Help me with proper calories, etc.

feeneyboo
feeneyboo Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been seeing so many conflicting answers regarding how many calories, fat, sugar and carbs I should be eating in a day to lose weight. I'm looking to lose 1-2 pounds per week. I am a female, sedentary, weigh 184 pounds and am 5/5". Can anyone tell me the correct information? I really appreciate it as I don't want to eat too little or too much. Thank you so much!

Replies

  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
    Calorie deficit is all you need for weight loss, so keep it simple to start with. Put your stats into MFP. Choose 1lb per week and eat the calories MFP give you. Give it 6-8 weeks so you can see what is happening.

    You can always play with your macros and adjust calories as you go but give it 6-8 weeks of weighing all your food and logging correctly before you make any changes. This will give you a better idea of what is or isn't working for you.

    Don't worry too much about fat sugar or carbs at the beginning (unless you have a medical condition that requires you watching them)

    Remember weight loss is not linear you will not lose the exact same amount every week, you will probably lose a bit more to start with then it will slow down a bit. You will also have days when you gain due to various reasons such as, eating more sodium, time of the month, extra exercise. So be patient and give it time.

    Good luck and enjoy the journey.


  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    edited January 2020
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  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    All the calculators can only give you an estimate - a starting point - that you try for a few weeks and then tweak if you need to based on your results. I used MFP to calculate my calorie goal, used their default macros to start, and synced my Fitbit and ate back some of those calories. Worked great for me and continues to in maintenance. The only thing I changed was at some point I realized the days I exceeded my protein goal I had less appetite issues, so I took I think 5% from carbs and added it to protein.
  • feeneyboo
    feeneyboo Posts: 5 Member
    I appreciate the guidance! I was concerned that 1200 calories a day wasn't enough. I will go with what the app is suggesting. Thanks again!
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    People can give you an idea, but the reason you see so many conflicting answers is because it depends on you. It depends on your metabolism, how much you move during the day, what exercise you do and how intsense you perform it, and probably a bunch of other variables I'm forgetting to mention.

    What you do is find a reputable source to give you an estimate of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and use that as a starting point. I've always used this one but I'm sure there are others that are just as good. If you enter your stats there the site will give you an estimate of your maintenance calorie level, the number of calories you need to stay right where you are in terms of your weight. Take that number and remove about 15%. For example, if it says your maintenance calorie level is 1800 then start dieting at about 1800*(1-0.15), or 1530 calories.

    Remember all of those calorie levels are estimates. Your body will quite likely require something different. The trick now is to monitor yourself and see if you're moving towards your goal. The way you do this is by looking at your weight over a week or two and see if you're losing. Do NOT look at your weight day by day, it can vary significantly. You want to look at it over a longer time period, like one or two weeks. So use an average as the metric to base your calorie adjustment on.

    Here's an example. Let's say you've established that your weight is 184, as you state above, and assume the TDEE calculator tells you your maintenance is 1800 calories so you reduce it to 1530 for the next week and your weight does the following:
    1. Monday: 185
    2. Tuesday: 184
    3. Wednesday: 183
    4. Thursday: 181
    5. Friday: 185
    6. Saturday: 185
    7. Sunday: 182
    Average weight for the week = (185+184+183+181+185+185+182)/7 = 183.6. Ugh! That's not even half a pound. A nice sustainable rate of weight loss for someone starting at 184 would be around 2 pounds a week. Obviously 1530 calories per day isn't doing that. So now reduce your calories by another 15% and try again. 1530*(1-0.15)=1300

    Now your weight for the week does the following:
    1. Monday: 184
    2. Tuesday: 183
    3. Wednesday: 182
    4. Thursday: 182
    5. Friday: 183
    6. Saturday: 180
    7. Sunday: 180
    Average weight for the week = (184+183+182+182+183+180+180)/7 = 182. Boom! Dead on. Two pounds lost this week. Now you know what your calorie goal is and how much weight you'll lose per week if you stick to it.

    You basically have to keep that up the entire time based on what your goal is. Note that the rate of weight loss will change as you lose weight too. So if you lose 20lbs you'll quite likely have to reduce calories to keep up the previous rate of weight loss because you're carrying around 20lbs less weight and thus burning fewer calories.
  • feeneyboo
    feeneyboo Posts: 5 Member
    See, when I set everything up, the my fitness pal app tells me 1200 a day to lose a pound a week, the TDEE calculator is telling me around 1500-1600. I guess this is why it's confusing. I'll stick with what the app is saying for now and see how I do. Thanks again!
  • feeneyboo
    feeneyboo Posts: 5 Member
    Ahhhhh, I understand now! This can all be so confusing and I really thank you all for your kind help :)
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    The pace of loss you should select has almost nothing to do with how fast you want to lose weight, and everything to do with how fast you can safely lose weight.

    You're currently 35 pounds from the top of your optimal BMI range, which starts at 149 pounds. With your stats, your body cannot safely sustain a 2 lb/week rate of loss. 1 lb/week is the maximum you should be targeting; 0.5 lb/week would give you more calories but a slower pace of loss.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    feeneyboo wrote: »
    I appreciate the guidance! I was concerned that 1200 calories a day wasn't enough. I will go with what the app is suggesting. Thanks again!

    If you chose 2 lbs per week, that's probably too aggressive. 1lb or 1.5lbs per week is most likely where you should be. Also make sure you set your activity level correctly. Most people automatically pick Sedentary, but unless you get less than 4-5000 steps per day, basically just sit at a desk or on the couch 24/7, you're not sedentary. And finally, if with all of that correct your goal is still 1200, remember that is 1200+exercise calories.

    With your stats, you should not need to eat the bare minimum calories to lose weight :smile:

    This, to the bolded, and I'd say the step threshold is even lower than that for sedentary. I have a fatigue-causing illness (so potentially lower movement in general), average 5000 steps a day, and my weight loss says I am more like lightly active, than sedentary.

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