at least 1200/day is BULL!!!!..for most people

Yes, the average amount a women should eat is at least 1200.  We all agree on this. But... what CC does not calculate is this:

I will use myself as an example. I'm 5'5 134lbs and 22 years old.  I have my activity set on sedentary as I sit in an office all day and classes (1700 cals/day) and add any additional excercise (going to the gym etc..) on top of that.

Now at 1700 cal/day CC says I could safely eat 1200 cal/day and lose 1/lb pere week.  WRONG.  Eating 1200 still puts my body in starvation mode!

Why?

My BMR is 1440.  this is the number that my body would burn if i slept for 24hrs straight.  It is the min # i need to eat to maintain my normal bodily functions (ex: breathing)  If I eat lower than this my body will go into starvation mode and store everthing I eat to have a 200 cal reserve for each day I only ate 1200 cal.

What this means as far as losing 1 lb per week:

1440+500 = 1950 burned to lose 1/lb per week

If I don't work out one day and still want my 500 deficit...too bad I cannot get it.  The highest deficit for that day will be 260.  Never eat below your bmr! and bmr is not 1200 for everyone that is an AVERAGE

I followed CC's advice in sept 06 to eat 1200 a day and safely lose.  What bull! I started at 129lbs and in 4 months had gained 15lbs. I was excercising and eathing healthy, just not enough. Once I figured out what was going wrong I bumped up my cals.  In another 3months I was back down to 134 by eating more!  I wasn't able to work out during this period either because I was too busy.  That's 10lbs in 3 months by eating more and not working out!!!!

Also while i'm posting I have something to add about low fat/carb diets.  Yes they work for the most part. But the biggest mistake that people make is think that if they eat no fat their body won't gain any fat. Wrong! You could eat no sugar or fat at all (hypothetically) but if you at 1500 cal and only burned 1400, 100 cal of those no fat no sugar foods would be turned into FAT by your body.  anything extra your body gets that is not burned off is turned into fat, regardless if it was a non fat food to begin with.

This also explains body starvation mode.  If you are eating low fat/carb but eating below your bmr you will gain fat.  Your body knows it needs to start reserving energy to maintain your bodily functions, so it turns whatever you feed it to fat because it is scared it would get feed again (and then what will it use to give you the energy to breathe?)  once you start eating at your bmr or higher again, you will initially gain a few lbs because your metab. is still slow, but once your body realizes it is getting food it will start let go of its reserves and you will start being able to lose as your metab. speeds back up.

This is also why it is important to eat breakfast! Even though you have only slept for about 8hrs this is enough time for you body to slowly start storing rather than burning.  If you eat as soon as you get up, your body knows it has energy till your next meal and won't hold onto your dinner from the night before.

Now people, STOP WITH THIS 1200 crap! calculate your BMR!

I hope you all scroll up to my other posts...it seems that as maddprofessor put it, "trusting" the BMR, then the Daily Caloric Reqirements number we get after that, is not going to give us a very accurate number.

There are several factors, it seems, that cause this number to be higher or lower, right?

I am using it, as well to calculate my deficit...I'm trying to create a deficit of 500 calories per day, but I'm a really tall, really big person, so I have some wiggle room.

I'm worried about the small folks who are using this figure, and not realizing that the accuracy of this number can vary, quite a very large bit..some doctors are suggesting as much as 20%, up or down.

SO....though the bmr calculator, and the Harris Benedict Equation appears to be well accepted for a rough ESTIMATE for us to work with, made possibly even more accurate by our doctors who might be able to help us tweek it.

mxo62xo...after using the BMR calculator, you will get a number. That number ROUGHLY estimates what your body will burn if you lay in bed all day.

If you are sedantary, you would multiply that number times 1.2.

The resulting number would estimate what your body burns in a day.

This would change, or course, if you exercise more, see above posts about BMR ..rough estimate with the tools we have just used.

3500 calories equals one pound.

Let's say the final number you got was 2,000 calories.

2,000 calories are the calories your body uses in one day, roughly.

If you only eat 1,500 calories, or if you burn 500 calories, you have created a 500 calorie deficit.

If you do that for 7 days in a row, you will have a deficit of 3,500 calories for the week.

3,500 calories equals one pound.

See how that goes?

The thing is, of course, is that if one believes the numerous reputable medical sites, we must ONLY use this as an estimate, so it is not going to be as perfect as the example, but it is darn worth using as a tool, no matter what anybody else says.

We don't treat it as some sort of biblical absolute, though,we'll just use it as another tool, right?

