(HELP)Lets talk calories, how many do YOU eat a day and how did you come across it?

aevea · May 2017

Food; Nutrition; Calories; You name it, I'm a noob when it comes to anything food related.
Im consuming 1,200-1,300 a day and sometimes i worry if its not enough since i see many eat over 2,000 calories and still lose a lot of weight.
Do i adjust it if I'm not losing ? Ive seen numerous "websites" and "calculators" tell me i need 1,700/1,800/2,300/1,100/even 900....lol So do you think its ok to start off with this?
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I do struggle with past food disorders, so maybe I'm just overthinking but what are your thoughts?

Machka9 · May 2017

Enter your information into MFP ... that's what it is here for!
Select sedentary as your activity level.
Select the amount you want to lose each week (1 lb/week).
See the calories MFP gives you.
Eat those calories.

You can eat whatever you want to make up those calories ... just be meticulous in your food weighing and logging so that you are as accurate as possible. And you may find certain foods are more worth it than others.

Exercise.
Log your exercise ... I chose the low, light, or slow options to log more accurately.
Eat half your exercise calories back.

Angela_does_zumba · May 2017

Don't compare your diet with other people's because everybody has their own individualized goal. I'm on 1300 cal and to fill myself up, I consume nutriously dense food. More fruits, veggies, protein, fats, brown rice (if I remember to cook it ahead of time). You do whatever feels comfortable for you. You can always adjust the calorie intake on this app if you feel that you need to. Same with the macros too. I've had to adjust mine a couple times to see what works for me and my body.

estherdragonbat · May 2017

Weight loss isn't linear. Some weeks you'll do everything right and either stay the same, or even gain. Some weeks you'll be sure you went off the rails and you'll still lose. What you need to do is look at overall trends.

True story: After weeks of losing about 2lbs/week, I suddenly registered a 4.4-lb loss. I hadn't cut my calories or exercised excessively or done anything else. It just... happened.

One week later, I was up 0.2. And I hadn't upped my calories or lowered my exercise. I'd just kept doing what I was doing.

Now. There are plenty of reasons that could have happened. Time of month and water weight spring to mind. But what it boils down to is, just like sometimes you can have a disappointing result from the scale even though you did nothing wrong, you can get good news that's a little TOO good.

P.S. One week later, I was down 0.6. I think the 4.4 was an aberration, even if I don't know why.

Weigh your food, log your exercise, and you'll do fine.

How much are you trying to lose? When I started, I was 124 lbs above goal and MFP gave me a target of 1720 to lose a pound a week. 60 lbs lost and I'm now on 1380. Odds are that the people who are losing on 2,000 are either 1) Significantly overweight or 2) getting a lot of exercise and eating back the calories burned.

When you plug your goals into MFP to get your calorie target, keep in mind:

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

Faster isn't better. In fact, it's often worse.

Oh, and the closer the way you eat now is to the way you plan to eat when you're at goal, the likelier you are to keep the weight off. Don't feel like you have to give up your favorite foods. Just have less of them (either smaller portions, less frequent enjoyment, or both).

Hang in there. You can do this.

heybales · May 2017

As mentioned above - use the tool correctly.

I'd suggest though, don't just enter sedentary without thinking about it.
Too many think because you have a desk job you enter sedentary activity level - but if you have family and housework and shopping on weekends - you are Lightly Active more honestly.

And indeed when you exercise - log it honestly.
Was the spin class really 60 min - or 5 min warmup, 5 min cooldown, and 5 min stretching afterwards?
And Spin class in database has no intensity options, so probably start at 75% of suggested calories and correct it - unless you are indeed killing it like many do in spin class.

If walking or running, which does have intensity options - be honest with total time and distance done to get the pace right.
Just because one reaches 4 mph eventually starting at 2.5, doesn't mean the avg pace was 4mph if only 3 miles was done in 60 min.

If Strength Training - don't count the 15 min total you stood around talking to others, only the brief 1-3 min times between lifts.

And when MFP increases your calorie goal - eat the new goal.
You should reach your goals - not fail.

Life lesson there:
You do more, you eat more.
You do less, you eat less.

And in a diet, you eat a tad less in either case.

sijomial · May 2017

(HELP)Lets talk calories, how many do YOU eat a day
That is completely irrelevant - you need to eat an appropriate number for you and your goals, not for someone else and their goals.

and how did you come across it?
I used this site exactly as it was designed:
Set my appropriate activity setting (not just going for the lowest sedentary option because everyone else does).
I set a sustainable and appropriate weight loss goal (not going for the fastest option - 1lb/week for me).
Logged and ate back all my exercise calories (it's illogical to assume all estimates are double reality).
Took a weekly view of my calorie allowance to allow some flexibility and regarded my calorie goal as a goal to hit and not to undercut.
Ate the foods I normally ate in the right quantities.

