No of calorie confusion

*Nadia*

Member
Hi i have read the sticky explaining how many calories i am meant to be eating, but basically it says never go under a 1000cals...
however with those guidelines, my calculations take me under the 1000 cals.

my Bmr is 1400cals
my bmi is 24.4
so how many cals do i need to eat per day to loose weight?

please help if anyone understands this?
thanx
:lost:
 
You need to do the Harris Benedict equation to work out how many calories you need to maintain your weight at your current activity level and then you work it out from there.

You may not think you're at where you want to be yet but you are currently a healthy weight. The less you weigh, the less you will lose each week. So at your weight, you may only lose 1lb a week or even sometimes just half a lb. It's 1200 calories that you need to have each day though, not 1000.
 
Thanks caroline,

I did use the Harris Benedict equation and it gave me 1400 cals
and yes i know my bmi is still within the healthy range but its right on the limit, and i have been gaining wieght at a steady pace, so i would like to get my bmi into the middle of the healthy range. I have always been at the very low end of this bmi range and it has gradually increased over the last 2 years.

So have i got this right?

1 pound loss= -3500cals
1/2 pound loss= -1750cals
i can have min 1200 cals= -1400...so i will not even loose half a pound a week?
:confused:
 
Have you been calorie-counting so far? The calculations are just a guide, I'd be more inclined to see what your body does once you start controlling your calorie intake. Go with what the calculation recommends at first, see if you're losing weight on that or not, and don't forget that you can increase the deficit by burning calories through exercise too.
 
Hi Rigby,

yeah i have been calorie counting for 2 weeks now and not lost much. the first week i lost 1.5 pound but i was eating just below 1000cals/day. i then found out that it was not enough as the min a women should intake is 1200cals.My second week i have barely lost 1/4 of a pound.

i think that the only way i will loose weight is creating a calorie deficit by exercising. Does anyone know any reliable sites i can calculate the calories i burn through exercise?
 
Sorry if it came across as me saying that I thought you shouldn't be trying to lose any more weight, that wasn't what i was meaning, obviously it's completely up to you. I just mean that it's a much slower process the less you weigh. You really do need to be sticking to 1200 calories a day though otherwise you'll be messing up your body's metabolism and it won't really help you at all.

Make sure you're drinking lots of water as this helps, if you don't drink enough water then your body can't flush out the sodium you intake and it can mean you retain more. It also is partly responsible for keeping your metabolism going because if you're not drinking enough water then your kidneys are water deprived so your liver has to kick in to pick up some of the slack. So then your liver is doing the work of 2 organs and it's not as productive at metabolising fat and turning it to energy. The survival mode thing works for water as well as food. This is something I'm really having to try and work on myself!

Unfortunately you might have to put up with slow losses, exercise will definitely help but you may find you need to up your calories if you're doing a lot of exercise.
 
Hi Caroline,

hey no worries, it didn't come across like that :) and i completely agree with what your saying.... Ive never really been a dieter, so the realization that its going to be a slow process just came as a bit of a shock.

Yeah the water thing is really important. I have found that if im feeling a bit hungry, and i haven't really got any calories to waste, i try and have a glass of water, it fills you up...so instead of trying to remind myself to drink all the time i just wait for that signal im getting hungry, kills 2 birds!

Oh and guess what, my weekly weigh in was today, and i lost 1.5lbs, so i guess the calculations are not always right! im just going to continue on with 1200 cals, add some exercise to the mix and see how i go, anythings better than gaining on a weekly basis, which my body was becoming accustomed to...

Oh and congrats on ur weight loss so far looks like your doing great!
 
Just keep with it, you'll get there! The thing I've noticed is that most people nearer to goal weight have very small losses or even stay the same and then every few weeks have a bigger loss! So keep at it!
 
If you read the sticky, you'll find that losing an AVERAGE of 0.5lbs a week is optimal for somebody of a BMI less than 26 :) And as Caroline has pointed out, some weeks you may lose more than others, but it all averages out. Smaller losses for smaller ladies!
 
;) gotacha thanx girls...really helps...i have much more realistic expectations now, and i must have missed the bit on the sticky that talks about bmi<26:d'oh:
 
No worries, I didn't actually say WHICH sticky it was in! It's in the one I posted about how many calories you should eat :)
 
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