need help understanding calorie count

becschneider
becschneider Posts: 36
edited October 3 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!!
I just got referred to this site yesterday and just have a couple of questions. MFP says that I should be trying to eat 1,910cals a day, which is a far bit for me, and every morning I workout at Curves and burn around 800+ calories, and i do alot of walking at lunchtime because I have a desk job and i’ve been reading that you should eat back your exercise calories and that means i have to try and eat nearly 3,000cals a day.... does that sound right to you or how will i be able to manage that?? Please help I’m a tad confuzzled :tongue:

Cheers :happy:

Replies

  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
    What did you set as your activity level?

    How tall are you? How much do you weigh? How much do you need to lose?


    If you have a desk job, you should have set your activity level at sedentary -- which means 1900 sounds very high.
  • judkinsjenny
    judkinsjenny Posts: 220
    to survive and feel good we need at least 1200 a day. so if you are on 1900 i would call that good. if you are hungry though, go ahead and eat, that means you need it. if you are losing more than 2 lbs a week, you may want to up your calories cuz that really is too fast, unless you are very large. i rarely eat back my calories unless i go diving cuz that burns like 2400 cals and im soooo hungry!! lol i usually only burn a couple hundred and im on 1570 cals + breastfeeding cals which my nutritionist said not to eat cuz i dont really burn it fast enough to worry about. she was right cuz for the last month since i started, i have only been able to maintain. so i hope that helps. you can send me a message or whatever if your still confused.
  • chocoholicandbaby
    chocoholicandbaby Posts: 75 Member
    Also, how are you working out your exercise calories?
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
    Few things - 1900 sounds a bit high.....it seems you only have about 40lbs to lose - I would expect you not to be on much more than 1500 calories a day...

    Can you give a bit more detail - height, weight, target lbs loss per week.....
    Also I have not worked out at Curves, but 800+ calorie burn sounds very high - do you measure that with a Heart Rate Monitor?

    The best way to add high calorie foods is nuts, peanut butter, olives, avocado, salmon etc into your meals

    edit - OK I see it is 42kg - that does make a difference - would still be good to get a bit more information to help you...
  • becschneider
    becschneider Posts: 36
    Hello!
    I am 172cm tall, i weigh 111.97 kilos and i want to get back down to 70 kilos, I put ‘Sedentary’ as my active levels as i’m at a desk for most of the day and I chose to try and lose ‘1 pound’ per week. I am pretty hungry of a morning after I work out but it tends to settle down after lunch and I only get hungry again around 5ish in the afternoon. I just don’t know how i’ll eat 3000 calories when yesterday i only got around 1,500!! Eep! Haha :tongue:

    p.s I have a curves smart tag and you put it into each machine and after your workout you put it into a computer and it gives you all the stats like the energy used and calories burnt. Also it says in the food section that my daily goal should be 3241
  • judkinsjenny
    judkinsjenny Posts: 220
    holly crap! thats too high. try 1900 and see what you lose.
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
    OK - good girl - being realistic about your loss per week ;-)

    What I would do is stay with 1900 - and only eat back some of your exercise calories - try to keep your "Net" on the front page between 1100 and 1200 per day - don't go below 1000 NET ..... (some people might shoot me for this), but when you still have quite a bit of weight to lose you can do this ....)

    But please make sure you eat good healthy nutrient rich food - not high calorie crap....

    If you find that you are not losing weight, or your weekly loss slows down you will need to look at increasing your NET figure (but MFP will also drop your calories as you lose more weight)

    As I said in my previous post good fats, dairy, good quality protein, bananas, protein powder are all good higher calorie foods you can eat....

    Also - if you are hungry try and increase your protein - MFP gives quite low "default values", so you can up your protein (which will satiate you for much longer)

    Also keep on eating right through the day - don't keep your calories for the evening - and then have to eat a 1000 calories - plan your day and eat good size meals (and a couple of snacks) right through the day - then it is easier to make your target - if you look at my food diary for yesterday you will see how you can fit in 2000 calories in one day by "spreading the load"

    Good luck - and remember to have fun in the process :-)
  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
    Hello!
    I am 172cm tall, i weigh 111.97 kilos and i want to get back down to 70 kilos, I put ‘Sedentary’ as my active levels as i’m at a desk for most of the day and I chose to try and lose ‘1 pound’ per week. I am pretty hungry of a morning after I work out but it tends to settle down after lunch and I only get hungry again around 5ish in the afternoon. I just don’t know how i’ll eat 3000 calories when yesterday i only got around 1,500!! Eep! Haha :tongue:

    p.s I have a curves smart tag and you put it into each machine and after your workout you put it into a computer and it gives you all the stats like the energy used and calories burnt. Also it says in the food section that my daily goal should be 3241

    Thanks! I entered your numbers in and you sure are right---I get 1920/day as your goal. I converted your numbers to pounds so I could understand it better and you could actually choose the lose 2lbs a week option since you have over 70 lbs to lose.This would put you at 1420 a day plus eating your exercise (or at least half of it). Choosing 1.5 pounds a week would be good too. Just make sure you reset your goals periodically as you get closer to your goal:

    Here is a guidelin for setting your goals based on weight you need to lose:

    75lbs or more: Choose to lose 2lbs/week
    40-75 pounds: Choose to lose 1.5lbs/week
    25-40 pounds: Choose to lose 1lb/week
    15-20 pounds: Choose either 1/2lb or 1lb
    Less than 15/20 pounds: choose 1/2 lb/week

