Calories eaten vs calories burned

No, you'll continue to lose fat. I recommend keeping track of your body fat percentage. Because you're probably shedding fat and not noticing because you're gaining muscle. You can get a body fat caliper pretty cheap. It will include instructions on how to use it. You should increase your caloric intake, though. Just remember to keep your calories rich in whole grains, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables. Try not let yourself get too hungry, either. That's when we're likely to go on a bad-calorie binge.

Yes. You can't eat less then 1200 calories a day and not go into starvation mode. That is a bare miniumum. If you are needing 2150 a day (which still puts you on track to lose) then you should get pretty close to this number.

Good Luck!

And 1200 is the bare minimum for a woman. I've heard that a man shouldn't go under 1500. If you're working out like an athlete, you've got to eat like one. Your deficit may be too large to keep your metabolism running. I eat at least 1900 calories on my workout days (I burn between 400-600 calories), and if I dip under this, I don't lose anything.

Yes. You can't eat less then 1200 calories a day and not go into starvation mode. That is a bare miniumum. If you are needing 2150 a day (which still puts you on track to lose) then you should get pretty close to this number.

Good Luck!

And 1200 is the bare minimum for a woman. I've heard that a man shouldn't go under 1500. If you're working out like an athlete, you've got to eat like one. Your deficit may be too large to keep your metabolism running. I eat at least 1900 calories on my workout days (I burn between 400-600 calories), and if I dip under this, I don't lose anything.

it's actually 1800 for men

Yes. You can't eat less then 1200 calories a day and not go into starvation mode. That is a bare miniumum. If you are needing 2150 a day (which still puts you on track to lose) then you should get pretty close to this number.

Good Luck!

And 1200 is the bare minimum for a woman. I've heard that a man shouldn't go under 1500. If you're working out like an athlete, you've got to eat like one. Your deficit may be too large to keep your metabolism running. I eat at least 1900 calories on my workout days (I burn between 400-600 calories), and if I dip under this, I don't lose anything.

it's actually 1800 for men

Dang it, where's the justice. . .

Is this a size issue (men are bigger) or a metabolism issue (men have faster metabolisms). I know some men who are actually smaller than me (like the same height but more delicately framed). . .so would that still apply to little guys?
Just curious, and I bet you have the answer.

Okay, via WW, I'm supposed to eat 22 points a day. Then, of course, there are the 35 other points. THEN I have my exercise points, which, lately, go up to about 10 a day (I'm training hard right now).

On MFP, for today, at least, I earned 1200 calories (12 points, according to someone in the know on the WW board - and, yes, I use my own Polar F6 HRM, so it's as accurate as possible). I am entitled to 1300 a day without exercise. So that gives me 2500 I can eat. I ate all but about 480 cals.

On WW, however, I frequently go over. I'm really at a loss as to which one to believe in terms of eating and losing weight. I'm at the home stretch - last 10 or so pounds to go and they're not shifting all that much!! I'm afraid to reduce the eating because of the possibility of starvation mode for the body. My metabolism already is very sensitive and slows or shuts at the slightest opportunity.

Any ideas??? I also eat VERY healthy, for the most part, due to being celiac and lactose intolerant.

I can't go less at this point as I'm training. I've been doing about 13 hours a week over the year, and this is just a step up from that.

I woke up this morning and checked my weight on my scale (which is about a half a pound off from the WW one I use at the center) and have lost about half a pound.

As I'm using BOTH systems, I'm going to see how they correlate by the end of the week. I will have earned 1400 cals by the end of today (at least 300 in my class in a short while, plus the 1100 I earned from today's morning classes).

Technically, then, I should probably eat about 2600 cals (plus or minus) to sort of "match" the 1300 I'm supposed to eat if I weren't exercising. Is that correct?

In points, I have eaten my 22 already for today, earned 11 and have used 8 of those so far. I'll earn about 3 more points (1 point is about 100 cals for exercise). I likely will eat some more when I finish class later this evening - needing probably some more fruit. I'm just trying to balance it so that I'm not on MAINTENANCE, if you get my meaning. I want to lose, not maintain.

Thanks for any confirmation of the "technically" statement. I'm just trying to make sure I don't overeat or undereat.

it's actually 1800 for men

Dang it, where's the justice. . .

