How many calories?

Hi

I've never really been on a propper diet before, but my weight has gradually crept up over the years until finally I decided enough is enough.

I'm 31, weigh (at the last count) 313 lbs, Im 5 10, and Im relatively active... Im not a fitness fanatic or anything, but I play 6 a-side football (soccer) every week and squash most weeks, and Im also an ok badminton player (Im not fantastic, but Im a good club player)... I am going to try and get to the gym 2 or 3 times a week also.  I cant right now cos I broke my nose last week, but I will be fine to within a week or so I reckon.  When I go to the gym I normally do 20 mins on the bike, 20 mins on the step machine and about 20 minutes just walking round doing 20 reps on each weight machine.

The reason Im oveweight is basically I eat too much, I eat a lot of junk food and convenience food, and I drink 20 or so pints of beer each weekend.  Since Thursday I just decided to make a real go of losing weight - after seeing the latest lot of pictures of me on Facebook from a night out and realising how big Ive got.

Ive never counted calories before, but since I just started the first two days I ate about 1200 calories each day.  Is that a low enough amount to lose weight?  I know the recomended amount is 2000, but I dont know really how much less than that one should eat to lose weight.  I dont feel starving hungy eating that amount cos Ive ben eating a lot of fruit and veg, but it is all pretty boring food.  I dont know how easy it would be to eat much less though, but I suppose my appetite would decrease the less I ate.

Eek! Hello, Adam! It's great you want to lose weight for health but I have to tell you, you need a LOT more calories! More than even 2000 and defintely more than 1200!

As you are 31, use CC's tools to work out your BMR so you have a number to work from for your diet: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-bur ned.php

Doing this for you, a guy of 31, 5'10, 313 and moderately to very active needs between 4200 and 4500 calories a day to maintain! To lose weight at a healthy rate of 2lbs a week, you'd take 1000 or so calories off of your intake. That means you need to eat 3200 to 3500 calories a day!

And that's very much doable. I'm up there with you in terms of cal intake - though I'm gaining weight, myself - but it's very simple to get that sort of intake in without needing to stuff yourself silly but not have to turn to junk food either. There's an example meal plan here of 3000 calories, with ways of taking it to 3500, as well as food ideas in the same thread. Again, it's a thread aimed at weight gainers - but saying that, there is no reason if, when your weight loss intake is as high as yours needs to be, you can't use ideas from it either! A SAMPLE MEAL PLAN OF 3000 CALORIES - with ideas to take it up to 3500!

Even though you might think, "the less I eat the more I'll lose", this isn't the case.

Eating too low a calorie intake, or having a deficit from your BMR greater than 1000 results in something called "survival mode", where your body holds every last thing it can get in expectance of a famine. Water, food, calories. Explained:

• Dieting & Metabolism - This article explains starvation mode and why undereating is counter productive.
• The Body Neglected - This is what happens when you undereat for an extended period of time. 
• "Obesity on 700 Calories" - A tale of starvation mode's devistating effects, and proof you don't have to be underweight to be starving.
• From Ask Mary, the segment provided by our CC nutritionist Mary Hartley: On the dangers of undereating and what it does to your body.

The physical dangers that come with undereating are numerous. You put yourself at risk of osteoporosis, of loss of fertility if you lose your period, hair loss, electrolyte problems, a weakening of the immune system, low blood pressure, blood disorders such as anemia, heart problems, and even death. The mental woes that come alongside can be just as devestating. Depression is common in undereaters, as well as distorted perceptions and problems like Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

But eating the right amount, weight is easily lost if you do it in a healthy and sustainable manner which is what CC is all about. :]

As well as the links up above, give this one a look at too: An Unofficial Calorie Count Guide to a Fad-Free 2009. It covers the basics of calorie counting, largely in how to do so safely and sensibly without resorting to drastic methods.

On your drinking, it's good you see that 20 pints is an issue! Are you in the UK? Talk to your GP about possible means of getting help cutting back. The units limit for a male, I think, is 21 a week - in one pint there's 2 units. So in 20 pints of beer, there's 40 units. Now, calorically, that's about 4600 calories (!) in just those pints. But that doesn't even begin to look in at the health complications of binge drinking: liver damage, mental health problems, impotence... as well as the possibility of leading to accidents and injury while drunk. As well as talking to your GP, look at http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/home too.

Good luck - and definitely increase your calorie intake!

Hi Adam. Welcome.

Yep, Lala is right - you should lose 8 pounds per month if you aim for about 3200 calories/day. Explore the site a little bit, especially the tools section.

I ate 1700 calories today.  I know that the recomended amount of calories for a man is 2000, surely I need to eat less than that at least to lose any weight?

I did manage to do a 20 mins on the cross trainer and some weight lifting, and I went for a 3 mile walk also.

I guess I dont want to set myself an unrealistic target and end up giving in cos I cant stick to it.  I definitely havent been starving myself the last few days - Ive just eaten a lot of fruit and veg rather than the things I normally would.

Original Post by adam_douglas1903:

I ate 1700 calories today.  I know that the recomended amount of calories for a man is 2000, surely I need to eat less than that at least to lose any weight?

The average recommendation for a man who's already slim/healthy to maintain his weight are ~2500 calories/day.  The heavier we are, though, the more calories we need just to keep our bodies running.  You don't want to go below that "magic number" or your body will think you're trying to starve it, slow down your metabolism and generally make your weight loss attempts very difficult.

I put your numbers into the calculator here: http://www.phord.com/cc/ and it worked out that you would need to eat at least 2400 calories/day even if you were completely sedentary.  Those 2400 calories are what your organs, etc. would need to function even if you were in a coma.  But you're active.  If I set you to "moderately active", that means you'd burn 3700 calories/day.  Eat less than that and you'll lose weight.  Aim for 1000 calories/day less while staying active and you'll likely lose about 2 pounds per week.  Stick to the base 2400 calories/day and you'll likely lose about 3 pounds per week.  Note that it's only really safe and sustainable to lose about 1% of your weight per week so, for now, 3 pounds per week is fine (and the first few weeks it may be a bit more than that as you drop water weight from eating healthier; don't worry about losing "too much" until you're a month in).

Good luck!

Im trying to eat more... 2200 calories today.  I guess I'll have to wait to next Thursday to see how the first week goes in terms of weight loss!