newbie and 1400 calories

coofra
coofra Posts: 6 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everybody,
I am new here!
I just started logging in the last few days.. never been on a diet in my life!
I am female, 35, 5.9 tall (177cm) and 174 pounds (79kg) (sorry I am used to kg and cms!!).

I wanted to loose about 10kg or 20lbs to get into a healtier weight.

When I input my data, myfitnesspal gives me a diet at 1400 calories.. plus the ones i get back from exercise (I started cycling to work and I run 3/4 times per week).

Of course I am hungry, but I am trying to eat healthy foods and to organize to have snacks with not many calories to help!

Do you think 1400 is good? I don't want to go into a restricted diet where I will get back everything quickly, or my sport performance would decrease (or health) or metabolism slow down.

What do you think?
Thanks!

Replies

  • sabinaholtby
    sabinaholtby Posts: 73 Member
    As long as you eat back some exercise calories, you should be good!
    Hunger will get under control as you figure out what types of meals work best for you. Good job! Starting is the hardest
  • coofra
    coofra Posts: 6 Member
    Thank you!
    So yesterday my goal was 1400, I got 711 from exercise which gave me 2,111 and I ate 2058
    :smiley:
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    coofra wrote: »
    Hi everybody,
    I am new here!
    I just started logging in the last few days.. never been on a diet in my life!
    I am female, 35, 5.9 tall (177cm) and 174 pounds (79kg) (sorry I am used to kg and cms!!).

    I wanted to loose about 10kg or 20lbs to get into a healtier weight.

    When I input my data, myfitnesspal gives me a diet at 1400 calories.. plus the ones i get back from exercise (I started cycling to work and I run 3/4 times per week).

    Of course I am hungry, but I am trying to eat healthy foods and to organize to have snacks with not many calories to help!

    Do you think 1400 is good? I don't want to go into a restricted diet where I will get back everything quickly, or my sport performance would decrease (or health) or metabolism slow down.

    What do you think?
    Thanks!

    Metabolism will always slow down as you lose weight. That is simply a biological fact. Weight loss reduces your body mass. That’s the whole point. But body size is one of the biggest factors driving your overall metabolism. It takes calories to maintain all those extra pounds of fat tissue – fat might burn fewer calories than muscle, but it absolutely does burn some calories just by existing. If you have 50 or 100 pounds of extra fat, they’re burning a lot of calories every day just by being there, not to mention the extra calories you burn carrying them around from place to place.

    When you lose weight, your resting metabolic rate goes down, because there’s less of you to maintain. Your non-exercise activity thermogenesis goes down because you’re spending fewer calories every time you move.
  • coofra
    coofra Posts: 6 Member
    thank you for the explanation, I am absolutely new to the diet world and I am learning everything.
    I had read somewhere of how bad was to slow down metabolism and I thought it was something I should avoid :hushed:

    So ok, I will try to go this way, for some reason (I guess age and not perfect diet) I put on those 10kg, and I don't want to put on more..
    now I will try to go back how it was and then to understand how to maintain the healthy weight!

    thank you!
  • tillerstouch
    tillerstouch Posts: 608 Member
    edited May 2017
    coofra wrote: »
    Thank you!
    So yesterday my goal was 1400, I got 711 from exercise which gave me 2,111 and I ate 2058
    :smiley:

    Be careful with exercise calories, unless you are using a heart rate monitor, usually estimates arent very accurate. A lot of people only eat back a certain percent of their exercise calories, what percent exactly might be something you have to experiment with.

    Also id recommend getting a food scale if you havent already and weigh everything you eat.
  • eatingems
    eatingems Posts: 106 Member
    We have very similar stats - I'm 25, 5ft10 and 176lbs and I'm eating and losing on 1400.