Is this a size issue (men are bigger) or a metabolism issue (men have faster metabolisms). I know some men who are actually smaller than me (like the same height but more delicately framed). . .so would that still apply to little guys?
Just curious, and I bet you have the answer.

Men tend to have more muscle mass then women do giving them a higher metabolism than we do. So while it's normal for us to lose like 1 pound a week.....they'll lose two pounds a week. I know.....it's such bullsh*t!!

I can't go less at this point as I'm training. I've been doing about 13 hours a week over the year, and this is just a step up from that.

I woke up this morning and checked my weight on my scale (which is about a half a pound off from the WW one I use at the center) and have lost about half a pound.

As I'm using BOTH systems, I'm going to see how they correlate by the end of the week. I will have earned 1400 cals by the end of today (at least 300 in my class in a short while, plus the 1100 I earned from today's morning classes).

Technically, then, I should probably eat about 2600 cals (plus or minus) to sort of "match" the 1300 I'm supposed to eat if I weren't exercising. Is that correct?

In points, I have eaten my 22 already for today, earned 11 and have used 8 of those so far. I'll earn about 3 more points (1 point is about 100 cals for exercise). I likely will eat some more when I finish class later this evening - needing probably some more fruit. I'm just trying to balance it so that I'm not on MAINTENANCE, if you get my meaning. I want to lose, not maintain.

Thanks for any confirmation of the "technically" statement. I'm just trying to make sure I don't overeat or undereat.

Wait, 1300 calories is your base? How tall are you? and how much do you weigh? That seems pretty low for someone who has under 15 lbs to lose, unless you are around 5 feet tall or so.

5' 4", 154 pounds at the moment. I recalculated my calorie thingy only a week ago, and it dropped to that from about 1350. That's the base, without exercise.

The more and more i read these posts on starvation mode - eating ex cals.. and the rest i get more and more frustrated. :explode: .. whyy?!??!?!?!.............. Because, i have been told time and time again by my gym instructor that it is OK to consume 1,200... work out like a dog and not eat back the cals.. :drinker:

so far in 3 1/2 weeks i've lost 3lbs... (havent weight myself since last week) and i seem to be loosing weight.. toning up and feeling great.. no fatigue as im getting my necassary carb, protien, fat intake give or take a few grams...:happy:

Now SHBoss.. i know you are a fountain of knowlage cause i love reading your posts.. but does this starvation mode really apply to everyone..? because i've been fine? :indifferent:


:indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent: :indifferent:

5' 4", 154 pounds at the moment. I recalculated my calorie thingy only a week ago, and it dropped to that from about 1350. That's the base, without exercise.

By my numbers you are just barely above the normal bmi range and your maintenance calories should be somewhere around 1950 (assuming you are lightly active), that means you are at a 600 calorie deficit already. Now granted I know BMI isn't all that accurate where you are, but still, you are no where near maintenance calories, in fact, I would think, assuming your body is healthy and you have no health conditions that can affect your metabolism, that you're at a rather large deficit for someone at your stage. Have you gone to have your Body Fat % checked? At this stage I would focus on Body fat % as opposed to really monitoring weight with a fined tooth comb, Just MHO so take it for what it's worth. All I'm saying is that having a relatively large deficit when you're close to a healthy weight can have the opposite affect of the one you are looking for many times. Just something to chew on.

Please explain this. How do you focus on body fat vs. monitoring weight-and can you focus on one and not the other? thanks

5' 4", 154 pounds at the moment. I recalculated my calorie thingy only a week ago, and it dropped to that from about 1350. That's the base, without exercise.

By my numbers you are just barely above the normal bmi range and your maintenance calories should be somewhere around 1950 (assuming you are lightly active), that means you are at a 600 calorie deficit already. Now granted I know BMI isn't all that accurate where you are, but still, you are no where near maintenance calories, in fact, I would think, assuming your body is healthy and you have no health conditions that can affect your metabolism, that you're at a rather large deficit for someone at your stage. Have you gone to have your Body Fat % checked? At this stage I would focus on Body fat % as opposed to really monitoring weight with a fined tooth comb, Just MHO so take it for what it's worth. All I'm saying is that having a relatively large deficit when you're close to a healthy weight can have the opposite affect of the one you are looking for many times. Just something to chew on.

