How do I know how many calories to eat?

hi guys, I'm new to the forums and I have a question about calorie intake that is really bugging me. I'm struggling to consistently lose weight. I have over 100lbs to lose. I started by eating 1500 calories a day and being very strict, weighing out drinks and food etc. I exercise lots, I take my dog for 2x30 min walks a day, I have a kettle bell dvd I do 4x a week for 30 minutes and I do 30 mins on the exercise bike 5x a week. So why am I not losing anything?! Am I eating too few calories? Too many? My BMR is about 2050 calories, should I eat my BMR? Help I'm so confused and frustrated!

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unknown

Have you filled out your MFP profile? That will tell you how many base calories to lose. Then you log your exercise and eat at least 50% of those calories. If, after 3-4 weeks, you are not losing at the expected rate and have been logging your food accurately after weighing it accurately, considering eating fewer exercise calories. If you are losing too quickly, eat more exercise calories.

unknown

Fill in your MFP profile/goals ... and when you do that, select a goal of, say, 1 lb/week.

Also, set yourself as sedentary.

MFP will give you a calorie limit. Eat less than that. Be sure to weigh your food to ensure you are eating less than that.

When you exercise, add those things to the exercise area. Note that MFP tends to overestimate the number of calories burned ... especially with cycling. Chances are you're only burning 400 cal/hour on a bicycle. You can manually change the calories burned to something lower and more realistic.

You can eat some (or all) of your calories back. I think most of us usually eat about half our calories burned from exercise back. So if you ride the exercise bike for 30 min, you may have burned 200 cal. Therefore, you can eat 100 cal back.

PS. If you eat your BRM amount ... you'll maintain your weight. You've got to eat lower than that to lose.

unknown

Can you please set your food diary to public/open?

If you do this I'd be happy to take a look.

unknown

I'm glad you're here, evillottie. Joining this group and asking questions is a great step.
The short and no-so-sweet of it is you're still eating too much if you want to lose fat (I am trying to not use 'weight' because we only want to lose off --- not bone or muscle.) I know that sucks to hear, but it is what it is.

If you have 100 pounds of fat to lose, 1500 is probably a good limit per day. But I'm calling something ADHD and it's helping me immensely:
Accuracy. You need to accurately measure EVERYTHING you eat. Especially if you're stuck.
Diligence. You need to be consistent. Every day.
Honesty. Sometimes I eat stuff and I become ashamed. Still need to log it!
Discipline. As you practice, everything will become easier. But you'll have tough times.

Like I said, I'm glad you're here. I wish you the best of luck!

unknown

Just wanted to say... MFP gives you a calorie goal (not limit) to meet (not stay under)...

Generally we shouldn't eat less than our BMR, at least that's a rule I follow. Without knowing your stats, it's hard say what yours is.

I think your activity is great for starters. Just keep in mind that those activities won't earn you too many extra calories, so be careful eating them back. As you walk faster/farther and cycle harder, you might burn more.

Pick a calorie goal that you can stick to and see what happens. Be consistent!

Good luck

unknown

Machka9 wrote: »

PS. If you eat your BRM amount ... you'll maintain your weight. You've got to eat lower than that to lose.

I'm still kinda new to this, so correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you mean tdee? Isn't bmr the amount your body burns just keeping you alive? Everybody who isn't in a coma burns more than their bmr, I'd expect.

unknown

katem999 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

PS. If you eat your BRM amount ... you'll maintain your weight. You've got to eat lower than that to lose.

I'm still kinda new to this, so correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you mean tdee? Isn't bmr the amount your body burns just keeping you alive? Everybody who isn't in a coma burns more than their bmr, I'd expect.

@katem999 - you are correct.
@Machka9 - TDEE is what you meant right?(not BMR) My BMR is less than 1400, but my TDEE is in the 2400-2600 area. Eating less than my BMR wouldn't be wise.

unknown

Sorry, I don't know what TDEE is.

unknown

Machka9 wrote: »

Sorry, I don't know what TDEE is.

