Questions about calories in/out... Please help
Hey everyone. Some co-workers and I are all dieting and I finally have the motivation and support thats going to help me follow through. I am 5'6", 168lbs and 23 years old. My current goal is to reach 140lbs. When? I dont know. I'm not educated enough on dieting to set a realistic goal date.
I've been eating healthier foods and keeping close track of my calorie intake. I currently eat 150 - 200 calories for breakfast. A mid-morning snack, usually 50-100 calories. Lunch is 200-250 and dinner has been between 250-350. Sometimes I have a 100 calorie snack after work, before dinner.
Dieting has made me take a close look at what I had been eating prior to this. Usually 2 fast food meals a day.
I feel like I'm eating MORE now (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner). But my caloric intake is much lower now. Rarely have I reached 1,000 calories.
Everything I've been reading says that this is really bad for me. That my body will start eating muscle and storing fat.
My question is this...
What is the difference between eating more than 1200 calories - and working out 3-4x a week.... And eating less than 12000 calories and not excercising that often? I work in an office and am pretty sedentary - I rarely have time to exercise - This past week I was only able to get cardio in one day.
Dont both of these scenarios result in roughly the same calories out? How much of a calorie deffict is HEALTHY before my body starts to store fat and eat muscle?
Any advice would be helpful. I'm pretty confused and could use any advice.
Ah, well, see, if you're working out 3-4x a week, then it's NOT healthy to eat 1200 calories. The 1200 calorie rule isn't about calories, really, there's no way to safely put down a blanket minimum on calories, because people are just to diverse.
"Why must I eat at least 1,200 calories a day when I want to eat less?In order to get the daily food servings you need for a balanced diet, it takes about 1200 calories a day. With careful planning, you could have a balanced diet on 1000 calories, but the restrictiveness of a very low calorie level can lead to binging and weight cycling. What's more, very low calorie diets can cause excessive muscle breakdown and metabolic adaptations, which can make you need fewer calories to maintain a higher weight."
Now, onto the rest! :D
A healthy daily deficit is one that puts you at a loss of ~1% of your body weight per week, or if you're very close to a healthy weight, even less. For most people, this is between 1-2lbs loss per week. It takes 3500 calories to make up 1lbs of fat.
For a loss of 1lbs per week, you would need...
3500 (calorie deficit) / 7 (days a week) = 500 (cal a day)
Since at lightly active, which is pretty much anything above bed rest, but not really working out regularly, you would burn 2100 calories a day....
2100 - 500 = 1600
So, by what you've described, you would need to eat 1600 calories a day to lose 1lbs/week. This is usually the easiest, and most sustainable path for most people. If you wanted to lose a little faster, you could take away another 250 calories a day, and eat 1350 a day for a loss of 1.5lbs/week, or add an extra 250 calories of exercise every day.
Your body's not gonna flip out if you don't eat enough and only break down muscle and store fat, but it will happen to some degree, and when trying to lose weight, you really wanna keep all the sexy, shapely muscle, instead of encouraging it to leave. Muscle is denser than fat (so it takes up less space), and burns calories just by being there, which means you get to eat more without gaining (which'll be nice once you're in maintenance).
You're not getting enough protein in your diet, because you're simply not eating enough, and that alone spurs muscle deterioration. You're not getting enough healthy fats, which do great things for hair and skin (not to mention your brain). And let's not forget carbs, which are our body's favourite energy source, and without them, you're less likely to WANT to fit in more cardio.
Undereating (such as only eating 1000 calories a day) for a long period of time has also been shown to cause serious psychiological problems, and it makes people tired and cold a lot, which is no fun around the holidays.
By the way, have you read this, this, and this yet? If you haven't, do it, they're important.
Hope this helps. :)
It does help. Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm reading the links you directed me to right now.
Thank you for responding!
The first post is absolutely right. You really do need to be eating more. Based on your stats, I calculated your bmr to be 1590. It is recommended that you do not eat below this number because this is the number of calories your body requires to run your body and eating below this number could slow your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight. If you want to create a bigger deficit, you should add exercise instead of eating less.
I know you are scared of eating more calories, Ive been in your situation. The real solution is to eat more than you do.
As others have said, the short answer is that you can't get enough nutrients from under 1000 calories a day. In the long run, you'll be doing your body more harm than good, and you're more likely to gain the weight back if you lose it unhealthily and too fast. You'll also mess up your metabolism.
People need to remember that calories in/out isn't just about how much you put in your mouth.. calories out is a lot more important than calories in.
There was a study with people who lowered calories by 1000 below maintenance, but the primary food in their diet was HFCS (High fructose corn syrup), and they actually gained fat while losing weight (In the form of muscle).
Eating the right foods and macronutrients is as important or even more important than getting the right calorie intake.
Original Post by ibez:
People need to remember that calories in/out isn't just about how much you put in your mouth.. calories out is a lot more important than calories in.
There was a study with people who lowered calories by 1000 below maintenance, but the primary food in their diet was HFCS (High fructose corn syrup), and they actually gained fat while losing weight (In the form of muscle).
Eating the right foods and macronutrients is as important or even more important than getting the right calorie intake.
I personally avoid HFCS, but I think people are a little rough on it, regardless. Hating HFCS almost seems like a trend these days.
Of course, nutrition is extremely important, but I'm curious about the other factors of this study... It seems like a more reliable source for muscle deterioation would be a lack of exercise, or by cutting calories too low. How many calories did these people need to maintain? A sedentary woman could maintain on 1600-1800 calories a day, and we know eating 600-800 calories a day would definitely cause some level of muscle loss and fat gain after a decent length of time.
Do you have more information about this study?
Original Post by keb1984:
The first post is absolutely right. You really do need to be eating more. Based on your stats, I calculated your bmr to be 1590. It is recommended that you do not eat below this number because this is the number of calories your body requires to run your body and eating below this number could slow your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight. If you want to create a bigger deficit, you should add exercise instead of eating less.
I think this is the information (that I've read by more than just you) that confuses me the most.
Let's say I do eat 1600 calories a day - But I exercise enough to burn an additional 200 calories a day. What's the difference between doing this and only eating 1400 calories with no additional exercise? Either way my body is at a 200 calorie deficit...
People keep saying it is reccomended to not eat below your bmr. But isn't my body at a 200 calorie deficit regardless of if I don't eat those 200 calories or if I do eat them and burn them off later?
