Mixed messages on Calories per day

I'm 26, 218lbs, 5'4", and on average exercise 30 min per day.  Some days a lot more.  This website says I should eat 1300 calories per day to lose weight.  Another post in the Fitness Forum says we should go by this website:

http://www.phord.com/cc/

which says I should eat 1700 calories to lose weight.  Then there's Britney Spears' trainer who's making her eat only 1200 per day to lose (joking... sort of).

So who am I supposed to listen to?  I eat really well, getting an "A" on my analysis almost every day, plenty of protein, almost all fresh foods, etc.

to know for sure you need to know your lean muscle mass or your body fat percentage. a body fat scale can be found almost anywhere from target to a sports supply store.  and they're affordable. 

once you know your body fat percentage, here's a calculator that'll do it for you if you click on "advanced."

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calc ulator.htm#

good luck.

Well, I'm 5'4" and about 153 lbs.  and I can't imagine trying to get by on 1300 calories. I was losing on ~1500 and am maintaining right now at about 1800-2000.  I have been maintaining for most of the summer after losing 19 lbs, and I'm just about ready to try to start losing again. 

I would definitely go with the www.phord.com recommendations.   1300 is too low, especially with your exercise. 

Original Post by dali_rumi:

to know for sure you need to know your lean muscle mass or your body fat percentage. a body fat scale can be found almost anywhere from target to a sports supply store.  and they're affordable. 

once you know your body fat percentage, here's a calculator that'll do it for you if you click on "advanced."

 

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calc ulator.htm#

 

good luck.

Scales are only moderately accurate readers of body fat. For one thing, they are highly dependent on your hydration. Alcohol and heavy exercise or sweating, for example—dehydration issues—can throw off the scale. Skin temperature can also adversely affect the results of body fat scales, by affecting the electrical current the scale generates.

What makes these puppies work is that the signal travels faster through water. Because muscle is largely water, and fat contains little water, the scale is able to make a distinction and give you a reasonable estimate. But you can see from how it works how important hydration is to the equation.

Also, I find that mine is somewhat accurate only if I place in on the "athlete" setting. I am significantly under 20% body fat, and on that setting the scale tells me this, although it still isn't wholly accurate. If I set it on "regular," though, it estimates my body-fat percentage significantly higher than it is.

It has to do with the algorithms used. The algorithm used for someone who works out as much as is required for Athlete mode factors in the greater muscle mass and lower hydration level expected of athletes.

Most people won't need an Athlete setting, of course. For example, the Tanita scale's "athlete" is "someone who gets about 10 hours a week of intense physical activity (this can be exercise, work or leisure related). 'Athletes' also have a resting heart rate of about 60 beats per minute or less. This mode includes people who have been very fit for years but currently exercise less than 10 hours per week. It does not include 'enthusiastic beginners' who recently started making a real commitment to exercising at least 10 hours per week but whose bodies have not yet changed to qualify for the Athlete mode."

But on either setting, hydration, temperature, etc. remain issues.

The numbers that you should really know are your BMR and TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Lots of people on here confuse their maintenance level (or TDEE) with their BMR. If you're eating less than your BMR, you're headed for trouble.

Your BMR is simply the number of calories you burn by EXISTING. If you walk, talk, eat, or otherwise move around, you burn more calories than that.

Your TDEE, on the other hand, is the number of calories you burn every day, given your BMR and activity level. TDEE is found using the following formula:

BMR * Activity Factor = TDEE

For fat loss, you need to make sure the deficit you create is no more than 20% below your TDEE. Eating any LESS than 80% of your TDEE risks starting up your starvation response, which will prevent you from losing ANY weight. So:

TDEE * 0.80 = Optimal calorie intake for fat loss

Plus, since your activity level has been factored in, you don't need to worry about counting the number of calories you burn in the gym. Simply eat no LESS than 80% of your maintenance level, continue exercising, and you will see the FAT fall off in no time.

I question the accuracy of CC's meters and tools, which is why I suggest calculating your own BMR. Use the Katch-McArdle formula if you know your body fat percentage, or the Harris-Benedict formula if not.

Re: finding out your body fat percentage, one way to do this is with an inexpensive tool called the Accu-Measure ($20). It has been shown to have exceptional accuracy, close to the results from more expensive tools & tests.

Ok so I figured out all of those equations - and still came up with 1710 for optimal calorie intake for fat loss.  This seems awful high though - the majority of posts I'm reading where people lost a lot of weight had them only consuming 1300-1500 calories a day.

I know - eating more food seems counterintuitive, right? Most people have the exact same reaction after "running the numbers." However, depending on a person's body type, 1500 may in fact be his/her actual TDEE, just as you discovered 1710 is yours.

You absolutely lose WEIGHT when you starve yourself, however it's mainly from water and muscle, with only a little fat. What you're really interested in is FAT loss. And for that, you need your metabolism to be on FIRE.

Look, your body's too smart to be fooled just by cutting calories. After thousands of years of evolution, the human body has figured out a pretty good system to avoid starving. The problem is that your body doesn't know the difference between a diet and a famine.

So when you eat too few calories, the body's natural starvation response kicks in. When that happens, it hangs on to every last bit of your fat, slows down your metabolism (to conserve energy), and starts breaking down your muscles to get the protein it needs. Does that sound like the kind of weight loss you want?

Eating more food is like throwing more wood on a fire. In fact, one technique to break a plateau is to eat MORE than your TDEE for a day or two, then resume the 20% cut. As Tom Venuto says, you want to work WITH your metabolism, not against it.

For now, stick to eating no LESS than 80% of your maintenance level, exercise for 45-60 minutes 4-5 days a week with aerobics & strength training, get plenty of water, and eat "A" and "B" foods. Within 2 weeks, you'll see a noticeable difference. Within 4, you'll fit into those jeans/shorts/pants you've been wanting to for a while.

P.S. As your weight or age changes, your BMR changes too. Because of this, you'll need to recalculate your numbers so you can ensure you're getting the optimal number of calories for your fat loss efforts.

I am 27 years old, 5'4" and started at 189 lb.  So far, I've lost 19 pounds in 12 weeks, eating no fewer than 1600 calories per day (and generally, I am eating 1700-1800).  It sounds like I'm a bit more active than you are (I walk 40 min/day at lunch at work; run 30-40 minutes 4-5 days/week; and lift weights 15-20 minutes 3 times/week), but I can't imagine that you'd really want to be eating less than 1500 calories/day, at least to start.

Edited to clarify daily exercise.

I am 26 years old, 5'3", and I am at 187 lbs.  I would go crazy on less than 1400 cal/day and I'd end up binging! I aim for 1700 cal/day and sometimes a bit more if I worked out really hard or really, really, have a craving.  I work out 45-60 minutes 5-6 days a week, burning 500-700 calories per session.  You don't want to eat too little, or your body will go into starvation mode and hold on to your calories.  It helps me to stay realistic when I deduct the calories burned by working out from my daily consumption to reach the real number of calories I've consumed each day.  So, even if I eat 2000 calories today, and I burned over 700 calories at the gym, then I'm at 1300.  I've lost 7 lbs over the past two weeks!  Just pay attention to how your body feels-don't go hungry! Good luck!