hey ladies, im curious. is there a site that gives a ballpark estimate for how many calories you should be eating daily comparative to your weight? i eat between 1000 and 1200 calories a day, and i dont know if im eating too much or not enough..lol.
I checked out a few sites to try and get an estimate. Since several site say many different things, I just ended up going with the majority for my BMR, which was 1700 calories. I then figured out that I needed to drop down to calorie-wise (along with exercise) to lose weight, which is around 1400 calories/day.
Also, www.fitday.com is a really good site that alot of people around here use. It gives you your bmr and what you burn based on your lifestyle and activities.
I have heard from many people and articles that you should not let your calories drop below 1200 a day or your body will go into starvation mode. I try and eat between 1200 and 1400 a day.
I try to stick to ~1400 most days of the week, but I don't think that's enough, as after a couple of days of this, I am RAVENOUS and no amount of salad or fibre will fill me up...plus, I'm so dead that I can barely lift my feet onto the pedals of my exercise bike. I have a lot of muscle mass under my flab, and I work out almost every day, so I'm starting to think that I might require more calories. It's scary to up calories, though. I'm trying 1500 this week to see what happens.
Btw, Fitday MASSIVELY overestimates, according to most people. I wouldn't go with their estimate.
I used to think this, but I think it's mostly just that people have a difficult time believeing they can eat as much as Fitday suggests they can. There are a few threads around now about women who have actually gotten their metabolism professionally tested (usually costs between $50-$100 and can be done at some doctors' offices, hospital nutrition centers, or big gyms that have the equipment), and they've all said so far that their professional readouts were very close to what Fitday said. Of course, nothing works for EVERYONE, but I think we sometimes feel like we have to restrict a lot more than we actually do, if that makes sense
according to mayo clinic, it says i need 2200 calories per day! that means id be eating ALL THE TIME. how weird. is that right? that means..if i even eat on the high side of my calorie scale, im still WAY BELOW this estimate.. hm.
according to mayo clinic, it says i need 2200 calories per day!
To lose, or to maintain? Some give us estimates for losing, while others give us maintenance calories, and it's up to us to reduce the number they give us in order to lose.
I would not be surprised by a figure like 2200 to lose for me since I am so large (almost 300 pounds), but from your picture, yo don't look nearly as heavy, so I'm just wondering if that is actually a maintenance figure.
EDIT: I just checked that Mayo Clinic site, and it is maintenance calories. That means for an average loss of a pound a week, you need to have about 500 calories less than that (so 1700) per day, lower for more thna a pound a week. Again, though, as always, just an estimate and not necessarily fine-tuned for your specific individual body.
i used that page that spunkster gave too, and that gave me an even higher estimate, and that was supposedly for weight loss. i'm going to shoot for 1800 a day and see how that works. ive lost three inches in the month of april, but i have no idea how much i weigh..
i am, however, 5'11..so im sure that has something to do with the high amount of caloric intake mayo clinic described.
daily caloric intake?