    34kg or more: Choose to lose 2lbs/week
    18-34kg: Choose to lose 1.5lbs/week
    11-18kg: Choose to lose 1lb/week
    6.8-9.1kg: Choose either 1/2lb or 1lb
    Less than 7-9kg pounds: choose 1/2 lb/week
  • becschneider
    becschneider Posts: 36
    Cheers, thank you for such helpful advice!!
    Yeah I definitely thought it was too high, i’ll stick to trying to reach 1,900
    The “net’ on my front page says 116, i’m guessing thats a bad thing....
    I’ve been working out since the start of july and have found that I haven’t lost any weight, but i’ve lost a total of 34.5cm all over and 0.7% body fat... the trainer said that my muscles are still developing thats why there is no weight loss yet. A lady there actually pointed this website out to me yesterday and she has lost a fair bit of weight since starting on here and she had the same trouble as me, so i thought hey why not give this a shot :tongue:
    Never fear!! I hate those pre packaged meals and at home I make 95% of meals and stuff like sauces etc from scratch so I know what’s in them and so I can add extra veges in :bigsmile:
    My trainer said that apparently there’s non flavoured protein powder because I tried some of the flavoured stuff and it didn’t taste all that good, but i’d rather fruit or nuts over a shake anyway.
    And i will, i’ve found that i have more energy to more stuff and it makes riding my trials motorbike that much more enjoyable!!
  • becschneider
    becschneider Posts: 36
    Thank you so much for your help!! I might change my goal to that because i think a pound equals around half a kilo, so if i choose 2lbs that should equal about a kilo me thinks? Man oh man now I'm going to go an re-evaluate my daily eating to try and increase to 1900 per day! I think i might have to have more calorie and nutrient rich snacks throughout the day to boost it up? But i'm one determined cookie so i shall do it!! :tongue:
  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
    My trainer said that apparently there’s non flavoured protein powder because I tried some of the flavoured stuff and it didn’t taste all that good, but i’d rather fruit or nuts over a shake anyway.
    And i will, i’ve found that i have more energy to more stuff and it makes riding my trials motorbike that much more enjoyable!!

    They all taste like crap if you mix them with water! (in my opinion) --- so try mixing them with something else.
    I usually use a combination of water and soy milk, chocolate soy milk, diet v8 splash, crystal light or decaf coffee.
    I also have a huge inventory of sugar free syrups in all different flavors that I add to mine. I love protein shakes more than food most days :)

    I'm a huge coffee fan so I often mix mine with 1 cup soy milk, 2 cups cold coffee, chocolate protein and amaretto sf syrup -- better than starbucks.

    Diet V8 splash tropical + pina colada protein == healthy vacation -- just add an umbrella :)
  • becschneider
    becschneider Posts: 36
    mmmmm they sound good!! i will definately try those over summer, i tend to have fruit smoothies more than food coz its usually too hot and you don't feel like eating so if i throw some protein powder in the mix i'll be laughing!! i'm sooooo excited to lose all this weight!! i used to be 70 kilos but i went on the pill and everything went haywire and i gained weight like crazy because my body couldn't handle the hormones and the cravings woah they were epic!, ah well at least i'll be prepared and know what to expect when i decide to fall pregnant (a long way away) so i can't wait to look like my old self!!



    P.S i just changed my goal to 'lose 2 pounds' and it changed my calorie thingy to 1410, do you guys think thats a better choice or should i stick to 1910?
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member

    P.S i just changed my goal to 'lose 2 pounds' and it changed my calorie thingy to 1410, do you guys think thats a better choice or should i stick to 1910?

    Yep - I think that is most probably the best - I weigh 98kgs at the moment - bit taller than you - and I keep my calories to 1400 - but then eat back my exercise calories (or a good chunk of them) - I make sure my net is still at least 1200 per day....

    Are you in New Zealand or Aussie - I used to buy the Quad Protein (vanilla) and it was pretty good - i now buy Red 8 - it is New Zealand Grass Fed Whey, and uses Stevia as a sweetner - it does not taste as good as the Quad - but it is apparently a better source of protein.... With the Red 8 I mix it with some berries, banana etc - which helps a bit with the taste
  • becschneider
    becschneider Posts: 36
    im an aussie :bigsmile: i'll suss it out n see if anyone stocks it over here, the chemists might? the net calories on my front page are 116, i'm guessing that is low? how doi get it to reach 1200? sorry but im new to all this calorie counting :embarassed:
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    im an aussie :bigsmile: i'll suss it out n see if anyone stocks it over here, the chemists might? the net calories on my front page are 116, i'm guessing that is low? how doi get it to reach 1200? sorry but im new to all this calorie counting :embarassed:

    Yup, that really is a bit low. To get it up to 1200 - you keep eating!
    The net calorie figure means your daily calorie allowance plus your exercise calories minus your food.

    Don't worry too much about getting it up to 1200 today, just have a substantial healthy dinner and start planning for tomorrow.
    If you have changed your setting so you get 1400 cals per day then you should probably be eating back your exercise calories.

    I would really question the Curves reading though - 800 cals in 30 mins is 26 cals a minute. I estimate that I burn about 10 cals/minute when I run and I don't think I ever worked that hard at Curves (of course you are probably working out harder than I did but that still seems like a really high number).
    Try entering your Curves workout in the MFP database - I get MUCH lower number than 800 for 30 mins (I'm a bit lighter now though so that will affect it).

    I find that the best way to make sure I'm eating enough (and not too much) is to plan my day out in advance. I enter my breakfast, lunch and dinner and then add in snacks to bring it to about the right amount. I usually do this the night before but if my plans change on the day I just adjust as I go along. This way you get a good idea of how much and what you can eat.

    Good luck (from another Aussie).
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