Counting Calories

I am new to the whole weight loss thing, after being overweight and unheathy all of my life.  I decided to make a change in 2009 and get healthy and loose weight so that i can get off of my meds.  I am 6'4 and i weigh about 330.  i am trying to loose about 100lb so i have been cutting back on my calories to do less than 1500 calories aday and i try to work out atleast 1.5 hours aday, but i dont understand the whole calorie counting thing at all.  Can somebody help me with this. I dont understand do i kep under 1500 calories but when i work out heavy do i need to intake thoses calories again.

SOME ONE PLEASE HELP ME

 

 

Are you male? The absolute minimum for males is 1500 calories.  Use the tools on this site, and make sure you take into account your activity - 1.5 hrs of exercise a day is not going to be sedentary.

Off the top of my head, you are going to need a lot more than 1500 calories.

yes i am a male.  so i need to work out more than what i do each day?  Can you please explain to me what a calorie deficit is. 

No, you don't have to work out more - I'm saying that when you look at the levels of activity, you are more active than sedentary.

Calorie deficit is the difference between the total number of calories you consume and calories you burn.

So, I burn about 2000 calories in a day (from living, plus exercise). If I eat 1500, tht gives me a 500 cal deficit. 1lb fat = 3500 cals, so if you have a 500 deficit for 7 days, you lose a pound.

You should never have more than a 1000 cal deficit each day.

Thank you so much.  Do you think that the amoutn of calories that i am taking in eachday is ok?  i have heard that it tis to little but i am trying to loose at leat 20 lbs a month...

No, like I said, my bet is that you need a lot more than 1500 calories a day.

Reasonable weight loss is 1-2 lb/week, so max of 8lb/month (that's if you have a daily deficit of 1000 calories).  CC promotes healthy weight loss. Losing weight too quickly can lead to rapid weight gain when you stop dieting, as well as health issues and slowing of metabolism, making it harder to lose weight in the future.

I recommend you take a look at the Tools available on Calorie Count, as well as the Library - there is a lot of good information if you care to learn.

There are a few basic "rules" and the main idea is that you have to aim for a "calorie deficit" (as explained by a-girl) UNDER about 1000 a day.

If you eat too little or exercise too much, you will undermine your long term success.

That being said, the best way to "hit" that deficit range is to be scrupulous about measuring and logging food and keeping an eye on  your activity level.

I plugged your stats (guesstimated age at 35) into the burn tool and given activity light-to-moderate, you burn 3900-4400 cals/day. You are a big guy and you need lots of cals just to stay at your current weight (which, of course, you do NOT want to do). A good estimate of your actual burn is probably between light and moderate, so about 4150 cals/day. So to get started, you should be eating about 3150 cals a day, maybe a bit more so you are keeping that deficit closer to 1000 and not much over.

As you lose weight, you will have to re-figure your burn, so use the tools every couple of months--as you lose weight, you will need fewer cals b/c you have a smaller body to maintain.

Drink lots of water, eat as "clean" as you can (unprocessed foods are best). Lots of fresh fruits and veggies will keep you munching all day and be so good for you. Aim for 50% of your cals to come from carbohydrates and 25% each from fat and protein.

sounds like a lot, so just start by aiming to eat the right NUMBER of cals--get in the habit of weighing and measuring. You can then start thinking more about the content of those calories. I personally had to shift to more fiber in my diet so I wouldn't be too hungry, which meant cutting down on some of the less nutritious carbohydrates/proteins I liked in favor of high fiber foods I liked (switching from yogurt to oatmeal at breakfast, for example).

One step at a time, and you'll get there. It takes time; there are no short cuts. Fast loss means temporary loss--truly; remember that. You will probably lose pretty fast at first b/c you are male and pretty big, but remember that slow is the norm, 1% of your weight per week as an average over-the-long-haul.

Best of luck, and welcome aboard.

Original Post by mralmighty:

i have heard that it tis to little but i am trying to loose at leat 20 lbs a month...

 Just because it works on the biggest loser doesn't mean it's a reasonable goal for anybody else.

From what I have learned 20 pounds per month is reaching and may be unhealthy. Although you are trying to lose a lot more weight than I originally started with. I know safely, you can lose up to 10 pounds (2 pounds per week). I googled your BMR (didn't know how old you were so I used 25yrs) and it says 2900. This means that if you did absolutely nothing all day long and laid in bed that you would burn 2900 calories. I personally have found that if I eat my bmr and then exercise about as much as you say you are doing I have lost weight pretty easily. There are also some really great tools on CC to help you figure things out as well but I think you are eating too little for you height and weight. Good luck!

thank y ou so much for that. so i will def get more calories in my diet. i try to eat healthy now. every now and then i will get week and want a pb&j sandwhich i also try to workout an hour in the morning and an hour before bed so hopefully the process will kick in soon. i am shooting for a goal of at least 40 by march or april. i am just so inexperienced with the whole weight loss thing and trying to eat healthy that i have alot of crazy questions...

a pb&j sandwich is not unhealthy!

Original Post by mdillman3:

a pb&j sandwich is not unhealthy!

I was thinking that too. Mmmmm.... peanut butter.

mmm...seconded. 

Original Post by mdillman3:

mmm...seconded. 

 lol....third

I am eating it as I type. :)

I really commend you wanting to get the weight off fast, but I think in order for you to find the success you want you need to really adjust your attitude towards all of this.

First, loosing 20 pounds per month just isn't healthy and likely wouldn't be sustainable.  The recommended healthy loss is 1-2 pounds a week.  Shoot for that, and if you actually get more loss, great!!  When I first started out, I was loosing 3 or 4 pounds some weeks, but it wasn't because I was starving myself. (I actually never quite understood this and it stopped as I got closer to goal)

Second, eating a PB&J is hardly weak.  It sounds like you don't have an entirely healthy relationship with food.  Do some reading here on the site and learn about food and how to eat.  Being afraid of food is really not good and will lead to future problems.

My biggest advice.  Use the tools on this site to get the numbers you need to be working with for calorie intake.  These numbers are based on scientific formulas and evidenced by the number of successes here, they work!

im 200 pounds 5'8 and eating 2800-3000 and losing just over 1lb a week. as for you, your working out and weight more than me so i would start at 3200 cals a day, your eating 1500? thats too low, your gonna stall very early in your weight loss if you keep eating at 1500. the minimum for a guy is around 1800, and for a guy your height and weight i would think 3500 is maintainence with no exercise.