should just drop your calories by about 300-500cals thats it no more and eat clean! swims,basketball, elliptical are all good so keep them up! also try to get on a schedual its most important.. set a goal. for example.

    Swim 3x a week for 15-20min
    Basketball 2x a week for 30min
    Elliptical every second day for 15min at certin speed
    no matter how tired, no matter what your excuse is, if you got the flu, or anything you still do what you need to do it even if you half *kitten* it.. ive seen a guy at the gym.. one day hes fine next day he comes in with a broken arm... and still does squats, legs press, sit ups, things that would require his hand.. then start little bit of cardio.. so look for motivation and don't make excuses

    then every month increase everything by 2-3 minutes this will make sure that you dont hit plateau and you keep seeing results.
    Its the most important that you look into the future not just a short term fix. my wife though that if she eats like 1000cals she will loose ALOT of weight she did for a little while but then she hit a plateau and didnt know what to do because she was eating already minimum.. so she had to start eating more and more gained a bit of weight until she could start dropping her cals little by little the proper way that i told her too..
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    Well to amend that, I only said 3000 calories because a website (which may or may not have been accurate) said that based on my weight gain and height, that was around the amount. For all I know it could have been 4000. I started a new job 2 years ago. I had always had "on your feet" jobs so being a little overweight was normal. Enter the call center job and I ballooned obviously. I may have grossly mis-calculated the amount of calories I had been intaking, like I said.

    Then I'll definitely hit the weight room starting this week.
  • EuroDriver
    EuroDriver Posts: 254
    Yeah so i would say try and eat 2500-3000cals.. and try to eat clean if you can, most important watch your fats and carbs. if you need to eat out.. go to subway.

    to give you an idea.. when i was bulking i was at 205lbs i was eating 4000cals.. then i cut down and im 185lbs and started bulking again and my goal right now is eating 3500cals.. so you at 240 dropping to 2500-3000cals is a big change for your body!
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    I guess a good idea for me is to even out the calories a bit--in good, healthy food :)

    Thanks a lot for the info thus far.
  • EuroDriver
    EuroDriver Posts: 254
    oh also because you are heavier you are burning more calories doing any excersise that a lighter set guy would. so if you add that muscle on etc will make a huge diffrance to your metabolism! when lifting try to stick to supersets, tricets, giant sets.. with high reps.. changing every month.. again comes down to having a set schedual, tracking your reps, tracking your weight lifted, this way you know when you hit plateau or what you can or need to do improve your training.
  • PA21
    PA21 Posts: 95 Member
    Wow I can tell by your responses that you are really open and ready for this! That attitude can get you to your finish line! Don't let the road bumps get you down and if you fall get back up!
    I've recently added more weight training to my routine to keep it varied and it has literally boosted my fitness by at least 50%. I feel much more fit and notice visible changes (of course only I see them as I look obsessively in the mirror)!
    Good luck to you and feel free to add me as a friend :flowerforyou:
  • EuroDriver
    EuroDriver Posts: 254
    Wow I can tell by your responses that you are really open and ready for this! That attitude can get you to your finish line! Don't let the road bumps get you down and if you fall get back up!
    I've recently added more weight training to my routine to keep it varied and it has literally boosted my fitness by at least 50%. I feel much more fit and notice visible changes (of course only I see them as I look obsessively in the mirror)!
    Good luck to you and feel free to add me as a friend :flowerforyou:

    keep lifting hehe the more you train the more addicted you get! my wife walks around the streets flexing her muscle cuz shes proud of it now haha
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    What if staying to the 1500 per day has usually been remedied by excersize? In other words, I've been probably closer to 2000 a day.

    Actually, that doesn't. lol

    When you exercise, you're expending even more energy, so you need to eat more to provide fuel for the extra work. So when you eat more those days, really you're just still keeping your net intake (calories eaten - calories expended) at 1500. Which is good, don't get me wrong - in the sense that you need to eat extra when you work out (known around here as eating your exercise cals) to keep the deficit from getting even bigger. But basically then you still have too high of a deficit.

    A smaller deficit will mean slower loss, yes - but it will mean you retain more lean mass (muscle) which keeps your metabolism higher and looks better. Generally a higher deficit just backfires at some point.

    IMO, the best thing for folks to do starting out is just input your info correctly, choose the appropriate loss per week goal, and let MFP do the math. Then try to meet your cal goal (and macro/micro) each day, within about 100 over or under. It's usually pretty reliable to start out with, if you give it the right info. You'll likely need to tweak the numbers a bit later on, but by then you'll be more familiar with what your body needs.
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