Calorie Intake Question

airbus125

I recently joined a gym and just got the My Fitness Pal calorie counter. Im 16 stone and 5'7 but I am in no way obese or extremely overweight. Im looking on losing about 2 stone. The app recommends I eat over 3000 calories a day and I know even before I started losing weight I didn't eat 3000 calories a day. One of my classes at the gym burns up to 3500 calories in 45 minutes. I know that means pushing it to the limit which I am trying to but probably not burning that many. Anyway say I eat 1600 calories a day and burned 2000 in the gym, then in theory I should hopefully be on my way to losing weight. So how many calories should I be burning in excess of eating?
Thanks

SeaDaily

airbus125 wrote: »

I recently joined a gym and just got the My Fitness Pal calorie counter. Im 16 stone and 5'7 but I am in no way obese or extremely overweight. Im looking on losing about 2 stone. The app recommends I eat over 3000 calories a day and I know even before I started losing weight I didn't eat 3000 calories a day. One of my classes at the gym burns up to 3500 calories in 45 minutes. I know that means pushing it to the limit which I am trying to but probably not burning that many. Anyway say I eat 1600 calories a day and burned 2000 in the gym, then in theory I should hopefully be on my way to losing weight. So how many calories should I be burning in excess of eating?
Thanks

Whatever class you're doing is NOT burning 3500 calories. It's probably burning 700-800 at the very most. None of us can tell you exactly how many calories to eat so that you will be losing weight. Look up an online calorie calculator, calculate the required calories needed for you, eat this amount of calories for a month and at the end of the month adjust accordingly.

brownej

If one of the classes was burning 3500 Calories in 45mins I think they would be carrying everyone out on a stretcher. Are you sure you're not mixing up kjoules with kcal?
More realistically you can burn 800 or 900 Calories an hour but you will need to be going at a fairly high pace and intensity to do this.

If the app is telling you to eat 3000 Calories and you know you are consuming less than that and still putting on weight then the app must be wrong. How active did you tell the app you were?
It is possible that you are under estimating your current Calorie consumption. Most people are shocked when they see how small a portion size actually is!

Just using the BMI scale 5'7 and 16 stone puts you well into the obese category, however this is not a fully objective meaurement as it only takes height and weight into account and does not take in overall body composition.

Alf Veedersane

Calculate your calorie needs either here or here.

MFP is great for tracking what you're eating and drinking but it's poor for working out what you need and the calories burned for different activities.

rubadub

brownej wrote: »

Are you sure you're not mixing up kjoules with kcal?

+1, I am thinking something is very wrong. Most apps or machines etc will overestimate the calories used, so people think the machine is great and recommend it. I have never heard an instance where someone reckoned it was too low.

Inspector Coptoor

3500 calories in an hour???

I recently cycled 160km at 100kg BW in 6 hours 8 minutes and burned 4075 calories.

Your figures are way off the mark OP

dwayneshintzy

I wouldn't burn 3,500 calories running a marathon, think you've got that a bit wrong airbus125....

airbus125

I'll check the 3500 calories with the gym instructor tomorrow. After I put all my food today into the app I actually do eat over 3000 calories. Just from looking at pics on the internet i'd say I'm around 20% body fat. (Hopefully theres some muscle under that fat :D) I think I'm gonna find it very hard to burn over 3000 calories a day to lose weight.

Alf Veedersane

airbus125 wrote: »

I think I'm gonna find it very hard to burn over 3000 calories a day to lose weight.

You don't need to burn 3000 calories a day to lose weight.

Your body needs X calories to function, ie your BMR.

The calories you burn by your normal daily routine, on top of your BMR, is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

Eat less than your TDEE but more than your BMR to lose weight.

dwayneshintzy

You're not gonna be able to burn even near 3,000 calories a day working out though, most elite athletes wouldn't be doing that much. And you certainly don't NEED to be burning anywhere near that much to see results.

link_2007

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

I recently cycled 160km at 100kg BW in 6 hours 8 minutes and burned 4075 calories.

The takeaway I would get after doing something like that would be quite spectacular.

Inspector Coptoor

I had a pound of mince, a pound of pasta, 3 tomatoes, an onion & a jar of pasta sauce and went to sleep for 14 hours