Should I really be eating this much?

Forgive me for being a newbie, but I have been at this about a week now.  I did the calculation for my weight and the amount of weight I wish to lose and its at right about 1800 calories.  Really?  This seems way too high.  Maybe I am just brainwashed from years of uninformed dieting, but I was always under the assumption that to lose weight, a woman should drop to about 1200 calories.  That's what I had been doing this week until I looked around the site and played with the calorie intake tool.

 

I did the BMR tool too...it says that I should burn 2700 calories a day by doing nothing.  That means my 1800 would be at almost 1000 below, which from alot of the posts I have read here seems bad.  But raising my calories up seems insane to me to try to lose weight.

 

Am I doing this right?  Should I really increase my calories?  I mean, I was eating around approximately 2200 calories before this diet and haven't lost a pound in years...only gained.  And when I originally did the burn tool, it said that this was a good calorie amount if I wanted to lose the weight over a longer period of time.  

 

I am currently at 261 lbs and am 5' 6" and am 28 years old.  I am probably light activity too...if that helps.

 

So what should I do?  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks! 

That does sound off!  Mine is off to I think.  Try the discovery health tool (google body challege)  It gives me way different stats.

eat and enjoy! this site is usually right, at least it seems to be for me. good luck.

Most sedentary to  moderately active adults need between 11 to 16 calories a pound. A quadruplegic needs about 10. It is pretty hard to find any adult that needs less than 10 calories a pound. If you are 1000% sure, at 261 pounds, that you gain weight on 2200, then you should see a doctor.  But at 261, if you are eating 1800... I might say that could even be slightly low. There is a school of thought that you should not eat below your RMR, and I come up with 1921 for you. That's 7.3 calories a pound... plenty low.  Even if you have a very slow metabolism of 10.3 calories a pound, that's still a 783 calorie deficit per day (261 x 3).

As you lose weight, your body needs fewer calories to sustain itself, you will need to eat less to get the same rate of loss. So a small women trying to get to a low body weight (under 130) might need to diet at 1200 to get to her goal. I'm maintaining 128 on about 1500 to 1600 calories per day, so clearly I would gain if I ate 1800... but it is a good number for you to lose weight on.

I guess you have a point shiptona...since I have the higher weight to begin with, I will take more calories even too lose.  I know that the reason I gain at around 2200 is because I have PCOS, which is the reason I am trying to lose anyways.  Thanks for the help.

I guess I should raise my calorie level up then.  Ugh...I've had 736 calories today...that means I should have another 1000 calories before bed.  I don't know if that can happen today, but tomorrow I will try. 

both this site and the discovery site says i should be eating 2000 calories a day...i feel like thats a bit crazy...thats a lot of food.. i try to stay between 1200 and 1300.... if i dont loose any weight this week ...again...grr... i will try to up my calories i guess

shiptona;

How do you calculate your BMR yourself? That would really help me because every calculator I try on the net says something different!! 

This site told me to do 1700 and I was doing about 1500 daily.  Then my doctor upped my calorie intake to 1800 and I have lost weight like crazy these past two weeks.  I would play around with your calories and your exercise and determine what works for your body.  It really is a learning game when you first start out.  1800 would be a good start then you can adjust from there as your body determines. 

I think you may be misunderstanding the numbers.  I used your numbers and here's what I got:  If you did absolutely nothing at all, you would need 1968 calories to maintain your weight.  If you calculate your light activity, you would need 2362 calories to maintain your weight.  If you would like to loose 1 lb a week, subtract 500 calories.  That would give you a 1862 calorie a day diet.  If you would like to loose a little more you could subtract 1000 calories, bringing you to 1362.  That probably isn't the healthiest way though.  So you may want to shoot for something between the two.  Good luck, and I hope that helped a little.

I use the calculator at www.shapeup.org to figure RMR.  The BMR is based on the Harris-Benedict formula, which was devised back in the early part of the century. But yes, different sites give different numbers... pick an average.

