Should I REALLY eat this many calories??

Clobern80
Clobern80 Posts: 714 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
So I am sure this has been posted in various means but this is my situation.

Using MFP and Fitbit, MFP says I should be eating (as an example from today) over 4500 calories. This is with my weight put in, sedentary lifestyle chosen, negative gains selected, choosing 1.5 pound loss per week and not cheating with my Fitbit or adding any other exercise.

I do keto and intermittent fasting, tend to usually eat 2000-2500 calories per day, and am not normally hungry. But my base calories is around 2400 and today I jogged ~5 miles plus a lot of walking (over 16,500 steps so far).

So... Do I eat back all or even some of my calories? That seems like a ton.

Replies

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    I'd say maybe eat some of them, but maybe not all. I don't know your stats to say if that sounds right or not. However days after higher than normal activity I usually find myself hungrier than normal. So eat a few today, but if you find yourself extra hungry tomorrow realize it will be okay to eat slightly over what you normally would.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,336 Member
    edited February 2018
    Current weight, actual loss rate, accuracy of logging, ability to continue exercising and being active at this rate all come into play.

    I lost a good 70-80 lbs in a year while averaging ~2550 Cal eaten per day and I certainly had some 4000 Cal eaten days. I've since lost another ~15lbs and maintained over the next couple of years while eating on average closer to ~2900 Cal a day.

    In fact being slightly less active and lighter I am sometimes maintaining while eating less than when I was losing.

    If this is a one time thing and I had sufficient fat reserves I would be tempted to only eat back enough to not be hangry and/or impacted.

    If this was a regular thing I would eat all of my delicious calories :smiley:

    Over time you should be able to determine how accurate your Fitbit TDEE is for YOU based on your logging and your trending weight results over a period of weeks.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    Sounds like a good night for a Ribeye! ;) Seriously though, eat back at least half of those calories.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    What are your stats (height/weight/age)? Does the 16.5K steps include the 5 miles of running, or is that above and beyond the ~10K that you earned from running? An extra 2K calories seems like an awful lot for a 5 mile run...
  • Courtscan2
    Courtscan2 Posts: 501 Member
    Can I just say how jealous I am!!! My base is 1200, and a 16,000 step day would allow me maybe an extra 300 calories!!! I think you'll need to do some trial and error - try eating half, and see how you go - ie still hungry? Enough energy to workout? Still losing? Good luck!
  • SolotoCEO
    SolotoCEO Posts: 293 Member
    Your base calories seem way off. You may want to try calculating them again. My brother is 6'4" and over 400 lbs. his daily goal is ~2400 for 2 lbs. per week. As for eating back exercise calories - I only eat 1/2 of mine back AND only when the total burn is over 1000 calories. I find MFP, Fitbit, etc. to give you far too many calories credit for exercise.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
    Honestly I think the best route here might be the "eat for your goal weight" approach. Have 2000-2500 calories for about a month and see where the weight loss ends up. You are going to get a few pieces of information out of this.

    1) you can back calculate a rough estimate of your TDEE. Take your average calories eaten, and your average weight loss over the time period and figure out how many calories per day your body was burning. If you lose 3 lbs per week average that is 1500 calories, if you ate 2300 average over that time then your TDEE was roughly 3800.

    2) You can adjust your eating habits after you see your monthly average to either lose less if its too rapid(eat more) or the inverse, eat less to lose faster if that is your goal.

    No matter what just try and get a proper balance of nutrients and macros for health no matter what calorie goal you aim for.
  • Clobern80
    Clobern80 Posts: 714 Member
    I am 6'3" and started at 380, I am down to 340 and I just calculated them again yesterday so I am fairly certain that it is correct as far as the MFP base of ~2400 calories go.

    I use a Fitbit Blaze that lets me start a timer and it keeps track of my heart rate as well as my steps. The (now) 17,000+ steps include the 5 mile run. Like I said, I don't make any manual adjustments, I just let Fitbit and MFP take over.

    I agree that I shouldn't eat them all back, especially because they are estimates and not exact science. And I guess since I am not hungry, then I am eating enough to keep me going. I just sometimes WANT to eat the extra calories because they are staring me in the face, and that is part of what I am trying to avoid.

    Thanks for the help, folks! I will take things into consideration and continue down the path that I am on and make adjustments as necessary.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    Well taking 340 pounds on a 5 mile run is gonna burn a couple calories.
    Maybe not enough to actually double your intake for the day but as others suggested, I would eat back about half the calories you burn through exercise.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,336 Member
    edited February 2018
    The eat your calories for your activity level at goal weight idea is really not bad at all especially for someone who has a bit to lose.

    You can always re-evaluate closer to goal when weight loss slows down.

    I note that a VERY ACTIVE (i.e. circa 15500 steps in a day) 6ft 3" 40 year old (randomly chosen, it IS a small picture on my phone) male @ 192lbs (BMI 24ish).... would burn.... 3343 Calories at maintenance (assuming they're not an outlier and that their food intake calculations are correct yada yada yada)

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