Somebody posted that the BMR is an "average". It isn't an average, is it?

The BMR gives us one number that then allows us to estimate our daily caloric requirements, so "average", is quite different.

Dee2139..Any opinion I have comes from a person who is over 100lbs overweight, and has not yet taken it off, but here it goes.

You have 10lbs left to lose (first of all Whoo-Hoo!!!).

Secondly, are you sure your body really wants you to lose that 10 lbs?

I'd just recently read some stuff on "setpoint", or a number the body may seem to like to be. It sounded as if this was in the process of being researched, so still a theory right now, but interesting, and worth a google.

Did you multiply the number you got from the BMR calculator times the figure in the Harris Benedict Chart?

1493.75 sounds very low...

BMR ONLY represents the number of calories your body would burn if you stayed in bed all day....you need to multiply THAT number times AT LEAST 1.2 for sedentary activity, to get your body's daily caloric requirement.

It is that number that you would subtract 599 from.

How long has it been since you have had a physical? I think when you are experiencing symptoms such as weakness, it is time to make an appointment, have your blood drawn, tell your doctor you have felt weak, and let him make sure that something entirely different isn't going on. Anybody who doesn't give you that advise to begin with is not being responsible.

Go to the doctor and make sure your bloodwork is all normal. Go now.

Then come back and post and see what folks here have done to get off that last stubborn bit.

erica1649...did you calculate your bmr, then multiply times one of the numbers in the Harris Benedict Chart in order to get your Daily Caloric Requirements? Find the BMR calculator link in the above posts.

I have freckles that weigh more then 108lbs.  Wouldn't somebody around 4'11" look pretty darn slender at 115lb, or so? Being short must be tough..I am, unfortunately, 5'10-1/2", and only spent a life dreaming of being small.

Be tough, I'm frustrated, too, but they can't say we've failed until we give up, can they?

Best to All,

Jen

 

 

This is a very interesting post! 

But please keep in mind that you're not seriously overweight.  For those of us who are (or were) 100 lbs or more overweight, eating more than our starting BMR is not a great idea because we wouldn't lose nearly quickly enough.

 

I think that if you're in a healthy weight range already, it's a bad idea to eat less than your BMR.  But if you are 100 lbs overweight, I would calculate the BMR for my GOAL WEIGHT, then set my calorie goals a bit above that. 

 

My BMR right now(189 lbs) is 1646 calories, and I do eat about 1700-1800 calories per day, with occasional higher days for a monthly average of around 1900.

 

But my BMR when I started out (275 lbs) would have been 2029.85 cal.  If I had eaten a few hundred above that, I think I would have had much slower progress.  By the same token, if I had eaten much less than I do, I think I would have been less healthy and more likely to rebound.

 

I agree that eating too little is a real problem, but so is eating too much. I think the term "starvation mode" is bandied about a bit much, especially considering how difficult it is to demonstrate whether a person is really in "starvation mode" and has a severely slowed metabolism, or if they are just not counting their calories scrupulously (researchers have consistently found that the majority of test subjects who diet but don't lose weight have CONSISTENTLY underestimated their own calorie intake by 25 to 50%.) 

Unfortunately, we're not scientists with the ability to strictly monitor what other posters are REALLY eating in order to advise them to either A. eat more because they're eating too little and slowing their metabolism or B. learn to count their calorie intake  more accurately because they're eating a lot more than they think.  People who are supposedly eating the right calories but are not losing will have to take a hard look at they way they count their calories, how much they exercise, and all the other variables in their own routine and figure out for themselves which of the two problems is bedeviling them.  (A third possibility is that they are already on track to lose weight, but have just started and are expecting results unrealistically soon - lasting results will take weeks, not days, people!)

 

Again, thanks for bringing this up - it does seem to point out a flaw in the tools for people of a certain height and weight.  And thanks for the BMR calculation formula.

 

I think this post is great. I was following my calories very carefully, even writing them down at home more than here and was not loing weight. I was fluctuating up and down daily with water weight, but that was it. The last few days I went off the diet...a little....I still tried to make healthy choices, but I had a meal and a snack everyday that were way more calories than normal, and voila, I lost a pound a day, 3 days in a row.....I think this site is great.....but for me anyway....it was more about making a concious effort to move my body, and stop eating junk all the time....and it's working better for me. I got to caught up in being so strict on my cal intake, and I felt tired all the time, AND I was getting nowhere.

Guess it works for me 'cause I'm old and lazy................I have consistently lost since I started and I keep my calories pretty close to 1250 like suggested. 

one question though......Why are you using CC if you don't like it? 