The important thing to remember is that the number given for RMR (or BMR, basically the same thing) is based on averages for people of your same stats. You might be different. Metabolic studies show that even when comparing people of the exact-same fat-free mass, their RMRs can vary hundreds of calories above or below the "mean."  In addition there have been a number of studies that show that the formula to compute BMR is typically about 12% high, as compared to tests of real people. 

Take me, for example. Supposedly my RMR is 1250. I maintain on about 1550 (more if I am doing some heavy-duty house renovation or maintenance project). Of the 300 calories in between RMR and total expenditure, about 10% of my total daily calories is used to digest food (not part of RMR). So 300 minus 155 is 145. That leaves me 145 calories to fuel all my activities for the 16 hours I am awake. Huh? Obviously my RMR is lower than 1250.  Supposedly RMR is about 65% of all the calories you eat during the day.  65% of 1550 is 1008 calories... that makes sense to me as more likely my RMR... basically 42 calories per hour in a fasting state doing nothing.  So say I have 40 calories on top of the RMR 42 for the 16 hours I am awake... an average of 82. Yeah, this is possible, I do a lot of sitting most days. But this is why, when people are SO confident that they burn X amount of calories at the gym, I kinda wonder.

I just go to RMR as a starting point, usually a good number for people to start to diet on, and adjust from there if losing too fast or slow.  I also like to look at it the calories-per-pound way, which to be honest, is about as accurate for figuring the total calorie need.

WOW! So complex, but you're very detailed! Thank you!  Ok, so my BMR is somewhere in the 1400's (I am 5'4.75" 142lbs, 27 years), where I am confused, is if you are not supposed to eat below your BMR, why is calorie count telling me 1200 daily?

Hi -- I agree with biggestloserfan and jill91198..

Here's perhaps a simpler way to look at it w/o getting into BMR's and different methods of calculating them:

If you've been maintaining at your current intake, once you figure out what that is, it should be a simple matter of tweaking both calories by -250 (as simple as dropping a serving of juice and a piece of toast) and exercise by another -250 (easy as a nice walk) to burn 500 extra calories per day, and, theoretically, lose a pound per week (3500 cal's per pound / 7).  The combination of diet + exercise should stay at or above the -500 range per day or you will lose weight too fast and will probably rebound or plateau quickly.  If you don't see results, rather than risk lowering your metabolism by eating even less, try doing more, especially adding brief strength training sessions that will boost your BMR even while you sleep!  Just 10 - 20 minutes, 3 x a week will give you long-lasting benefits.

Oh -- one more thing the idea that 2000's a day is a lot of food may be true for you, but, hee, hee.. to me that's a harsh diet!  I've been maintaining at 125 for decades on about 2200-2500, and I don't really 'pig out' or eat junk food and sweets.  The trick for me is to graze.  I eat frequent, small meals, lots of protein, and try to stay pretty active.  I get teased about how I get to eat so much, but I think what helps is that I do quite a bit of strength training.  Admittedly, as I turn the corner at 40, my metabolism is slowing down.  Stripping off even a few measly pounds is more and more difficult. 

All the same, eating a bit less and doing a bit more works for me, if I'm patient.  At the moment I'm having success with a 300 calorie deficit and losing just a half-pound a week.  I could try losing faster, but I love food too much! 

 Good luck!

 :o)

Tara

Hi, I have no idea what any of you are saying. I just joined up and am trying to figure out how to use the food diary thingy. my name is Helan and I have been told to eat 1500 cals. (or was it 1800?) id better check. nice to have you all on line to get help from. talk soon.

Why don't you try dropping your calories gradually?  That way your body won't think it's starving, and you can find your comfort level. 1800 sounds like a good place to be though, and then once you lose some weight, you'll have to decrease your calorie intake again.  So, what if you started at 2000 for a week, just as a break-in, and then drop 100 calories-per-day every 10 lbs, until you get to 1200.  You should never eat less than 1200, and I found that I don't lose ANY weight if I eat below 1400.

I totally agree-- my weight loss stops whenever my calories go too low.

Sounds like a good plan to shave off calories gradually just to find the right balance.