Question to all the fitness guru's out there

adrian_indy · November 2011

Ok. I've lost a lot of weight. Doing great. I'm currently in the low 260's, close to the 250's and when I started in June I was 334. Here's the problem. Even though I have maintained a diet of close to 2,000 cals a day with a goal weight of 240 in mind, and even though I have lifted weights, I have still managed to lose quite a bit on muscle.

That's not really the issue though, because I know how quickly I can gain that muscle back. My issue is this. I changed my goal weight to 225 with a sedentary activity level and exercisng 6 days a week for an hour with a goal of losing 2 lbs a week. With those settings, without accounting for exercise calories, it is telling me only to eat 1,700 calories a day. Does that seem to low for a 6 foot tall man? Any thoughts?

stewartcarden · November 2011

im 6'2 and 229 pounds eating around 1900 a day , active lifestyle , if that gives you something to compare!

James_1954 · November 2011

You've been having excellent success on 2000 cal/day ... my question is, were you eating 2000 calories total, or 2000 net calories (after exercise)? I guess I'm thinking that 1700 NET cal/day sounds doable, while 1700 calories (absolute) sounds pretty hungry.

photo_kyla · November 2011

Remember that that number doesn't count any exercise. When you exercise it will give you calories back.

kappyd · November 2011

I am no fitness guru, but in the same boat as you. I am 5'10" and started out a 255. MFP started me out at 1440 calories a day and I am now down to 202 and MFP reset me to 1310 calories a day. That is before I add any exercise.

0shannon0 · November 2011

I am no fitness guru, but I am in the same exact spot you are in now. I've lost a ton of weight and when my MFP recallibrated, it has me eating 1280 calories a day! It also lowered the daily intake of protein (among other things) to the point that I am exceeding it daily, by a lot. I still have a long way to go and am concerned that starving myself to get to my goal weight will only result in me gaining it all back again. I am working out 5 days a week usually and just cannot increase my workouts, especially on less calories. I feel like I am already spreading myself thin and the new daily food goals have really zapped my motivation.

Sorry to piss on your post. I was just venting and hoping someone else will comment with some type of solution for us.

Great job on your weight loss!! XD

UponThisRock · November 2011

That's way low.

Your best bet is to lower calories from what you're eating now slowly, and monitor your weight until you're losing as fast as you want to.

So, for example, take what you're eating now and cut out 250 cals. Give it 2-3 weeks, if you don't see any weight loss, subtract 250 more and give in another 2-3 weeks. You get the idea.

The_Saint · November 2011

I'm just going to put this out there....but......

What if MFP is wrong?

If you are operating in a lower deficit than what your body needs to metabolize in a single day (as far as fat is concerned) then you will expect to lose muscle.

If you adjust your weight and MFP tells you to continue to do that and you're okay with it, then great Lose weight. If you are interested in losing just fat then you may want to take a different approach. Find out your actual TDEE (using Bodybugg or Bodymedia) consume 500 calories under what you burn daily. Consume your protein, and enjoy life

Dauntlessness · November 2011

I would think that MFP sets guys around 300-500 more calories then a woman.considering the 2000/woman 2500/men calorie count on all the food packages out there. MFP suggests 1200 calories a day for me and I don't think anything below 1400 calories is maintainable for a long period of time for most people. I am guessing 1700 is what they think you should have. Saying that...
I set my own to 1700 calories a day which is maintaining my weight then I exercise 6 days a week. My net count usually ends up around 1000-1300 cals a day consumed.

I would do whatever feels comfortable to you. Another thing, I have noticed since I changed up my workout with the trainer and started messing around with low carb days my metabolism has gone into overdrive. I think that is a key factor in this too. Maybe you need to mix it up a little.

Dauntlessness · November 2011

I am no fitness guru, but I am in the same exact spot you are in now. I've lost a ton of weight and when my MFP recallibrated, it has me eating 1280 calories a day! It also lowered the daily intake of protein (among other things) to the point that I am exceeding it daily, by a lot. I still have a long way to go and am concerned that starving myself to get to my goal weight will only result in me gaining it all back again. I am working out 5 days a week usually and just cannot increase my workouts, especially on less calories. I feel like I am already spreading myself thin and the new daily food goals have really zapped my motivation.

Sorry to piss on your post. I was just venting and hoping someone else will comment with some type of solution for us.

Great job on your weight loss!! XD

Try this routine in my blog. I just started it last week thanks to my trainer and I have lost almost 3 pounds. I guess I was burning energy calories and not fat burning ones. Its tough but totally worth it.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Lect

adrian_indy · November 2011

Thanks for all the answers. Before, I tried my hardest to stay around 2,000 cals a day with some zig zagging. Mostly because I was sure I wasn't always totollay correct on my food portions and i think MFP over calculates my cals burned sometimes.

mike_littlerock · November 2011

MFP recalculated my calories and I felt it was WAY too low.. I used the calculator on the site and it gave a different number. I also cross checked to find an estimate of my daily calorie burn (the two numbers were close in my case)

the external calculator i used was found at http://www.skinbodyfitness.com/help.htm look at the bottom right, there is an excel base bmr calculator.

Gunff · November 2011

i'm 6'0 - 210 and I have it set for a goal of losing 2 lbs a week and it has me set at 1470 calories.

I set mine to -2lbs a week just so I could see what the minimum calories I have to hit is. I try to stay between 0 and -250 and i do eat my excercise calories for the most part. I'm still losing weight.

On a side note, If you are losing a lot of muscle, I have been doing a lot of research lately on the type of activity you do will burn different types of body material depending on the intensity. If you are going at 80% or 90% of max intensity your body will take whatever the easiest body material is to create energy (Muscle), and if you want to be burning mostly or only fat, you need to be going for a longer time at a lower intensity, which will give your body more time to find the fat cells and burn those for energy.

Just something to think about.

neanderthin · November 2011

Sedentary is not the same thing as exercising 6 days a week, plus NEAT is never accounted for in sedentary which is your basic involement in lif in general. For example are you active throughout the day and move often or do you sit on your butt, that can make a difference from burning an extra 200 calories, sitting on your butt to over 500 being fairly active. You also need to factor in the 6 days of exercise, basically your trying to find your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and then decide yor deficit. Anyway if you take sedentary then add 6 days a week of exercise you can classify yourself as moderately active as opposed to senentary. You then can use a 1.55 to 1.75 factor to that 1700 which would give you around 2600 calories........For example I'm 6' and 190lbs and I can lose weight with 2600, so I think you would be fine eating 2000 or so calories without any problem.

Question to all the fitness guru's out there

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