By george, I think I've got it.  Unfortunately I"m one of the "small" people...so my deficit (minus any extra exercise) would be very difficult to attain and still eat.  My sedentary caloric intake "should be" 1416...so I need to up my exercise some to get the deficit I"m looking for.  But it makes perfect sense why if I'm not exercising why I can't lose on 1200 calories a day...I"m going to try this out for a couple weeks...increase my exercise "biking" time to 60 minutes...I'll report back in two weeks!!! Or message me and I'll give you the update.

Thanks Jenn.  I will try out some of the suggestions noted above and check in later.  I have been to my MD and I am waiting on them.  I did multiply the number again and still got 1493.75. I felt it was low myself and the only thing I can think of is it's because I set a goal of a date to get the last 10lbs off.   I guess I will continue on my path of eating well and exercising when I feel like it so I feel healthy and toned.  I will listen to my body and continue tracking what I eat as well but if I go over my calories one day, oh well.  I will also talk to my nutritionist about this see if she can shed some light, since this hasn't been our main focus, I know she can help.

Thanks Again and Best of Luck to All!

Dee  :)

Hey All,

udokier, I wonder if some folks are relying on the BMR figure as there final figure...

one needs to multiply that times AT LEAST 1.2, in order to get the figure we can work with somewhat, and that is NOT the BMR, but rather, the second figure we obtain from multiplying the BMR times the activity value we pull from the Harris Benedict chart...

I did not mention, that I, too, think the "starvation mode" term is thrown around a bit too much, and is often accompanied by alarmist language, such as "You're going to kill yourself!!!"

Eating at just one's caloric needs is actually a movement which has been featured on several major news shows.

It is called something like very low calorie, it is NOT being used for weight loss, but by some folks who are wishing to be healthy. Some preliminary studies had actually shown some of these folks to be very healthy, though it goes against what is currently touted as healthy.

Dee, it is great to hear you're going to see a doc and a nutritionist. I love this site, but I would not take medical advise from anybody who is not qualified to be giving it, and that would be the majority of the members of this site, and all others, I guess.

People often mistake there own personal success, and what they have read somewhere, as fact, and offer it up to others as such.

I, personally, would not even follow the advise of just one professional, but would make certain I've researched as much as I can, with the limitations inherent in being a layperson, before I took action on an important matter.

Just to reiterate, I think we need to make sure that we are using our daily caloric requirements as our working figure, and NOT BMR, as I hear folks refer to, here.

BMR refers only to an estimate of how many calories your body would burn if you stayed in bed all day..

Daily Caloric Requirements refers to the estimate of what our body will burn, with activity taken into consideration.

Best to All,

Jen

Original Post by lizshuler:


I followed CC's advice in sept 06 to eat 1200 a day and safely lose.  What bull! I started at 129lbs and in 4 months had gained 15lbs. I was excercising and eathing healthy, just not enough. Once I figured out what was going wrong I bumped up my cals.  In another 3months I was back down to 134 by eating more!  I wasn't able to work out during this period either because I was too busy.  That's 10lbs in 3 months by eating more and not working out!!!!

 

Still keep in mind that everybody's body is different. I've been eating 1200 calories for about 4 months now, before I even found CC, and I'm steadily losing weight. Occasionally it slows down for a week or two or I increase my calories for a week with junk food but I haven't gained any of the weight back at all. I've gone from 165 to 144 weighing in every few weeks and my average wight loss is always around a pound a week.

Original Post by jenayn:

For the basal metabolic rate estimation to be accurate, several assumptions must be true at the time of measurement: absence of gross muscular activity - i.e. you MUST be resting, and your muscles MUST be relaxed post-absorptive state - i.e. 12 hours or more after the last meal thermal neutrality - i.e. ambient temperature variations should be minimal emotional disturbance must be minimal, as studies have shown that emotional upset, particularly apprehension, may result in rises in BMR of from 15–40 percent awake state, as sleep tends to depress BMR by approximately 10 percent If you want to read more about BMR variability, J.V.G.A. Durnin from the University of Glasgow Glasgow, Scotland, has published a very interesting paper on this topic, entitled BASAL METABOLIC RATE IN MAN.

Wait, so isn't stress supposed to increase cortisol, a hormone that tells your body to STORE fat? 

Just something to add:  not having ENOUGH sleep will DECREASE your metabolism by up to 30%, which is something we DEFINITELY don't want.