@Machka9
TDEE = total daily energy expenditure
BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate

BMR is the calories your body burns at rest. TDEE is your full day calorie burn or maintenance level of calories.

From MFP's BMR calculator (found under apps):
"Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is an estimate of how many calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your body functioning, including breathing and keeping your heart beating.

Your BMR does not include the calories you burn from normal daily activities or exercise."

unknown

MFP tells me: "Your estimated BMR is: 1,346 calories/day"

It told me that my BMR was more than that a couple months ago when I was heavier ... if I recall correctly it was about 1400 cal/day. And back then, MFP gave me 1250 as my max calories.

As my weight dropped, my BMR went down, and so did my max calories ... down to 1200. I couldn't sustain that (too hungry), so I manually upped my max calories back to 1250, approx. 100 cal below my BMR.

Then I add my activity on top of that ... so I might walk for an hour or go for a 4 hour bicycle ride or something. I add that into the exercise, and adjust the calories to be a bit lower than what MFP tells me. Then I may or may not eat some or all of those calories back. Whatever I decide to do each day, I'm netting less than 1250 calories/day.

I have been quite happy with my weight loss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
All that said, what I meant was the number MFP provides you when you go into My Home > Goals and look in the column on the right under Your Diet Profile. There it tells me Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity = 1,680 cal/day.

I don't know what that is called other than "Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity". Evidently I mistakenly called that BMR.

From what I understand, if we go over that, we maintain or gain.

unknown

Thanks for all your advice guys :-) MFP tells me I should be eating 1520 calories a day. I exercise in some form everyday (even if it is just walking my dog!) so if I aim for around 1700 (which is eating back some of my exercise calories) I should be about right? I've opened up my diary as well if anyone wants a peek :-) thanks again!

unknown

evillottie wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice guys :-) MFP tells me I should be eating 1520 calories a day. I exercise in some form everyday (even if it is just walking my dog!) so if I aim for around 1700 (which is eating back some of my exercise calories) I should be about right? I've opened up my diary as well if anyone wants a peek :-) thanks again!

Yes, you should be OK. Stick with that, keep being strict, log everything, don't go over ... and you may not see results for a week or two, but they'll come.

unknown

Machka9 wrote: »

MFP tells me: "Your estimated BMR is: 1,346 calories/day"

It told me that my BMR was more than that a couple months ago when I was heavier ... if I recall correctly it was about 1400 cal/day. And back then, MFP gave me 1250 as my max calories.

As my weight dropped, my BMR went down, and so did my max calories ... down to 1200. I couldn't sustain that (too hungry), so I manually upped my max calories back to 1250, approx. 100 cal below my BMR.

Then I add my activity on top of that ... so I might walk for an hour or go for a 4 hour bicycle ride or something. I add that into the exercise, and adjust the calories to be a bit lower than what MFP tells me. Then I may or may not eat some or all of those calories back. Whatever I decide to do each day, I'm netting less than 1250 calories/day.

I have been quite happy with my weight loss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
All that said, what I meant was the number MFP provides you when you go into My Home > Goals and look in the column on the right under Your Diet Profile. There it tells me Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity = 1,680 cal/day.

I don't know what that is called other than "Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity". Evidently I mistakenly called that BMR.

From what I understand, if we go over that, we maintain or gain.

Sadly with the new premium feature they are getting rid of that number on the goals page. It's no longer on mine.

And hey no biggie, I just wanted to correct it because some people (usually short) have BMRs that are under 1200. I didn't want any lurkers who fall in that category trying eat 500 less than that or something.
Oh and the only reason I said it wouldn't be wise for me to dip below my BMR is because that would create deficit for over 2 lbs per week loss when I'm already a healthy weight. Which isn't exactly healthy and I'd probably lose the lean mass I'm working hard to protect. Someone who's TDEE isn't as high as mine, will find that just taking 500 off TDEE puts them below their BMR.