Am I doing this right?

Okay, I'm wondering if I'm going about this the right way- I'm new to this site and to dedicating myself to loosing weight. I'm 23, 5'4 and needing to loose 15-20lbs. I'm not overweight- just chubby and wanna lose that and tone. I've only been tracking my calories for the past 3 weeks, but its not going as well as I'd hoped and I'm wondering if it just takes a while because I dont have a ton of fat to loose, or if I'm just not doing it right. I calculated my BMR and its 1465- is this the min or max amount of calories I should be eating- whats the range? On a day to day basis- I'm at the computer, so not a whole lot of movement, but I generally work out 3 or 4 times a week for about an hour. What is my min and max amount of cals per day? any thoughts?

Hi

Welcome to the forums.

It took me a while to get my head around it all as well,

If you want to lose weight you need to be eating an average calorie deficit, of between 500 - 1000 calories a day. (500 cal per day  will lose about 1 lb per week)

I use the meters on this forum to keep track.

The eat meter is pretty striaght forward, put in what you eat the number of calories appear. The daily goal I dont use.

The Burn meter : The total estimate is the number of calories your body will have burned in 24 hours (0000 - 2359). and is based on your profile and activity level. (I set my activity level at sedentary and log all activity as my activity level varies from day to day)

The white number is the calories your body has burned up to that moment in time. (If you dont log any activity it slowly climbs from 0 to your total estimate as the day goes on)

When you add activity to the log, it increases the white number and total estimate by the calories burned in your actitvity.

For example my calorie daily goal is 1657 but I tend to ignore it because my activity each day can change. My total burn estimate is 2290

On days when i dont excercise I dont log activity so aim for less than 1700 calories (deficit of ~600) on excercise days my total estimate is around 3000 so aim for a calorie intake of about 2200 on those days. (deficit ~ 700) .

By this I have been keeping an average daily deficit of ~ 700 and so gradulay losing about 1 - 1.5 lbs per week. it also means i dont feel hungry on those exercise days (I used to try to keep to the daily target and was too hungry on excersice days, so ignore it now)

If you read round the forums they advise not having a deficit over 1000 as this can trigger the body into starvation mode and will stall any weight loss, also I have found it makes you more hungry and therefore liable to snack.

I am looking at losing about 80llbs in total (16 lost so far in 14 weeks). so it seems to work for me.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Rob

If you work out 3 or 4 times a week then set your activity level with the CC calculator to 'light' as that would be reasonably accurate.   See what 'total energy requirement' you get..... deduct about 500-700 from that number.

The BMR is the amount of energy you need to do nothing at all... not even get out of bed.  So that's the bare minimum intake....   If the number the calculator comes back with is, say, 1700 then you could go with a spread of 1600-1800.

If your aim is to tone and if you're not technically overweight (BMI <25) go with a lower calorie deficit... 500 only... and work with strengthening/resistance exercises.  You might not lose all that much weight but you'd look considerably slimmer.

Hi Again, just thought of a couple of other things,

Watch the lower limit, the general advice on these forums is to keep above 1200 cals per day, less than that could cause other health problems, if you need to increase the deficit look at burning more calories.

Also look at your deficits over an avarage of a few days then the odd slip up on the diet side doesnt seem so bad.

also do the same with the weighing, dont be too worried with a sudden overnight gain/loss in a kg, this is often due to water gain/loss. I use the weight log and trend line. Even thought your weight goes up and down on a daily basis the trend will probably show a downward path if you are maintaining the deficit. 

good luck.

I joined a while ago and I use the same rule as robsheff simply because my activity varies as well.

I have a really hard time logging everyday so I pretty much log when I can and try to use the site to motivate me.

Im in the same boat 15-20 lbs to loose...seems like you can put it on over night but it takes soooooooooooo long to loose a few...

I have hit a plateau so I am back logging my food and activity most days to see if that will help me loose more.

Good Luck

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT!  that all seems to make sense but here's the problem. I am currently set at sedentary because, like robsheff, my activity varies. My burn o meter is at 1670 a day- but if I have a deficit of 500-1000 I drop below 1200 calories and I can't go below 1200... so...lets see if this is right:  if I eat like 1600 calories a day I wont lose weight-unless I work out (to increase the 1670  I already burn)- but on the days I dont work out...I would only be able to eat a min and max of 1200 calories...? My problem is when I only eat that much I'm still hungry! What do I do?

hey, i had the same problem and then i realized i should substitute sugary food like cereal!  so i started eat oatmeal, cut back on sugary fruit and snack on high-fiber veggies.  that'll keep me full for longer time.

i also have a healthy and filling lunch and snack throughout the day, at night i have a light dinner and go to bed early (so you won't stay awake because of hunger)

hope this helps!  good luck!!

Rather than set the activity log at sedentary and log exercise, I chose to set it at "light" and commit to at least 30 minutes of activity a day additional to my previous habits.  This gives me a more realistic amount of calories to set as my target each and every day, and also means that on days when I am really active I don't have to change my eating to accommodate the additional burn (unless I am extra hungry, I add in a healthy 200 calorie snack).  It also helps me to re-define myself as an "active" person which will keep me healthy as well as help me lose weight.

For me, I had the "habit" of overeating and under-exercising, so now I want to create the "habit" of eating appropriate portions and moving more.  I don't want to constantly change my calorie target to reflect how much I move on any given day.