New to calorie counting.. is this correct?

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oreo_cookies_1992
oreo_cookies_1992 Posts: 42 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So for the longest time I've been majorly against calorie counting. When people would tell me they were counting calories I would chuckle and roll my eyes.
I've been counting calories for about 23 days now lol. (Oops)
Anyways I've been lingering here and there in the community..

So first question. I'm 25 years old. Female. 5'8. I weight 138. My BMR is 2001.
On MFP I have it set to consume 1485 calories. (Aiming for one lb a week) my job is a desk job and some days I'm just sort of lazy haha. So as long as I consume that amount, I will lose? (Just want to make sure I'm doing it correctly)

Secondly.. is it true?! That you can really eat what you want? (within calorie limit) Even if the things you eat are loaded with fats? (More so referring to unhealthy fats)

Sorry for the silly questions. It's just so hard to believe.. lol.

Replies

  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Yes, as long as you stick to your calorie goal (and you're accurately tracking your intake), you'll lose. Keep in mind that weight loss isn't linear, so you probably won't lose exactly on track every week, but over time you'll hit that average rate of loss.

    And yes, if you're just looking at weight loss, you can eat anything you want. If you're looking at weight loss AND health, or weight loss AND satiety, other factors come into play. For health, you probably wouldn't want to eat 1485 calories just of Twinkies, but you'd still lose weight.
  • bribucks
    bribucks Posts: 431 Member
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    Might I ask what your goal weight is? At 138 you are at a healthy BMI for your height.

    I am assuming you meant TDEE not BMR when you said 2001. BMR is the amount of calories your body needs if you were just lying in bed in a coma all day. TDEE is how many calories you burn throughout the day doing normal activities, like walking around. Your TDEE will depend on your activity level - do you have a desk job? Are you on your feet most of the day? Etc.

    My Fitness Pal is designed so that purposeful exercise (aka going to the gym) is separate. So, you would eat your designated amount of calories plus 50-75% of these extra exercise calories (that leaves room for margin of error).

    So, assuming that you calculated your TDEE correctly and that you are logging consistently and accurately, yes you will lose on 1485. No, it doesn't matter what you eat to get those calories for weight loss however for overall health it is of course beneficial to eat "healthier" foods like lots of fruits and veggies, getting adequate protein, healthy fats, complex carbs, avoiding sat/trans fats, etc.
  • ElizabethHanrahan
    ElizabethHanrahan Posts: 102 Member
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    You can eat everything you used to eat, just eat less to stay in your calorie goal. You have to decide if what you want to eat is worth the calories or not. I just finished eating some oreos after dinner. I have maintained my 100 pound loss since Dec.
  • jeffblunck
    jeffblunck Posts: 8 Member
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    what is the best way to calculate my daily calorie intake ?
    I've used a couple of web based calculators and found a fairly broad discrepancy (5-600 calories) between the apps? I dropped almost 20 pounds in the first 60 days and have hit a plateau. I do strength training 3 times a week and am trying to move away from the "scale obsession" I just lack confidence in the number here and was hoping for some experience based input? Please :)
  • charlieandcarol
    charlieandcarol Posts: 302 Member
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    jeffblunck wrote: »
    what is the best way to calculate my daily calorie intake ?
    I've used a couple of web based calculators and found a fairly broad discrepancy (5-600 calories) between the apps? I dropped almost 20 pounds in the first 60 days and have hit a plateau. I do strength training 3 times a week and am trying to move away from the "scale obsession" I just lack confidence in the number here and was hoping for some experience based input? Please :)

    Hi Jeff, you might want to make your own thread so as to not get this one off track but I had a quick look at your food diary and I don't see much that is weighed or weighed in grams. I suspect that prior to now your daily energy expenditure was large enough that you could get away with guesstimates and eyeballing things and still lose weight. Now you have lost some weight your daily expenditure is lower and the errors from your logging are preventing further loss (assuming by plateau you mean you haven't lost weight for 6 weeks).

    In a nutshell you are eating more than you think because you are not weighing all solids and only using cups/spoons etc for fluids. Also I think you are using dodgy entries in the database. I large egg does not have 25 calories (at least not in my part of the world). Use the daily calories suggested by MFP and weigh everything in grams and only use cups etc for fluids. Try to find the accurate database entries. Do this for a month and then adjust the daily calories if you don't lose weight.

    Also have a look around the forums at "i'm not losing weight threads" lots of info in them about the difference weighing food can make to your weightloss.

