Calorie deficit

rainglow

I've read the stickies (thank you g'em ), and have calculated that my BMR is 1393 calories per day; damn my lack of height! I don't exercise the same amount every week so I can't calculate an average amount of exercise to add to my daily tally. Since I work a desk job and only live 5 minutes from the office I put my lifestyle down as sedentary (exercise aside).

First question: since I've described my lifestyle as sedentary, if I e.g. walk 30 mins to my yoga class and back in the evening, would I have to count this as an activity, or is this already accounted for?

And my second question: if I'm going to drop down to 1200 calories a day, since this is the minimum recommended calorie intake, on days where I exercise should I eat extra to bring me back up to 1200 calories?

Oh and will I just have to resign myself to really slow weight loss - a deficit of 193 calories a day means it'll take me 18 days to lose 1lb? That's not very encouraging

ali.c

that seems really really low :eek: , i'd recheck my calculations on that one as dropping your kcals to 1200 a day doesnt sound that healthy (or fun;) )

Edit: i was just thinking did you mutlipy your BMR by 1.4? because that would put you at approx 1900 calories with no excercise?

hunnymonster

Am I correct in thinking you have not included any exercise in your calculations but that you do excercise, just different amounts each week? If so I would make a conservative estimate at an average amount. Not including your exercise will make you starve.

rainglow

Am I correct in thinking you have not included any exercise in your calculations but that you do excercise, just different amounts each week? If so I would make a conservative estimate at an average amount. Not including your exercise will make you starve.

i was just thinking did you mutlipy your BMR by 1.4? because that would put you at approx 1900 calories with no excercise?

You're right - I only worked out my BMR, not my total calorie needs to maintain my weight. So if I multiply my BMR by 1.4 because "you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week)" that takes me to 1917. So if I cut 500 calories per day, that would take me to 1417, with a loss of 1lb a week.

So since I've now included activity in my total calorie expenditure, do I not count the actual calories I would burn on my three runs a week? Or if I burnt off 200 calories on any given day through exercise, should I eat a bit more to make sure I don't dip into starvation?

I'm sorry for the questions but I am BAFFLED by this!

NotMe

Check out www.fitday.com . You can enter in any activity you do and see how many calories you burn that day.



and also keep track of your daily calories in and out




Makes it very easy to keep track of.

Ciaran500

I tried that fitday thing and I was unsure how accurate it was. It told me I would need about 3000 calories on a normal day without any strenious exercise.

I'm a big guy (1.9m, 95kg) but surely thats a bit much.

brianthebard

Nope that would be spot on, I weigh about the same..and if you are that tall you will definitely need a good bit of food.

ali.c

the 1.4 is your lifestyle AFAIK, so i would include stuff like walking to work/shops/town around the office etc and your runs etc to be added to that figure based on an estimation of the calories burned per session. so if you run 8min mile pace for 30 mins is around 350kcals.

Honestly you may need to play around with it to find the optium amount of calories but personally i wouldnt drop my kcals below 15% of my BMR (1615 if your case). If you open a fitday account www.fitday.com you can track you cals in and cals out.

Basically if you reduce your calories too much your body starts to use muscle rather than fat as fuel and therefore reduces your resting metabolic rate and the amount of food you require to maintain that weight.

Hanley

Ciaran500 wrote:

I tried that fitday thing and I was unsure how accurate it was. It told me I would need about 3000 calories on a normal day without any strenious exercise.

I'm a big guy (1.9m, 95kg) but surely thats a bit much.

Looks about right to me alright!! I float around 92kg and I'm losing weight on 2700kcal per day.

rainglow

Damn all you tall people, this thread is about a very small person with very low caloric requirements trying to lose weight!!

ali.c wrote:

Honestly you may need to play around with it to find the optium amount of calories but personally i wouldnt drop my kcals below 15% of my BMR (1615 if your case). If you open a fitday account www.fitday.com you can track you cals in and cals out.

Basically if you reduce your calories too much your body starts to use muscle rather than fat as fuel and therefore reduces your resting metabolic rate and the amount of food you require to maintain that weight.

Thanks for that - I'll play around with it and see how I go. Even if I did eat 1600cals a day, such a low calorie intake isn't going to a whole bundle of fun!

ali.c

lol i am on a weight loss plan and keeping my kcals around 1800-2000 a day. slightly heavier (about 2 stone, still alot of work to do) than you though but i split mine up into 5-6 300-400kcal meals a day and i try to keep a 33, 33, 33 ratio of carbs proteins and good fats. Along with boosting your metabolism this actually stops you from getting hungry too. A good place to start might be with just logging what you actually eat at the moment and the excercise you do. this helps to identify what it is at present you could cut out etc. Though its a bit of a pain i just use a notebook to keep track of it.

rubadub

rainglow wrote:

Damn all you tall people, this thread is about a very small person with very low caloric requirements trying to lose weight!!

I know you are just joking but the fact is you have lower basic needs, so big guys on the same caloire deficit are just as hungry as you would be. Also when you talk of losing say 7lb it is more noticeable than a big guy losing 7lb, since it is a greater % of your overall weight.