Cals: what's too much, not enough?

[Chupa Cabras]

I'm not really sure how to determine when I'm eating too much or not enough.

What my body needs to burn to stay at my current weight of 142 is around 1300. I know DADR says "don't count calories", but I can't believe I will lose weight if I'm consuming more calories than I burn.

Here's my calories for the first week (and I've stayed pretty close to 65%/5%/30%) from Fitday:

1251
1349
860
1418
1615
891
1254

Any thoughts on this? It's really bugging me.

[Moochiecat]

Re: Cals: what's too much, not enough?

If you go here:
http://www.room42.com/nutrition/basal.shtml
and enter your info, you'll get two numbers...a minimum and a maximum and that will give you a guideline.
You want to stay on or slightly over the minimum so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. It's ok if the numbers bobble around a bit, but to stay consistently under for too long isn't beneficial to weight loss because your body will grab onto everything you eat and keep it because it thinks hard times are a'coming.

Oops..just noticed you mention the 1300! I'd say you are doing fine then. If you average it out over a week you're well within your limit.

[coitrina]

Re: Cals: what's too much, not enough?

How did you come up with the number of 1300 to maintain a weight of 142? I don't think you put the information in correctly if you got that from fitday. Someone who fasts on 1000 calories a day can lose quite a bit of weight. You are saying only 300 more calories a day are needed to maintain your weight, something doesn't sound right. My little girl who is 110lbs eats more than that! LOL! I think if you were completely sedetary, and bed ridden, you might be able to maintain that weight with a low caloric intake like that <or if you weighed 90lbs>. Here is one of my days from fitday:

Breakfast:
2 eggs
4 slice bacon
1 serving of cheddar cheese

Lunch:
2 cups chicken breast fried
spinach leaves
2 tbs of carbwell ranch dressing

Dinner:
2 cups chicken breast fried
1 serving of squash
2 oz cream cheese

Okay the total for the day above is 1988 calories ALREADY, and that doesn't include the butter I used to fry the eggs and chicken in and the few snacks I had inbetween. The above is not alot of food, and as you can see, doesn't take long for calories to add up. When I click on the 'activities' link in fitday, it tells me that I burned Total:2582 Basal:1399 Lifestyle:1173

Basal is just getting up in the morning and being 138lbs. That doesn't include any exercise, walking around, moving..that part is included in lifestyle. My lifestyle is a stay at home mom, so it doesn't include any heavy duty exercise either. If I were to have actually played tennis that day, the lifestyle numbers would have went up. So technically, with my basal and lifestyle I would need 2500 + calories to maintain my weight of 138lbs.

[Chupa Cabras]

Re: Cals: what's too much, not enough?

Thanks Moochie!! Good link. That does help.

I see you on here a lot. I appreciate those of you who are regulars and really know your stuff. I know I can always get pretty quick a response

I'm a cat lover too (damn those furry kids) We have two: one was an orphan kitten at 7 days (feral mommacat) and the other a shelter rescue. Love them both!!

Coitrina, you made a good point. I wasn't adding the exercise. I'm also walking/jogging on the treadmill at least 30 minutes a day, and an hour of kickboxing/weight training a day on Sat & Sun. I need to add that to fitday and see what I get.

[coitrina]

Re: Cals: what's too much, not enough?

If you go here:
http://www.room42.com/nutrition/basal.shtml
and enter your info, you'll get two numbers...a minimum and a maximum and that will give you a guideline.
You want to stay on or slightly over the minimum so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. It's ok if the numbers bobble around a bit, but to stay consistently under for too long isn't beneficial to weight loss because your body will grab onto everything you eat and keep it because it thinks hard times are a'coming.

Oops..just noticed you mention the 1300! I'd say you are doing fine then. If you average it out over a week you're well within your limit.

That link is interesting. It give around the same Basal as fitday, and gives the numbers of 1394.71 for her if she was a couch potato. Fitday was a bit more indepth with all the questions they asked me about lifestyle and such. I dunno how they calculate that stuff..since it is basically an around about figure I guess. Well, I dunno, I would say I average around 1900 - 2100 calories a day, and have lost a pound a week and inches. I have increased my activity alot too though...we bought tennis rackets and balls to play tennis. Also I take the baby for walks around the block a few times in the afternoon.

[Chupa Cabras]

Re: Cals: what's too much, not enough?

The number of 1300 was a guess (trying to remember stuff I'd read). But I see that 1365 is closer, and that doesn't include exercise. According to Fitday, 2245 is what I'm burning just doing the normal daily activities.

That means if I don't go over 1200 a day, I should be losing 2 pounds a week. I lost 5 pounds the first week, but that was all water, so now I'm hoping to start seeing some real fat loss.

Thanks for the info!