    I don't exercise as much as I should, only twice a week for an hour each time at the moment, but I'm hoping to up that soon, so I'm not eating my exercise calories.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    coofra wrote: »
    Thank you!
    So yesterday my goal was 1400, I got 711 from exercise which gave me 2,111 and I ate 2058
    :smiley:

    What did you do for that 711 exercise calories? That's a very high number.
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
    I am similar stats to you 5'8" and 188lbs. I am losing (slowly) on 1400 cals a day and only eat 50% of my exercise cals as I'm pretty sure the Fitbit isn't as accurate as I'd like it to be!
  • coofra
    coofra Posts: 6 Member
    I use a heart monitor when running... and my heart rate it's quite high at the moment as I am still in early stages of training.

    The 700 calories I got from 1 hour cycling (road bike, around 20km/h) plus dog walk another hour..

    I started doing one hour cycling every day (for commute, but on the road bike and strava helps me to monitor my speed so I try to beat my records all the time).
    Plus I am following a program for getting better at 5k run. I do a long run (10km) a week, a timed 5k parkrun almost every Saturday and 1 or 2 other shorter trainings (with interval training) during the week.
    I started all this in the last month/couple of months.. before that I was running much less :blush:

    Thanks for all the suggestions, I will then try to eat a bit less of the calories suggested for exercise.. even if it will be hard!
    Never did a diet in my life and it's so easy to reach 1400!!
    Today I was cycling dreaming my conquered snack after burning those 200 calories ahah
  • coofra
    coofra Posts: 6 Member
    ah and yes I do have a food scale and I am measuring everything.. just started to do it.. and trying to be careful researching the calories of what I eat so I can log properly..
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    coofra wrote: »
    Hi everybody,
    I am new here!
    I just started logging in the last few days.. never been on a diet in my life!
    I am female, 35, 5.9 tall (177cm) and 174 pounds (79kg) (sorry I am used to kg and cms!!).

    I wanted to loose about 10kg or 20lbs to get into a healtier weight.

    When I input my data, myfitnesspal gives me a diet at 1400 calories.. plus the ones i get back from exercise (I started cycling to work and I run 3/4 times per week).

    Of course I am hungry, but I am trying to eat healthy foods and to organize to have snacks with not many calories to help!

    Do you think 1400 is good? I don't want to go into a restricted diet where I will get back everything quickly, or my sport performance would decrease (or health) or metabolism slow down.

    What do you think?
    Thanks!

    With only 10 kg to lose, you should set your goal to 1/2 lb (or 1/4 kg -- don't know if the settings allow this) a week. I'm guessing from the 1400 you may have set a more aggressive goal.
  • whatsallthisthen
    whatsallthisthen Posts: 35 Member
    Many of us don't log exercise calories. If you find you're not losing weight, consider sticking to 1400 regardless of daily exercise.
  • womanisadevil
    womanisadevil Posts: 52 Member
    edited May 2017
    I eat back half my exercise calories, I have trust issues with machines because they tend to overestimate.

    My fitbit will tell me 300 burned on elliptical and the elliptical will say 500 burned.

    Different things work for everyone, it's finding what works for you!
    For example if I don't eat dirt loads of fibre and protein I almost parish from hunger pangs. :blush:

    I upped my calories to 1400 a couple weeks ago, I was eating 1200.
    Then I would near binge on weekends because I felt deprived.

    But IMO losing 1.5lbs a week instead of 2lbs and NOT being hungry all night is worth it!

    (I'm only about 153cm or close to 5ft1 so 1200 is not bad for my BMR)

    Congrats on taking your steps to weight loss! The community is great for questions and support. Good luck!!!
  • coofra
    coofra Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks again everybody,
    I think I have put 0.5kg to lose per week, but not 100% sure, I might need to review.

    These are my first steps, so I might adjust seeing how it goes.

    For sure it would be hard to not eat back my exercise calories :worried:
    in the last few days I have been very good to stick to the recommendations here but I almost eat all the exercise calories

    again, just trying to eat healthy foods as much as I can, so not many sweets, more fruit, salads and so on..
    already this is quite a big change :smiley:

    happy to have found the community because it's already helping me a lot this thread!!

    I tried in the past this app, but got bored after few days of logging everything.. and kept my 10kg!!!!
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