The 4000 calorie vs 2000 calorie argument...:)

2

Replies

  • eemielwy
    eemielwy Posts: 20 Member
    I'm 5'11", 273 lbs. Gained 30 lbs while on light activity level due to prolonged illness. I'm back to losing at 1650/day without exercise. Can't wait until the doc releases me back to moderate activity level. Fatty misses the gym!
  • Oo_BrookeNicole_oO
    Oo_BrookeNicole_oO Posts: 165
    Ok, so obviously a lot of things come into play here when determining the "right" number of calories for one person. Sorry, if this insulted anyone that does eat 4000. If you can eat 4000 calories a day and lose weight (or maintain), that's great! Heck, I wish I could do that!
  • Quasita
    Quasita Posts: 1,530 Member
    Ok, so obviously a lot of things come into play here when determining the "right" number of calories for one person. Sorry, if this insulted anyone that does eat 4000. If you can eat 4000 calories a day and lose weight (or maintain), that's great! Heck, I wish I could do that!

    I'm not offended or anything, I was just stating that those of us that exceed 6 foot have higher than 3k BMRs fairly often, and if you weighed over 500 pounds as well as being over 6 foot, you could be sedentary and still require 4k to maintain.

    My weightloss was stalled and I was diagnosed anorexic eating 1600 a day, I had to double my intake before I started losing consistently.
  • nutandbutter
    nutandbutter Posts: 447
    Both of you are wrong.

    QFT
  • teeley
    teeley Posts: 477 Member
    Michael Phelps eats 12,000 because he's high

    Did the same plan, minus the swimming.

    was that plan consumed in the VW in your ticker?? haha

    Good to see you on a new plan!! Great Job on the weight loss!!
  • HeidiMightyRawr
    HeidiMightyRawr Posts: 3,343 Member
    The recommended amount for an adult woman to maintain is 2000. 2500 for a man.
    Obviously, everybody is different. The more you weigh, you more you need. Also, the more muscle mass you have, the more you need. 4000 though is a crazy amount for probably most people, apart from those who have very hectic / active lifestyles (althletes)

    I myself was losing on around 2000 net, but I've recently dropped that to 1800 net as things started slowing down. While I like my food and it's a challenge adjusting to it, I am hardly starving myself!!

    Also, if 4000 is great for everyone, how come I was gaining successfully last year on 2800 net (2800-3500 total) I gained 16lbs in 6 months.
    My bf is currently logging his food on here, trying to gain weight by eating 4000 total a day. His lifestyle / job is quite active, and he trains around 4x a week at the gym. If this wasn't the case, he wouldn't need as much.
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
    OP, was your friend just trying to wind you up???? Or (sudden recall...) had he heard and misremembered the WHO figure of 1400 (fourteen hundred v. Forty hundred) as the minimum healthy intake?

    2000kcal is a diet for me, though mfp doesn't think it should be :laugh:
  • dinosnopro
    dinosnopro Posts: 2,177 Member
    I can burn anywhere from 3000 to almost 6000 ( I have a body media fit, it's supposed to be 90% accurate ), but in the last 21 days I have averaged about 4500 TDEE, as long as I average around 4000 calories I will lose weight. I have a very active job, generally 11 hours a day on my feet.
  • Quasita
    Quasita Posts: 1,530 Member
    I can burn anywhere from 3000 to almost 6000 ( I have a body media fit, it's supposed to be 90% accurate ), but in the last 21 days I have averaged about 4500 TDEE, as long as I average around 4000 calories I will lose weight. I have a very active job, generally 11 hours a day on my feet.

    BMF for the win! I have a Link, and after having it for a couple weeks, I sincerely suggest it to anyone still shopping for something, it's been very helpful and informative!
  • philOHIO
    philOHIO Posts: 520 Member
    I use to be a 160 lb. 6' tall, healthy athletic type, I gained over 100 lbs. after marriage... I have NEVER ate 4000 cal. in a day. The guy is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Not even professional athletes should eat that kind of amount every day.
  • olivia_june
    olivia_june Posts: 111 Member
    Just throwing it out there, I am 5'9" and 225 lbs, my maintain is about 2700, currently I'm on about 1320/day without exercise (meaning that obviously I can have more if I exercise, which I do, haha).

    My fiance is about 6'1" and 200-some and he is on 2200 cal/day and is still losing.

    I think it completely depends on the person, their activity level, and gender, but GENERALLY 2000 calories is correct. I would gain a ton of weight on 4000 cal, unless I started training for a marathon or something.
  • stubbysticks
    stubbysticks Posts: 1,275 Member
    Michael Phelps eats 12,000 because he's high

    Did the same plan, minus the swimming.
    I think a lot of us did at one time in our lives. I'm not really sure, my memory is a little foggy.
    I have NEVER ate 4000 cal. in a day. The guy is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Not even professional athletes should eat that kind of amount every day.
    Why on earth shouldn't they? I'm going to assume you are blissfully unaware of how many calories an elite athlete can burn in a day while training.

    I highly doubt you've never exceeded 4000 calories in a day. It's far more likely that back before you started tracking your intake & paying attention to the caloric content of stuff, you did & just weren't aware of it. I logged a >7,000 calorie day back in January, averaged 2k calories a day the following 6 days & was down 2 lbs by my next weighin. A couple of restaurant meals then a night at the bar can add up quick. Sure, if I averaged 4k calories a day I'd probably gain slowly, but even now that i'm trying to lose weight it's still easy to rack up the calories if I allow myself to.