LOL! Loved the "chew on" - but that's exactly what I was wondering. I've started eating just a bit more and find my daily weight is going down. I've had a body fat percentage done via the gym trainer's machine and it wasn't pretty, at the time - about 35% if I remember correctly. That was about a month ago. My scale does body fat percentage as well, but I'm not sure of the best time of day to do that. Do you have any suggestions about when to have my scale analyze it? I thought that various factors, like when I eat (e.g. eating just before), might affect the percentage - or am I thinking wrongly on this?

As well, with the numbers I gave you on calories burned, basics and whatnot, am I correct then in understanding that if I decide to eat most of those exercise calories, I'll "maintain" the 1300 base ones - leaving a good enough deficit to keep losing weight? Kind of like doing positive and negative numbers, is it?

Thanks for the help!! :-)

5' 4", 154 pounds at the moment. I recalculated my calorie thingy only a week ago, and it dropped to that from about 1350. That's the base, without exercise.

By my numbers you are just barely above the normal bmi range and your maintenance calories should be somewhere around 1950 (assuming you are lightly active), that means you are at a 600 calorie deficit already. Now granted I know BMI isn't all that accurate where you are, but still, you are no where near maintenance calories, in fact, I would think, assuming your body is healthy and you have no health conditions that can affect your metabolism, that you're at a rather large deficit for someone at your stage. Have you gone to have your Body Fat % checked? At this stage I would focus on Body fat % as opposed to really monitoring weight with a fined tooth comb, Just MHO so take it for what it's worth. All I'm saying is that having a relatively large deficit when you're close to a healthy weight can have the opposite affect of the one you are looking for many times. Just something to chew on.

LOL! Loved the "chew on" - but that's exactly what I was wondering. I've started eating just a bit more and find my daily weight is going down. I've had a body fat percentage done via the gym trainer's machine and it wasn't pretty, at the time - about 35% if I remember correctly. That was about a month ago. My scale does body fat percentage as well, but I'm not sure of the best time of day to do that. Do you have any suggestions about when to have my scale analyze it? I thought that various factors, like when I eat (e.g. eating just before), might affect the percentage - or am I thinking wrongly on this?

As well, with the numbers I gave you on calories burned, basics and whatnot, am I correct then in understanding that if I decide to eat most of those exercise calories, I'll "maintain" the 1300 base ones - leaving a good enough deficit to keep losing weight? Kind of like doing positive and negative numbers, is it?

Thanks for the help!! :-)

First sorry Darth for hijacking this thread!

I would say this, don't put too much stock in a home scale for BF%, they are notorious for being wildly inaccurate. That said, they usually use electrical impedance, which means they go by how much resistance muscle has to electricity as opposed to fat. Which is fine except that much of this requires a specific amount of water being in your body, which is almost impossible to replicate on a daily basis. So BF% can vary from day to day on a home scale even if you eat the same amount, same type, and exercise the same way every day. You'd have to be completely regular in ALL your activities to make it truely accurate, by that I mean, drink the same amount of water every day at the same time, eat the same amount of sodium and other minerals (calcium, phosphorous...etc.) every day at the same time, go to the bathroom at the same time every day, exercise the exact same way for the exact same amount every day, have the same weather conditions every day... etc. it's just far to difficult.

AS to your calories, if you're using the goals that MFP gave you and say you chose 1lb a week, MFP is already adding in a deficit, so any exercise you do, if you eat those calories back, you'll still be eating less than what it takes to maintain your current weight, so yeah, you'll still be at that 1lb a week EVEN if you eat your exercise calories.

You may ask, "Then why do some people NOT eat them or all of them and still lose?" Well because our body's aren't an exact science, and body fat % has a lot to do with that, not EVERYONE will conform to the the exact number, some people's bodies can tolerate a higher deficit and still not trigger a famine response (fat storage), others need less of a deficit and are very sensitive to calorie deficit. The only way to know is to try a reasonable deficit and tweak it and see where you are in a month or so. Just remember, the more available fat someone has, the higher their deficit can be without triggering the famine response!

hope this helps!

\:happy: