Calorie confusion is 700 a day okay for me?

Hi! I am 27 yrs old 5'3  (female) and I weigh 145lbs. I am tryin to get down to 120/125. I've done so much research on-line my head is spinning so this is the plan I came up with and have ben following"

695 calories a day on day when I don't work out. Every other day I take a two hour hike (which I have read burns 400 calories) so on those days I am consuming 1095 calories. At this rate I have calculated losing this pesky 20lbs in about two months. 

Is this accurate? When I used your calculator on this site it said 725 calories a day would lose 1% of my body fat a week which is "safe". Am I doing this right?

(edit: added height)

correction I take a one hour hike every other day ..

I understand that this can be confusing....Sorry, no... 700 is TOO low and what calculator did you use? The average woman needs 1200 and that is IF she is sedentary... You clearly are not sedentary! I put in your stats that you provided and 1200 is recommended if you are sedentary and at moderate, about 1600 is recommended. Also with your stats at moderate activity level- you burn about 2100 calories a day. I would seriously eat more, why deprive yourself and you are setting yourself up for failure, honestly because you are not getting all the nutrients and calories you need. Your body will hold on for dear life to the "fat" and calorie reserve you have left in your body and you will not be able to lose any weight. Before I started CC, I assumed I was eating too much and wanted to count calories so I do not overeat, big news flash- I was UNDEREATING so I gained a few lbs trying to give my body the calories it needs (I eat 1700 to 1900; depending on days with exercise) and things seem to have squared out so far. Slow and steady is important or otherwise you will gain your weigh-loss back quickly. As a guide for figuring out calorie deficits and how to do them safely- 500 to 1000 and subtract from your burn meter (think calories in vs calories out) as long it is not under 1200 calories. Trial and error is the only way you can figure what is right for you.

Just to let you know, if you keep posting that you are under-eating and etc, they possibly can get deleted since CC promotes healthy weight loss and does not endorse starvation type diets. Good luck and you CAN do it the right way! :D

Amandie

Thank you..I def want to be safe and healthy about it! Of coarse  I would like to consume the min amount of calories that are healthy for obvious reasons (quickest results). The calculator I used, which is how I actually found this site, was posted on another persons thread that I found when i looked up "700 calories a day" on yahoo and it was a bit confusing. Other than my hikes I am almost secondary seeing as how Im recently un employed. So if 1200 is the min safe then I should def eat 1600 on days when I hike right? or should I be eating more..where is the calculator? sorry I am a newbie he he

 I'm not sure about your hikes because I'm not sure how long and how 'hard' you are hiking. You can find the calculators in the Tools tab in between Exercise and Advice and click on Calorie Target to calculate how many calories you need (approximately, of course) and the Burn Meter to see how many calories you are burning. I am 221, 5'2 - I burn 2350 with light activity so I eat 1700 to 1900 to have a decifit of about 400 to 600 every day (I cycle my calories to keep my body guessing, read that it can help so we will see) and I just eat 1300 to 1400 on off days. All of this is just a guide and you will have to play around with the numbers to see where you fit. I know that can be a bit discouraging but just keep with it and you will see results! This also will help you understand more about the burn meter and etc.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/help.php?id= 43

For me, sometimes I find it hard to try to reach my calories for the day so I try to keep in mind about the healthy fats and oils-

Monounsaturated fat Olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, nuts and seeds Polyunsaturated fat Vegetable oils (such as safflower, corn, sunflower, soy and cottonseed oils), nuts and seeds Omega-3 fatty acids Fatty, cold-water fish (such as salmon, mackerel and herring), flaxseeds, flax oil and walnuts

I got this from this website- I found it helpful so hopefully you will as well! Feel free to add me as a friend if you need support, motivation or just want to chat about whatever :)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat/NU00262

I wonder if you did not misunderstand the results.  700 would be your deficit to lose 1.5 lbs a week.  Not the number of calories you have to actually eat.  The defcit is the difference between what you eat and how much activity you do.  Burn more calories than you eat and you will lose weight.

I think the calculator that you used ment for you to have a deficit of 725 a day to lose 1% a week. You need to eat around 1300-1400 since your burn is probably around 1700 and that is on days you dont work out. To have the deficit of 725 you would need to work out and burn an extra 300-400 cals a day.  I figured the numbers were similar to mine since im 5'2 at 140.