    To the OP, if your friend is convinced that this fixed number is what everyone should go by, he is clearly NOT someone you should count on as an authority on fitness. Who cares what he believes, anyway?
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
    I spent a long time eating 4000 calories. I had to come here to fix that.

    :laugh: same here!
  • Gary1977
    Gary1977 Posts: 804 Member
    I would weigh 500 pounds if I ate that much. Plus, it would be very difficult for me to eat that much food!

    Eating like that is EXACTLY How I ended up over 600lbs:grumble:
  • Oo_BrookeNicole_oO
    Oo_BrookeNicole_oO Posts: 165
    I would weigh 500 pounds if I ate that much. Plus, it would be very difficult for me to eat that much food!

    Eating like that is EXACTLY How I ended up over 600lbs:grumble:

    WHOA. As it appears, you've lost quite a bit of it too! Congratulations!!
  • Myles_D23
    Myles_D23 Posts: 51 Member
    MFP recommends I eat around 2400 calories. AND... if I add my exercise I'll be at around 2800 calories. I could eat pretty much anything I wanted. I manually changed it to 1650. So far I'm averaging 2.6 lbs a week and I'm not starving myself either. Just eat back most of my workout calories. SO yes it depends on who you are and if you need it
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member
    Of course, there's no such thing as the "right" amount of calories, you're much closer to being right than he is.

    so you're saying she is a unique and beautiful snowflake??

    Bwahahaha!
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    The only time I've seen 4000 + calorie diet is in professional athletes, I read somewhere on NBA website once about diets that some players burn up to 5 lbs in just one game, that's why they consume so many calories, I guess it depends on what they're doing. I'm pretty sure Michael Phelps eats like 12,000 a day!

    Michael Phelps eats 12,000 because he's high

    True. But he clearly works it all off!

    What I wonder is how he has time to eat that much???
  • Ali_TSO
    Ali_TSO Posts: 1,172 Member
    I spent a long time eating 4000 calories. I had to come here to fix that.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! :noway:
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    if he is 200 lbs plus and works out for 2 hours/day 4000 cals might be right.

    I am not a large guy so, for me to lose I need to eat around 2000 cals (1700-1800 Net), my maintenance cals are only 2100, if I don't workout and eat more than 2100, I would gain weight.
  • jo_marnes
    jo_marnes Posts: 1,601 Member
    Are you sure they weren't confusing kcal with kj?
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
    I gained weight on 1700 a day. 4000 seems crazy for anyone other that large male professional athletes. I would say 2000 for the average 5'10 male, 1800 for the average 5'5" female to maintain a healthy weight. More if doing a lot of exercise.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    If I ate 4000 calories a day, I'd gain about 2 pounds per week, and I already weigh 320 pounds. As an adult, you'd have to be a pretty dedicated athlete to need that many calories to maintain weight (unless you're trying to bulk up).

    Children are a different story, they need to eat more calories to sustain growth. I read somewhere that the average caloric requirement for boys aged 13-18 is 3000 per day (girls were 2200, as I recall), and I could see 4000 being reasonable for a student who was into sports throughout the year.
  • krash999
    krash999 Posts: 476 Member
    I would weigh 500 pounds if I ate that much. Plus, it would be very difficult for me to eat that much food!

    Eating like that is EXACTLY How I ended up over 600lbs:grumble:

    i used to eat close to probly 4000 cals a day at my old job and during the summer when i was most active i actually lost weight.... but then i moved to a more sedentary job and kept eating that, withing 2 years i had gained like 80 pounds and tipped the scale at 535 lbs. so i came here to fix that.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    I think, in general, the shorter you are the less you can eat. I am only 5'1" and have to eat really low to lose weight (well not anymore since I don't need to lose weight anymore). But I still have to eat fairly low to maintain compared to the rest of society (IE if I ate 2000 calories I would gain weight for sure). We are all different and the bottom line if you are gaining weight as a trend you need to lower the calories. All these calorie estimates are just that, estimates. It is our job to use the ballpark number, monitor the scale as a trend tool, and adjust to what works. If you are losing over time then it works, if you are gaining well then lower the calories a bit and monitor until you fine what works.
  • NovemberJune
    NovemberJune Posts: 2,525 Member
    Yes it's true that everyone is different but your friend needs a reality check if he thinks 2000 calories is a starvation diet for most people. :wink:
  • digitech
    digitech Posts: 2 Member
    Try using this with his details and see what you get :wink:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    2000 is considered for an athlete maintaining their weight. So yeah, 4000 is ridiculous. .....

    2000 would be woefully inadequate for an athlete which illustrates the problem with making generalizations.

    My TDEE (at moderately active) is 2,821 and I'm losing approx 1Lb per week at 2200 to 2300. There are skinny little triathletes at my club that will go through more than 4,000 cal per day when their training is peaking.
  • treetop57
    treetop57 Posts: 1,578 Member
    Are you sure they weren't confusing kcal with kj?

    4000 kjoules is only 955 kcalories . . . which instead of being ridiculously high for an average adult is unhealthily low!
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
    If you are eating 4000 calories a day, you better be doing 2-3 hours of exercise as well each day.

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