real confused!!!!!!!! someone please tell me what to do??

good morning people.....

well now im real confused my friend spoke to her trainer at the gym yesterday about me and the way i was eating my exercise program etc....cals in ......

AND YOU KNOW WHAT HE TOLD HER ............ THAT IAM EATING TOO MUCH AT 1400-1500 OMG WHAT ,ANYWAY HE SAID THE REASON IM GAINING IS THAT IM EATING TOO MUCH ,THAT WOMEN SHOULD EAT ABOUT 11 CALS PER POUND BODY WEIGHT TO MAINTAIN SO THAT MEANS TODAYS WEIGHT OF 132 MY CALS SHOULD BE TO MAINTAIN 1452 ,SO HOW MUCH SHOULD I EAT TO LOOSE ???????????

MY AGE 39 YEARS 5'2 132 POUNDS ... AND EXERCISE 50 MINUTES CARDIO INTENSE.....

SO WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK......

ANNA

Hi- I went to Women's health mag website to figure out my ideal cals so i went back there for you ( it has a lot of great info).  At your weight you should eat about 1480 on a lazy day and on a very active day you should eat about 1870 this is supposed to give you a weight loss of one to two pounds per week.  I think your eating fine.  Maybe switch up your excercise routine to fool your body.  Strength training will build muscle which burns more cals then fat.  Add a little to your routine.   I hope this helps!  Good luck.

Hi- I went to Women's health mag website to figure out my ideal cals so i went back there for you ( it has a lot of great info).  At your weight you should eat about 1480 on a lazy day and on a very active day you should eat about 1870 this is supposed to give you a weight loss of one to two pounds per week.  I think your eating fine.  Maybe switch up your excercise routine to fool your body.  Strength training will build muscle which burns more cals then fat.  Add a little to your routine.   I hope this helps!  Good luck.

 

HI- I was also eating 1600 calories based on information I have read for weight, height, age and activity. This is what is recommended for weight loss if you are of normal metabolic rate. I was getting nowhere with intense exercise and strength training. I have never had a problem losing weight up until about a year ago. I had an ovary removed and it seems all went down hill from there. Anyway, a friend of mine was also having the same problem, she recently joined a one on one weight loss with a doctor. The doctor did a test of resting metabolic rate where she found her rmr was 1100. That meant she burns 1100 calories doing nothing. She also exercises and eats very healthy! The doctor told her this is why she is not losing, her rmr is very low and you can't really change it. In order for her to loose weight she needs to eat 900 but not to drop below 800. This would be starvation mode for her. The 900 is taking into consideration her exerceise as well.

Having said that..I went for a hormone consultation and the doctor just happened to have this high tech scale that measured body fat, muscle mass, etc. Anyway it also gave an estimate for bmr (which seems to be similar to rmr). Now this method of testing is not as accurate as the machine my friend used, but it gives a direction. This scale said my bmr was 1279. This is an estimate of how many calories I burn doing nothng, thereofre I just began eating between 1000 and 1100 calories a day. It has not been a week yet and I have had the weekend in there (which I always consume more on the weekend), but I think I am noticing the scale dropping. I had tried everthing....eating frequently, eating 1600 calories because that is what I thought I needed to eat based on my activity level, nothing was working. I think all the information one reads on caloric intake is based on the normal person and metabolic rate, which there are those that have a slower metabolic rate than ohers. I just hought I would share this information.

Good luck

People: BMR is what you burn while COMATOSE, not sedentary. That's the "11 calories per pound per day" (a rough estimate that works for people of normal or near-normal weight). It is what you burn to keep your heart pumping and your lungs breathing, etc.

Sedentary activities, like typing, getting up to the bathroom, walking to your car, etc. burn calories too, and you add those to your expenditure. For your sedentary expenditure, you take your BMR and multiply it by 1.2. This is sometimes called RMR (incorrectly, because scientifically, RMR is the same thing as BMR) For light activity (light exercise, or a couple hours of walking in a day) then you take your BMR and multiply by 1.5.

Sure, your mileage may vary, but if someone really is burning 1100 calories per day while sedentary (unless they are like 4'7" and 80 lbs), I would worry about hypothyroidism or possibly metabolic slowdown due to prolonged undereating. People do vary naturally, but not usually by more than 10-15% one way or the other (some people burn a little hot, some a little cold).

In nearly all cases, the problem is misestimating intake, rather than your body being too sluggish. Not always our fault, labels can lie and calorie counting tools can disagree (and portions can be eyeballed). Anita, I don't know how small you must be to have a BMR of 1279, but it's very possible that you aren't losing weight because you don't have any weight to lose. Once the body is at a healthy weight, it does tend to resist weight loss.

hey thanks

well i will eat less than i will try to go down to 1300 cals my bmr according to harris benedict guy is 1325 i also exercise alot so what do i do do i stick to 1300 ? or add the exercise in also? man this very confusing but maybe iam eating too much or maybe not enough ok lets vote who thinks im eating too much and who thinks im eating too little if i go down to 1300?????