    OP, this will work for you if you do this too.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    How many lbs are you trying to lose? 5'8 the minimum non-underweight weight is 122 lbs. As you get closer to your weight goals, it's better to set your calorie limit to only lose .5 lbs per week. It's more gradual, but better for maintaining your weight after.
  • oreo_cookies_1992
    oreo_cookies_1992 Posts: 42 Member
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    charlieandcarol wrote: »
    jeffblunck wrote: »
    what is the best way to calculate my daily calorie intake ?
    I've used a couple of web based calculators and found a fairly broad discrepancy (5-600 calories) between the apps? I dropped almost 20 pounds in the first 60 days and have hit a plateau. I do strength training 3 times a week and am trying to move away from the "scale obsession" I just lack confidence in the number here and was hoping for some experience based input? Please :)

    Hi Jeff, you might want to make your own thread so as to not get this one off track but I had a quick look at your food diary and I don't see much that is weighed or weighed in grams. I suspect that prior to now your daily energy expenditure was large enough that you could get away with guesstimates and eyeballing things and still lose weight. Now you have lost some weight your daily expenditure is lower and the errors from your logging are preventing further loss (assuming by plateau you mean you haven't lost weight for 6 weeks).

    In a nutshell you are eating more than you think because you are not weighing all solids and only using cups/spoons etc for fluids. Also I think you are using dodgy entries in the database. I large egg does not have 25 calories (at least not in my part of the world). Use the daily calories suggested by MFP and weigh everything in grams and only use cups etc for fluids. Try to find the accurate database entries. Do this for a month and then adjust the daily calories if you don't lose weight.

    Also have a look around the forums at "i'm not losing weight threads" lots of info in them about the difference weighing food can make to your weightloss.

    OP, this will work for you if you do this too.

    Thanks! I actually bought a scale yesterday and have started weighing my food more properly :) it's very helpful for sure!
  • oreo_cookies_1992
    oreo_cookies_1992 Posts: 42 Member
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    leggup wrote: »
    How many lbs are you trying to lose? 5'8 the minimum non-underweight weight is 122 lbs. As you get closer to your weight goals, it's better to set your calorie limit to only lose .5 lbs per week. It's more gradual, but better for maintaining your weight after.

    Thanks! I realize that I don't need to lose a lot of weight. After having a child, extra weight has appeared around my hips and *kitten* that I'd like to lose. So probably 10lbs max. But your advice makes sense, I really probably should lower it from 1lb loss to .5 because you're right.. I should probably lose at a slower rate when I don't have a lot to lose. I guess it's just because I've been eating well and staying very very active all year and I feel like my weight has barley budged.. and calorie counting is so new to me so I guess it's easy to sort of start out at an extreme rate but I should probably slow down lol. I guess I'm just skeptical about the counting actually working lol! Thanks again for your advice.
  • oreo_cookies_1992
    oreo_cookies_1992 Posts: 42 Member
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    brianneangell08 wrote: »
    Might I ask what your goal weight is? At 138 you are at a healthy BMI for your height.

    I am assuming you meant TDEE not BMR when you said 2001. BMR is the amount of calories your body needs if you were just lying in bed in a coma all day. TDEE is how many calories you burn throughout the day doing normal activities, like walking around. Your TDEE will depend on your activity level - do you have a desk job? Are you on your feet most of the day? Etc.

    My Fitness Pal is designed so that purposeful exercise (aka going to the gym) is separate. So, you would eat your designated amount of calories plus 50-75% of these extra exercise calories (that leaves room for margin of error).

    So, assuming that you calculated your TDEE correctly and that you are logging consistently and accurately, yes you will lose on 1485. No, it doesn't matter what you eat to get those calories for weight loss however for overall health it is of course beneficial to eat "healthier" foods like lots of fruits and veggies, getting adequate protein, healthy fats, complex carbs, avoiding sat/trans fats, etc.

    My goal weight is 125. Yes I realize that I'm at a healthy BMI I just have a little weight around my hips and such (after having a child two years ago) that I would really like to lose. And thanks for clarifying the difference for me, because yes I did mean TDEE.
    And yes my diet is actually quite healthy but I would constantly feel guilty if I ate something bad, or something with a lot of fat etc etc. So I guess it's just hard to wrap my head around the fact that you can still lose even if you eat like crap everyday or in my case, 1 or 2 days out of the week. As long as it fits in my calroies. Thank you!
  • Valencia123456
    Valencia123456 Posts: 62 Member
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    Sounds like some toning and exercise might get those extra bits off! Amazing what some core exercises ( sit ups, lunges, and squats will do!)

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