Counting Calories

Options
Menso57
Menso57 Posts: 2
in Food and Nutrition
If I'm set to lose 1.6 lbs/wk by only consuming 1200 cals/day and say I run for 60 mins/day and now my daily calorie goal goes from 1200 to 1800 (<--guesstimate)...does anyone know if I'm still doing the right thing by sticking to 1200 cals/day or should I try to consume closer to 1800? Is it unhealthy to not try to reach the latter and if not, will I lose more than 1.6 lbs/day by doing so? Currently, I'm sticking to consuming as close as possible to whatever my daily goal + calories earned equals but feel like I can eat less for faster/better weight loss results.

Replies

  • siobhano_
    siobhano_ Posts: 101
    Options
    You'll get better results by eating the 1800, believe me. Otherwise you're starving yourself, and in the long run, won't get results.

    You will probably lose more than 1.6lbs a day, but it'll be muscle, and you'll be left with a ton of fat. Not an attractive physique.

    Eating 1200 then burning off 600 is the same as eating 600. Your body cannot run on that, you're a fully grown male.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
    Options
    I agree with the poster above. 1200 is a VERY low amount of calories for a man, I'm sure I've read that the generally suggested minimum is 1500 cals/day for men who are reducing calories.
    So, you should certainly eat extra calories when you workout, and should probably eat more anyway.

    But, back to your actual question - MFP works out your calories without including exercise and assumes that you will add (and eat) extra calories when you exercise.
    If you don't want to do it this way, you should use a different method of calculating your daily calories which already makes an allowance for exercise.
  • ChasingSweatandTears
    ChasingSweatandTears Posts: 504 Member
    Options
    according to how much weight you have to lose, I wouldn't try to lose that in a week. Go back in and Set your weight loss goal to a half pound per week and see what it says. Chqnces are you will lose more than that anyway. And yes, I would say eat back your exercise calories if you follow Mfp recommendations. You definitely want to eat more than 1200 calories. I have a personal trainer through a hospital and he won't even let me eat below 1500 and I'm a female who is 35 and 5'2".
  • ChasingSweatandTears
    ChasingSweatandTears Posts: 504 Member
    Options
    And good luck with your goals! Just don't get caught in the 1200 calorie trap, like I and so many others have. It slows down your metabolism significantly and it took my body a full month to stop freaking out on me after I raised my calories. I may still even have to raise them more, but I'm not ready for another month long plateau :/
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
    Options
    You'll get better results by eating the 1800, believe me. Otherwise you're starving yourself, and in the long run, won't get results.

    You will probably lose more than 1.6lbs a day, but it'll be muscle, and you'll be left with a ton of fat. Not an attractive physique.

    Eating 1200 then burning off 600 is the same as eating 600. Your body cannot run on that, you're a fully grown male.

    Why would you not get results "starving yourself".

    If you have 150 (or so) grams of protein and adequate calcium, vitamins etc in the 1200 calories, which is possible, why would your body go for muscle as a source of energy when there is a lot more efficient source of energy in fat plus your muscles have got the protein etc it needs to grow in reaction to the exercise.

    That being said listen to your body and your head if you are feeling weak/dizzy doing the exercise you should be eating more, if a diet that allows you to eat more than 1,200 calories per day suits you better you will still lose weight at approximately 1.6lb/week if you do eat back your exercise. So long as you eat the right stuff 1,200 or 1,600 or anything in between (or even up to 2,000 odd will be a personal choice for you depending on what you feel you can best stick to.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Options
    Eating 1200 then burning off 600 is the same as eating 600. Your body cannot run on that, you're a fully grown male.
    you seem to have overlooked the calories from the fat reserves he's burning to lose weight in the first place !

    It seems the food obsessed have a blind spot about energy from fat stores, we see Americans waddling round with hundreds of thousands of calories in store and we're expected to believe that have to eat 1500 to stay alive ? Give me a break.

    Are you suggesting he would drop dead if he only ate 600 ? that's the logical conclusion if "Your body cannot run on that". If that's the case, does he have to eat at least 60 calories every hour, as his body needs constant fuelling ?

    Having said all that, the OP isn't particularly overweight so a large deficit is probably unnecessary, but the arguments here are illogical, captain.
  • kungfuflyer
    kungfuflyer Posts: 29 Member
    Options
    You should never drop your calories that low. That is a recipe for disaster. You will kill your metabolism by doing so and find it very difficult to keep weight off in the long run.

Categories