After a month or so I manually adjusted my calorie goal based on actual weight loss results.

Gallowmere1984 · May 2017

As others have stated, comparing another persons numbers to yours could end poorly.

Using me as an example: I eat 2850 on recovery days, and 3450 on lifting days. This has me just barely maintaining 170.5 lbs.

However, the method that I used to arrive at these numbers could be very helpful for you. I tracked my food intake VERY precisely (everything I consumed was weighed to the tenth of a gram) using almost entirely whole foods, and kept sodium, potassium and water intake extremely consistent. During this process, I weighed myself daily, keeping a moving average in the Happy Scale app. After 28 days, I took the total number of calories consumed, and divided it by 28. Then I took the weight lost on HS, divided by 28, multiplied by 3500 and added that to my average consumed.

This gave me about the closest approximation of maintenance kcals that I'd be able to get, outside of a lab. It's far from perfect, and I still have to adjust up or down a bit to compensate for stalls whenever I move to bulk and cut, but it's about the best one can do with a reasonable data set.

paperpudding · May 2017

I eat 1710 net - that is to maintain.

When I was losing I did so on 1460 (for 1/2 lb per week)

I got those numbers by entering my stats into MFP - my height,weight, age, gender ,activity level and appropriate amount to lose per week.

Your stats may be different from mine - but put them in to MFP - with the right activity level and right amount to lose - and go from there.

Need2Exerc1se · May 2017

When I was losing, I ate about 1600-1700 on average. In maintenance I think around 2000-2100, though my daily calories vary quite a bit.

I don't log, but those are pretty good guesstimates. I eat intuitively and adjust as needed. But this isn't my first time losing weight so I had a good idea of how much I can eat.

Lounmoun · May 2017

Enter your information into MFP ( age, gender, height, weight, daily activity level without exercise) and choose how much you want to lose per week. You will be given a calorie goal. Eat that. If you exercise log it and eat some of those calories.
If you are 50+ lbs overweight you might choose to lose 2 lbs a week. Less than 50 lbs overweight a goal like 1 lb a week is more reasonable. If you are 20 lbs or less overweight or not overweight choose .5 lb a week.

Don't compare to others.
I am a 42 year old 5'4" sedentary woman and eat about 1200-1400 without exercise.
A more active younger woman may eat a lot more. A larger man will need to eat more.

aevea · May 2017

Thank you everyone! I updated my MFP and its telling me to eat 1660, so I'm going to follow that for now.
Ive gotten down to 257, my first goal weight is 199/200, but I really want to lose 100lbs+.
I wanted to know people's calories so i can see how different everyone is, and hear some opinions.
I do feel fine when i eat only 1,200-1,300 but sometimes when i get a big workout in, i feel weak and lightheaded.
Everything is still a learning process for me when it comes to food.

ashjongfit · May 2017

I'm eating 2700 ish calories daily right now, but I'm in the third trimester and still over weight.

I'll be around 215-220 ish when I have the baby, and after my six week clear I will resume workouts. 30-45 minutes, cardio and strength training. I will be aiming for 1 pound lost a week and will be eating around 2000 calories a day as per my tdee.

Honestly the goal should always be to eat as much as you can while still losing. I'm assuming you have it set to 2 pounds lost a week, at 257, 1660 is a start, if you lose too much, add another 100 calories and do so until your at your target pounds lost a week.

I did 1200 calories for ages when I started (360+ lbs) and it kills me to think I could have been eating more and full and lost just fine LOL.

Penthesilea514 · May 2017

aevea wrote: »

Thank you everyone! I updated my MFP and its telling me to eat 1660, so I'm going to follow that for now.
Ive gotten down to 257, my first goal weight is 199/200, but I really want to lose 100lbs+.
I wanted to know people's calories so i can see how different everyone is, and hear some opinions.
I do feel fine when i eat only 1,200-1,300 but sometimes when i get a big workout in, i feel weak and lightheaded.
Everything is still a learning process for me when it comes to food.

I am glad you have a higher number- when exercising, it is very important to eat enough to fuel your body (and drink enough water). My number is ~1720 and I am losing 1.5lbs/wk (not linearly) and everyone is different.

I am hoping to hit Onderland myself before too long! Good luck with your goals!

Tried30UserNames · May 2017

I entered my info into MFP, using sedentary, which I am very, and 1 lb a week. I eat most of my exercise calories, too. On days I work, just a few each month, I'm very physically active so I eat several hundred more calories those days.

My calories from MFP are 1230 per day on sedentary days. I usually get a couple hours exercise a day so I eat around 1500-1700ish, depending.

(HELP)Lets talk calories, how many do YOU eat a day and how did you come across it?

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