Original Post by saxy:

Still I am encouraged, my doctor told me that I should be eating only 1100 calories and that when I drop 8 more lbs that it needs to drop to 900 calories. I know I am short (5'3) and getting up there in years (36) but I did feel that was nigh unto impossible! When I asked him if this was healthy he assured me that people need much less food than they think and this would make me much healthier.

Is your doctor located in a concentration camp? What the hell

ahhhhh im confused :(

I am logging in for the first time in months, and it was interesting to see what was added to this post.

Don't be confused, fairydust.

just write down the formula above, grab a calculator, and input your information in the blanks.

The big deal is remembering that apx 3,500 calories equals one pound.

The most important thing to remember is this sort of sites might attract people who will make absolute statements, that may or may not be accurate.

I believe the science of weight loss seems to be ever-changing, as new things are learned, and old assumptions must be discarded to accommodate the new theories.

It seems to me only one's doctor, and a trusted doctor, at that should be dispensing super personal instructions about one's health.

Best,

Jen

http://www.j3nn.net/   <<<this girl has a great blog on BMR

ok so i calculated it..and let's see if i got this right.

 

instead of the 1200 that it said I should be eating, i have a BMR (calculated it) of 1615 calories. being 5'2", 175.5lbs, and 20 years old... it means I should be eating a little bit over 400 calories more than I have been? so my body stores that 400 calories for the next day...? ew! no wonder I've been putting on weight instead of losing it. that amounts to almost a weight gain of a pound a week - just for not knowing this.

 

so i naturally burn 1939...to create a 500 deficit i have to burn an extra 176 cals?

i hope i didnt do the math wrong ;o;.

i guess just don't eat any less than 1615, and I hope someone else can explain more..good luck!

OK, so here's how it seems to work.

The BMR is your resting metabolic rate, which is what your body, roughly burns through all its processes...this can vary wildly depending on your muscle mass, age, size, the temperature, many other factors, but without going into a formal lab for testing we are just going to use the chart, and call it roughly accurate.

So that's when your theoretically sitting still.

Your body burn roughly 1,610 calories per day, all by itself.

But we do move, don't we? And when we use our muscles and move, we burn calories, right?

SO. Now we will add those extra calories we are burning through our daily movement and activities, once again, giving us a number.

Your BMR is 1,610.

You have decided your activity level is sedentary, but that is still going to burn some calories.

So we multiply according to the chart, X1.2...

Our bodies BMR (resting calorie burning) TIMES (Calories we burn, extra) 1.2

Equals the approximiate calories our body burns just by existing PLUS what we burn off by activity.

You said that was around 1,900 calories per day for you.

Your body must USE 1,900 calories per day.

If you eat 1,900 calories per day, you will provide the calories your body needs, and will burn off, and will stay the same weight.

BUT. What if I only eat 1,400 calories per day? Where will my body get those extra 500 calories it needs to function? It will take that fuel from our fat stores, hopefully.

Well if I eat 1,400 calories for 7 days, but my body actually NEEDS 1,900 every day, I have now required my body to use 3,500 calories of my fat, in order to function.

3,500 calories equals one lb!

By eating less calories per day then my body requires to function, I've forced my body to use my fat, which results in weight loss. Muscles also can get burned, and this is quite a bit more complicated, but for our purposes, it gives us a rough number to work with.

You can also lose weight by changing the number of calories per day your body burns.

If your body needs 1,900 calories per day, normally, and you eat 1,400, as we know, 500 calories of fat is burned each day.

But if we BURN another 500 calories per day through exercise, and by building up our muscle mass (more muscles means our body burns more calories), NOW we are burning 500 calories AND eating 500 calories less then the 1,900 calorie number, so we are using 1,000 calories a day of fat.

In one week, that equals 7,000 calories of fat. That equals 2 lbs.

It is crucial to remember, no matter what anybody on the Internet may tell you, these numbers are not accurate, or precise. You MUST consult a specialist in order to have your BMR tested more accurately, and your Daily Caloric Needs more accurately determined.

But it gives us something to work with.

BMR is NOT the number we work with, though members on this site suggest it is.

BMR (Calories burned by the body for its various processes) needs to be multiplied by at least 1.2 (Sedentary activity) to provide us with our Daily Caloric Needs, which for you is around that 1,900 mark, right?

Not that complicated.

Be tough.

Jen

Thanks for the web information.  I've been trying to eat 1200 calories and just calculated that I should actually be eating 1417 cals.  I'm going to try that for a week and see how I do.  It can't get much worse, since this is day 26 of a plateau!