 

anna

You weigh less then me and I only eat 1000-1200 a day even with exercise. I think that 1300 might be a good start but don't eat more on the days you work out just stick to 1300 every day. If you don't notice a difference in about a month then lower your calorie in take by 100 calories. Also eat as much protein as you can get. Protein bars and shakes are good. Women should get about 65 grams of protein a day. Six small meals a day and lots of protein and water will help you stay full longer. Take vitamins also, this will give your body what it needs if you aren't getting it from food. Good luck!!!

Tanya

Do not go below 1200 calories.  Period.  It is very difficult to get all the nutrients the female human body needs in less than 1200 calories.  It can be done, but usually only by a nutritionist.  Seriously, do not try this at home.

Trainers et al can sometimes get tunnel vision, in my experience.  Particularly trainers at gyms that do not specialize in health fitness, as opposed to generic fitness or body maintenance.  My gym, for example, is connected to a hospital, and housed with its physical therapy and orthopedics departments.  They are more about getting and keeping health, than building or toning appearance.

As mentioned above, your BMR is the expenditure of calories necessary for you to be alive but comatose.  Heart beats, blood flows, brain fires ... but there is NO movement.  Any movement adds to the caloric burn.

If you want a good guide, the one here on CC+ is pretty good.  If you put in your age, weight and choose "sedentary" you'll have the basic caloric burn necessary for you to maintain your current weight with a desk job and TV the rest of the time. Then use the activity meter to monitor how much total you are burning as you add activities.  Not just exercise, but housework, standing in line at the bank, lifting kids ... it all counts.

If you burn 500 calories more than you eat each day, you should lose 1-2 pounds a week.

At 54, 5'3", 222 pounds, my RMR was 1719.  This tells me that a goal of 1400 calories per day would constitute a starvation diet -- and the body will *lower* its metabolism in the face of famine.

Instead, I'm aiming for 2000 calories per day (which, frankly, I'm having a bit of trouble reaching; I usually end up at about 1850 or so) and 2500 calories of burn.  However much I eat, I make sure it's 500 calories less than I burn.  Obviously, as I lose weight, my RMR will lower (even though I exercise more) and I'll need to cut down calories accordingly.  But at a lower weight, I won't need as much, so I won't register hunger as long as I keep eating the right stuff at the correct frequency.

Hope this helps. 

Original Post by trustwomen:

People: BMR is what you burn while COMATOSE, not sedentary. 

 

That was simply wonderful.

You could eat lower calories on certain days. . .I lost weight by bringing down my calories,  2-3 times a week, and kicking up my exercise. As soon as I did this I dropped an extra 10lbs. . .

carolf_new:

"At 54, 5'3", 222 pounds, my RMR was 1719.  This tells me that a goal of 1400 calories per day would constitute a starvation diet -- and the body will *lower* its metabolism in the face of famine."

This is not a starvation diet.  Going by your BMR for eating is a great tool when you are already in a healthy bmi range.  If you are above your healthy bmi range your BMR is taking in account the energy needed to lug around excess fat.  So if you are above your BMI, eating below your BMR is not going to put you in starvation mode as long as you are not eating below the BMR for a HEALTHY BMI.  I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, i just want to make sure you understand.  Your bmi at 54 yr old, 5'3 and 222lbs is 39.1, to obtain an healthy bmi you would need to get down to approximately 140 lbs (again calculations are not always the best estimate as they do not take in account muscle etc.) but anyway... 140lbs would put you at a bmi of 24.  The BMR for someone at your height and age at 140 lbs is 1400 cals.  This means that you COULD eat 1400 cals/day and not go into starvation mode.  Again, that difference of 300 cals between the 2 bmr calculation is what is need to carry excess body weight...excess body weight you do not need, therefore you do not need to give your body the energy to carry it around. 

Unless you get tested by a dr with their fancy machines, BMR is a rough calculation.  It will overestimate for overweight people and underestimate for very muscular people. 

lizschuler - thanks for the input.

What you says makes perfect sense.  BUT, there is also the problem that if you decrease your caloric intake too radically, your body will still interpret it as "starvation/famine" and store calories into fat accordingly -- and continue to do so once you are eating "normally" again ("normal" being a new normal, we hope.)  That's one of the reasons yo-yoing happens.

That additional storage is done via insulin, which can lead to excessive insulin production, which can lead to Type2 diabetes ...

I'm not actually arguing with you.  However, I would not go on a 1400 calorie diet without my physician, a nutritionist and/or a personal trainer working with me.  By making sure that I expend a minimum of 500 calories MORE than I eat, I'm losing about 1/2-1 pound per week.  Obviously, as I continue to lose, I will need to trim my weight-loss caloric intake to keep the same ratio.

Does that make sense?

To be truthful, I have another reason for using the 500 calorie difference between intake and burn  as my guide -- it is a goal I know I can keep.  And I am determined that this time I will lose it, steadily, and keep it off for the rest of my life.  To build that kind of habit, slower is actually better for me.

So, yeah, mileage could definitely vary for someone else, and your explanation does a better job of explaining that.