Am I eating too few calories a day?

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jardane1
jardane1 Posts: 58 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My BMR is 3750 but lately I have been aiming to only eat 1750 calories a day, that is a caloric deficit of 2000 calories. If I do this every day i should be losing 4lbs week. Last week i gained weight but I don't know if it was my diet. I had Just had a tooth pulled so I was on meds and not drinking enough water. Just for better information I am 31 years old, 6'4 and 427lb. I go to the gym every weekday in the morning before work. Am I being too extreme with my calorie intake?

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  • BonnieDundee78
    BonnieDundee78 Posts: 158 Member
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    Yes.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    What is your TDEE? That is what your deficit comes from, not BMR.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
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    Do you have a medical team? A Dietician? That's where I would start...

    My *opinion*? Stick with the 1800, get a really good nutrition plan, and eat 500 calories more on days you go to the gym. Your current weight is life-threatening and you can get fairly good nutrition on 1800-2300 cals.
  • RachelleNH
    RachelleNH Posts: 14 Member
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    I have been wondering the same. I was told to stay between 1200- 1400 calories and I've been doing that and exercising and I'm not losing anything, although I'm working out 7 days a week. It is frustrating. My boyfriend has not been exercising or dieting at all and he lost six pounds.-We decided to challenge each other to see who could lose the most weight in a month. Well I already lost.!
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Something seems off here. BMR is the minimum caloric intake you need to survive and 3750 seems very high for this. To the best of my knowledge, you don't ever want to eat less calories than your BMR because it affects things like organ function and basic body processes.

    Could you possibly mean your TDEE is 3750? That makes far more sense. If this is the case, you won't be hurting yourself by eating only 1750 (as long as that's not below your BMR) but you are likely going to find maintaining this much of a deficit for any period of time extremely challenging.

    It is possible that I am mistaken as I am not a nutritionist or trainer or anything like that--I fix cars not people, so hopefully some of the veterans will chime in on this.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    RachelleNH wrote: »
    I have been wondering the same. I was told to stay between 1200- 1400 calories and I've been doing that and exercising and I'm not losing anything, although I'm working out 7 days a week. It is frustrating. My boyfriend has not been exercising or dieting at all and he lost six pounds.-We decided to challenge each other to see who could lose the most weight in a month. Well I already lost.!

    It's not uncommon to retain water when you first start a new exercise regime so that might be what you're experiencing but your b/f is not. Sometimes a tape measure is a better indicator than a scale. Do your clothes fit any better? Do you look any different in the mirror?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,009 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    Something seems off here. BMR is the minimum caloric intake you need to survive and 3750 seems very high for this.

    Did you possibly miss the part where OP currently weighs 427 lb?

    You probably should seek medical advice and medical monitoring, if possible, but 4 lbs a week doesn't seem extreme to start out, given your starting weight, and odds are good that once you're past the water-retention associated with dental surgery, you may see a big weight-loss "whoosh," so I wouldn't freak out if you have a week or two where weight loss outpaces even 4 lb/week. If that keeps up, though, or if you feel too fatigued for your workouts, or your sleep suffers, or you're just so hungry you can't think about anything but food, you'll probably want to increase your calorie intake. It also doesn't sound like you're accounting for exercise burns, or even basic sedentary level activity, although the BMR calculator I used yielded a BMR of 3480 for your stats, so there was a little wiggle room. Still, even at sedentary and the lower BMR result I got, your NEAT (calorie burn before the gym workouts) would be nearly 4200.

  • vivelajackie
    vivelajackie Posts: 321 Member
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    Many folks that have a large amount to lose often don't have to make incredibly drastic changes to their diets to notice losses. I would honestly not give yourself such a large deficit so quickly. Focus on 2lbs a week, but note that initial loss will be pretty fast. What is MFP suggesting for you?
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    Something seems off here. BMR is the minimum caloric intake you need to survive and 3750 seems very high for this.

    Did you possibly miss the part where OP currently weighs 427 lb?

    Did you possibly read nothing other than my first two sentences?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,009 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    Something seems off here. BMR is the minimum caloric intake you need to survive and 3750 seems very high for this.

    Did you possibly miss the part where OP currently weighs 427 lb?

    Did you possibly read nothing other than my first two sentences?

    You suggested a BMR of 3750 was improbable. I politely pointed out that at 427 lbs, it is not improbable (if you read it as other than polite, that's on you - and if you interpret asking if someone could have possible meant/missed/read something different as rude, you're the one who first used that language in talking to the OP -- I didn't interpret it that way -- to me it's a gentle "ahem, here's a spot where you may be going wrong," and I intentionally paraphrased your language in the hopes of avoiding being misinterpreted as snarky, but your response has pretty much rid me of that "assume-the-best" interpretation). Why would I quote the remaining two and a half paragraphs of your post that continues on from what seems to be an erroneous assumption, that OP's BMR couldn't possible be 3750? But since you want to talk about the remainder of your post:
    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    Something seems off here. BMR is the minimum caloric intake you need to survive and 3750 seems very high for this. To the best of my knowledge, you don't ever want to eat less calories than your BMR because it affects things like organ function and basic body processes.

    Could you possibly mean your TDEE is 3750? That makes far more sense.

    No, it doesn't. As I pointed out, at 427 lbs, and his other stats, his NEAT is nearly 4200 if he's sedentary (since he's going to the gym and then to work, and thus not bed-ridden, we can assume he's at least sedentary), and since he's hitting the gym 5 days a week, we probably ought to tack on another 200 calories above that at a minimum (admittedly, just a guess, since he's not specific about his workout, but just pushing or pulling a 427 lb body through whatever motions a machine or free-weight exercise requires, or along a tread-mill at a walking pace, expends a fair amount of energy, and most people spend at least 30 to 60 minutes at the gym if they're going to bother going.)
    If this is the case, you won't be hurting yourself by eating only 1750 (as long as that's not below your BMR) but you are likely going to find maintaining this much of a deficit for any period of time extremely challenging.

    It is possible that I am mistaken as I am not a nutritionist or trainer or anything like that--I fix cars not people, so hopefully some of the veterans will chime in on this.

    OP, there's nothing magical about eating above or below your BMR. Your body doesn't refuse to tap energy stores to fuel your basic needs, but happily give up the energy to fuel walking around or a workout.

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