calorie question

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jenzimmer
jenzimmer Posts: 300 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I was talking to my husband about how many calories I need to eat per day to loose 1 pound per week. Then we looked up him. Then (on a different site) I looked up myself and it said that I need to eat about 1400 calories per day to loose 1 pound, on MFP it says 1200?! So doesn't your body go into starvation mode if you are not eating enough? Maybe that's my issue because I work out 4-5 days a week and log everything and nothing is working. Should I up my calories? I'm getting frustrated.

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  • Jenks
    Jenks Posts: 349
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    If you're working out, I would up the cals.

    Good Luck
  • poustotah
    poustotah Posts: 1,121 Member
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    My trainer has me on 1200 calories a day and he wants me to stagger my carbs so on one day I'll have virtually no carbs and the next day I'll have up to 100. On the days that I do eat more carbs, I actually lose more weight than the off days I also sneak a little and go over my 1200 calorie limit by about 2-300 calories. On the off days, I feel so terrible by 4 or so that I end up having some peanut butter to stabalize my blood sugar.
  • barbiecat
    barbiecat Posts: 16,986 Member
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    :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: 1200 is a good number if you're working at a desk or not doing much, but when you log in your exercise on MFP, it raises the number of calories you need so on heavy workout days, you'll be able to eat more.......sometimes I'll do an extra workout just so I can have a wasa cracker with peanut butter or a bigger bowl of cereal :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • jenzimmer
    jenzimmer Posts: 300 Member
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    My trainer has me on 1200 calories a day and he wants me to stagger my carbs so on one day I'll have virtually no carbs and the next day I'll have up to 100. On the days that I do eat more carbs, I actually lose more weight than the off days I also sneak a little and go over my 1200 calorie limit by about 2-300 calories. On the off days, I feel so terrible by 4 or so that I end up having some peanut butter to stabalize my blood sugar.
    And this is working for you? I'm not getting anywhere and I've been at this since summer! I am eating my calories when I work out. I guess I'm just wondering what else I can do. I've hired a trainer so I hope that helps.
  • sleepl8s
    sleepl8s Posts: 37
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    your body goes into starvation mode if you NET below 1100 calories. SO, if you are working out and only eating 1200 calories a day, i'm sure your body is starving and holding on to whatever it eats cuz you're probably only holding on to 600-800 calories.
  • jenzimmer
    jenzimmer Posts: 300 Member
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    your body goes into starvation mode if you NET below 1100 calories. SO, if you are working out and only eating 1200 calories a day, i'm sure your body is starving and holding on to whatever it eats cuz you're probably only holding on to 600-800 calories.

    I am eating my working out calories. So like yesterday when I went to spin and my HR monitor said 540 (YEA!) I ate 1740 calories. My question is, BEFORE exercise the other sites I saw said that my base is like 1400 calories per day to loose 1 pound a week?
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
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    It wouldn't hurt to up your calories a couple of hundred, and give that a few weeks. You'll have to experiment and see what works for you.
  • CinthyNair
    CinthyNair Posts: 261
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    You need to eat at least 1200 cals a day for your body to be fueled and to go about your day to day life. if you are exercising, then you will need to up your cal intake. Similar to another post here, I too notice that I tend to loose on days when I up my carb intake (I usually do this once a week or so). For the rest of the days, I maintain an intake of 1240 + 5%, and then some on the days I work out.

    There is no hard and fast rule, and your body tend to get used to a condition pretty fast. So we got to make changes every now and then .. increase intensity on your workout, up the cal intake, etc.
  • missykaye1975
    missykaye1975 Posts: 95
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    I had the same problem and had to play around with my calorie amounts. 1200 was definitely too low (not eating the exercise calories), but when I DID eat the exercise calories that seemed to be too high and I wasn't getting enough of a deficit to do anything for me either. I finally chose to set my calorie intake to between 1500 and 1600 and not add in any extra calories for exercise. I work out 6 days per week, cardio and weight training--hard. I take Sundays off. If I keep the calories that I eat the (relatively) the same, at 1500 or 1600, then depending on what kind of cardio I do (it varies daily depending on the class I take, or what machine I choose to do), I feel it keeps my body guessing and it doesn't get 'used to' a certain calorie amount, even though I'm eating the same calorie amount every day--does that make any sense at all? Anyway, I consistently have lost 1 pound per week since August. ...and I preach 'building muscle' constantly because that IS your metabolism, and has probably made the most difference in my weight loss....along with 'clean eating', drinking tons of water, and eating in smaller, more frequent meals (5 or 6) throughout the day. Good luck--you'll find the right balance and the pounds will start coming off!

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