Confused About Calorie Consumption
 

I've been doing great working out- but I'm afraid I may be consuming too many calories?

I weigh 182
goal weight 145

Height 5' 7"

Is there a formula for this? :woops:

I think the standard is the Harris Benedict formula, which takes into account your height, age, sex, current weight, and (optionally) activity level. The activity level is a fudge factor that can also be thought of as a "body type" multiplier.

Essentially, it's just:
Calories for women to maintain weight = (4.35*w + 4.70*h - 4.7*a + 655)*m

Where:
w = weight in pounds
h = height in inches
a = age in years
m = multiplier, defined by:

m=1.2 if you are sedentary
m=1.5 if you are moderately active
m=1.8 if you are very active

This multiplier, as I said, can be thought of as incorporating your body type, as well. If you are broad-framed, knock it up slightly. If you are slim-framed, knock it down slightly. That's why it's kind of a fudge factor that you can determine empirically if you're tracking your calories. I recommend doing this instead of relying on the formula exclusively, but using the formula as a rough starting point (which is what I've done, and determined that my needs are slightly more than what the formula would predict, although I'm broad-framed for a girl).

Oh, and to get the calories you need to eat to lose weight rather than just maintain it, use the fact that one pound is roughly equal to a deficit of 3500 calories. That is, if you want to lose one pound per week, subtract 3500/7 from the number you got in the formula...

You want to lose 37 pounds, so first determine in how many weeks you want to lose it in, call this y. If the result of the formula above (for maintaining your weight) was x, then you will get:

Calories per day = x - (3500*37)/(7*y)

That is, this gives you the number of calories to net each day (that is, calories in minus calories out), in order to lose 37 pounds in y weeks.

That was more long-winded than I thought, but I'm blissfully avoiding homework. Anyone let me know if I'm missing something...

Good luck!

Short answer - yes, but they aren't very accurate.

Long answer - our bodies are all different. Some formulas exist that calculate the number of calories we need in a day, but they are not accurate for everyone - no one's body is a machine! A calculator can give you a good starting point (look for "calorie calculator" on Google and you'll get a TON of them), but they usually estimate too high.

What DOES work is trial and error. Let's say you set your calories to a particular level - 1500, for example. Then you stay there for a month. Are you losing at a healthy rate? Leave it there. Not losing? Drop by another 100 and wait a month. Losing too fast and feeling weak or excessively hungry? Up by 100. The goal is to find the number that works for YOUR unique body and metabolism, whereever it might lie. Then, when that number stops working (your body burns less calories when it is smaller), you lower again to find your new magic number.

One guideline - it is REALLY hard to get adequate nutrition with 1200 calories a day or less. You don't want to drop below that if you can help it, even when you get to goal, so you should start higher than that so you have some room to reduce without threatening your nutrition. Starting at somewhere like 1500-1600, if you lose at a good rate with those calories, you'll have some room to reduce as you get smaller.

mandalinn82
 

I think I did the math wrong in the formula!!

mandalinn82- GREAT advice..I'm only now starting to track my calories so I'll start with 1500 and see where that gets me.

YOU LIVE IN DAVIS!! I live in Vacaville! Small world! :-) Do you go to UCD?

I did. I graduated and never left. My Costco is in Vacaville, though, and I drive through there ALLL the time.

Well..I'm at costco a lot...so I'll have to start looking for you! lol...

Hey I read your incredible weight loss story (congrats!!) and you mentioned something about a agricultural subscription where you paid a certain amount and got fresh produce...I'm assuming in Davis or somewhere around there. Can you please give me more info? I'm in that area all the time and LOVE fresh produce!

Hehe, my parents were both Aggies too (though I'm on the peninsula, so not so much fresh produce here). :)