How many calories do I need for weight loss

angivale1963 wrote: »

I need some help. I hired a nutrition coach today and he said I need to eat around 2000 calories a day. This is more food than I normally eat. He told me that because my BMR is 1426 that I need to eat 2000 calories to gain muscle and lose fat. I don’t understand. Won’t I gain weight? I thought I needed to be in a deficit to lose weight. I have 50 lbs to lose and I’m afraid I’m going to gain weight. Please help me 🙏🏻

He's talking recomp training. With 50lbs to lose, PERSONALLY I'd only have you eat 1500 based on your BMR. BMR is what is need to keep your CURRENT WEIGHT when your body is at rest. Also if recomp is the plan it takes a long time to see significant result unless you were formally working out a lot and then became idle.
IMO a good strength training program will condition and keep the muscle you already have.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

2000 does sound high unless that includes a lot of exercise calories and you are tall.

How tall are you? What is your current weight? How old are you? How active are you in your daily life? Do you exercise regularly?

Your daily burn is your tdee and it is estimated by applying an activity multiplier to your BMR.

Any time you eat less than your actual tdee you lose some energy reserves. Any time you eat more you replenish them! Less some inefficiencies and small body adjustments.

You don't need to eat at you BMR to lose weight if you're even a little bit active. You can eat a lot more than your BMR and lose weight if you're very active.

My bmr was in the 1500s. I lost most of my weight on MFP while eating over 2500 Cal. But I was also very active.

For mythically "average" females 2000Cal would be a maintenance not weight loss intake. It's one of the reasons 2000Cal is on food packages

With 50lbs to lose you might be willing to try something more aggressive.

Assuming you're lightly active a good beginning target might be in the 1750 range, attempting to achieve a lb a week loss by targeting a 500 Cal daily deficit from your TDEE which would be equal to about 1.6x your BMR if you were in fact lightly active and if you did track accurately and if your personal make up ended up tracking close to population averages

And a weight averaging/ weight trending app may help you track your weight changes better

Recomp is difficult. If your goal is weight loss, focus on that as it requires a calorie deficit. When you reach that goal then focus on muscle growth which itself requires a calorie surplus. Of course incorporate strength training in your weight loss journey but don't expect huge muscles because of it.

I'm not sure how active you are but it takes 7700cal to burn 1kg. If you want to lose 0.5kg/week you want a daily net calorie intake of -550cal. You can use that with the BMR you calculated to determine how much you want to eat compared to how much you're able to burn.

E.g. I am 173cm/5'8", started at 110kg/240lbs and have a BMR around 1900cal/day. I am active so I can eat 1800cal/day and have enough energy to burn 1000cal/day through exercise leaving a net calorie intake of -1100cal/day for an assumed weight loss of around 1kg/week, adjusting for rest days and workouts. It's not exact but that understanding has made me more confident in my calorie goals

If you have concerns definitely tell your nutritionist and if they're good they will help you adjust to something that meets your goals while still being sustainable and making sure you have enough energy for the day.

Hope this helps. Good luck

angivale1963 wrote: »

For those that asked my height is 5’3” and my weight is currently 173. I am 59 yo turning 60 next month. I want to lose 40-50 lbs. I try to get to the gym at least 3 x per week. Is low carb the best for a woman in menopause? I’ll try anything at this point. I’ve tried everything else

That's interesting: I started here at about that same point. I was female, 59, turning 60 in a few months, had around 50 pounds to lose (from 183 pounds at 5'5", and was in menopause).

A couple of things about low carb:

For one, most people who cut carbs by a lot will see a quick scale drop. That's mostly water weight (not fat), but it can be very motivating. Unfortunately, it's not unusual for that quick drop to be followed by a pseudo-stall as water retention rebalances. That's also mostly about water weight (not fat) but it can be discouraging enough that some people give up, especially if they don't expect that or understand what's going on.

For two, reducing carbs to a low level can be a really good strategy for some people. Some people find low carb to suppress their appetite, making it easier to stick with a sensible calorie goal. That's not (I believe) universally true, but many people report that, and I see no reason to disbelieve them. If that turned out to be true for you, it might be a great strategy. Of course, there are health conditions (like diabetes or insulin resistance) where reducing carbs has a bigger role for other reasons.

All of that said, I didn't go low carb to lose weight, but lost 50-some pounds in less than a year, and have stayed at a healthy weight since. (Most of the carbs I eat are fruits, veggies, the carbs in dairy foods, and that sort of thing. I eat a small amount of candy or baked goods, but that's a small fraction. This isn't - to me - self-denial. It's how I best enjoy eating. In fact, I got fat eating a lot more of some of those things than was good for me, even though they're nutritious foods.)

So, I didn't dramatically change the range of foods I ate, mostly changed portion sizes, proportions on the plate, and frequency of some calorie-dense foods. I also didn't dramatically increase exercise (because I was already athletically active while overweight/obese, and had been for over a decade). I just tweaked my eating habits to eat appropriate calories, using strategies I thought I could keep up long term to stay at a healthy weight. There's more about that approach here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

That's not universally perfect for everyone, because nothing is. The best tactics, IMO, are personalized to our own preferences, strengths, and limitations; and can be discovered via personal experimentation (plus patient persistence).

For me, though, that worked fine. I ate probably around 150 grams of carbs daily while losing, and now in maintenance more like 250 grams of carbs daily . . . though I don't pay much attention to carbs, just try to hit my calorie goal, get enough protein, enough healthy fats, and really large amounts of yummy, varied, colorful veggies and fruits). I'm in year 7+ at a healthy weight, and for me that result is more than worth the few minutes a day of attention (to calorie levels and the scale) that that takes.

I hope you're able to find an approach that works for you - I'm confident that one exists. Best wishes!