Some of the calculators can be screwy. Livestrong.com had my calorie limit at 800 to lose weight (not the deficit, the actual calories I should eat) while others told me 1200 or 1235 (phord said 1235)

It really can be confusing, and I actually did do 800 for a while...that's when I dropped the bulk of the 20 pounds I lost.

Most sites will say at least 1200 though, and that's probably better than going with the low number, especially when you're working out.

With your stats, 1300-1400 is probably a better number.

I just put your details into http://www.phord.com/cc/ with the activity level as 'Light Activity' and that has said that you should eat a minimum of 1365 cal p/day and the burn off the deficit, so if you ate 1365 cals and burned off 1877 cals per day, you should lose 1.02 lbs per week. I found this calculator easier to understand.

Original Post by jjcakes:

...So if 1200 is the min safe then I should def eat 1600 on days when I hike right? or should I be eating more..where is the calculator? sorry I am a newbie he he...

 Click on Tools in the menu bar and follow the prompts under Burn Meter and Calorie Target.  Also, if you go to your Home page, use the Get Started link.

I have no idea how many calories I was eating before so the deficit thing is always confusing. Everything I read says eat 500 calories a day less to equal 3500 a week which equals one pound lost but 500 calories from what? Thats where I get lost and also do I need to eat more calories on days that I work out to be safe?

Okay so I'm hearing 1200-1400 is healthy I think from most of you what about days I work out should I add 400 calories or not? If 1200 is the min I should eat to be safe then should I be eating 1600 on days when I know I'm burning that extra 400 calories hiking.

Where I hike is kinda rural I don't wanna pass out on a mountain some where because I didn't eat enough!

The easiest way to get the exact figure you need is to set your activity level in options to Light, then add in how many hours hiking and other exersizes in your log.

Then look at your burn metre(thats how many calories your body needs to maintain your weight) . If you want to lose 1lb a week you need to under eat your burnt calories by 500 per day, so subtract this from your burn metre and what's left is how much you should eat.

The 1200 calorie intake is the absolute minimum,unless you do very little exersize and have a desk job, you should be looking at no less than 1400, and with a lifestyle such as yours,much more.

Okay still not getting an answer on this do I need to eat more calories on days I work out to stay in the 1200-1400 calorie range?

ps yes I am pretty much stationary sitting in bed all day besides my every other day 1 hour hike

If you want to lose weight, then you don't need to eat more on days you work out as you will just be eating back the calories you are burning.

I'll use my figures to explain as I don't know what you meters are set to; My daily eat goal is 1376 cals and my burn estimate if I don't manually log anything is 1640 cals. If I did actually eat exactly 1376 cals every day, I will have a deficit of 264 cals every day which would work out to about 1/2 lb loss per week. If I want to lose 1lb a week, I will have to exercise to increase my burn to 1876 (to get my 500 deficit from my eat meter). If I burned 1876 but ate 1612 cals, I would still only have a deficit of 264 so I would be back down to losing about 1/2 lb per week.

If you are looking to maintain your weight, for example once you reach your goal weight, then you would eat more on the days you exercise so that you are burning the same as what you are eating to remain consistant.

It is advised that you shouldnt lose more than 1% of your body weight per week, so based on your info you should only lose up to 1.45lbs per week. To do this, you should be ok to burn off around 725 calories more than you eat each day to be considered 'safe', but you shouldn't eat less to make the deficit bigger, you should eat what you're aiming for, say 1400 cals, then exercise more to make the deficit bigger.

I know I am purposely eating back what I have burned to stay in a safe zone...If I only eat 1200 calories a day and burn and extra 400 that I don't usually than thats only 800 calories left to breathe and keep my heart pumping etc any one understand what I'm saying/asking?

Original Post by jjcakes:

I have no idea how many calories I was eating before so the deficit thing is always confusing. Everything I read says eat 500 calories a day less to equal 3500 a week which equals one pound lost but 500 calories from what?

Hi there. When they tell you to eat 500 calories LESS, they mean eat 500 calories less than you are BURNING each day. It has nothing to do with what you USED to eat. So if you burn 1700 calories one day, then you'll eat 1200 calories that day.

On days when you exercise, you might burn 2100 calories for the whole day, so you will need to eat 1600 calories those days. Get it?

To estimate what you burn, use the calculators CC provides. I would set your activity level to sedentary, and then manually add in your exercise on those days.

In general, 1200 calories per day (and 1500-1600 calories on exercise days) sounds about right to me based on the info you've provided us.

Does that help?

yep I was just trying to make sure I am being safe

Oh yea THANK YOU!