The site gives you your base metabolic rate after you fill in your age, height, weight, and activity level; then it tells you how many calories you must eat to maintain that weight; then it tells you to deduct 750 from that number of calories, which is the number of calories you can eat in a day to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week (assuming you maintain the activity level you chose in the questionnaire); once you have your number of calories you can eat in a day, you click on that range and get a list of the number of servings of each food group (and total calories of that food group) you should eat in a day based on the USDA Food Guide Pyramid (which I really have no idea about).
As to whether their calculation was accurate for me? I've been tracking my food VERY carefully in fitday lately and I believe I've become very accurate (started measuring more, etc). My food intake averages to almost 1800 calories per day but their calculator came out with a daily allowance of 1450 calories to lose; this kind of makes sense though because they say each pound of muscle burns 50 calories while you're at rest and I would say after weight lifting on and off for 13 years I probably have at least 5 pounds of "extra" muscle, which could account for the extra 350 calories I eat (and why I dropped from a size 18 to a 12 from only a 13 pound loss after starting weights again). I have really tried to eat less calories but can never go lower than 1400 and really that is pushing it for me, I am literally starving! That's the problem with more muscle, you get REALLY hungry so I'm always marveling at say Rockinrobin or Bobbolink on the low calorie intakes, but good for you that you can do it!
Anyway, if you try the calculator, let us know if it seems accurate.
Mami, thanks for the web link, I will DEFINITELY check it out. You have also got to realize I am at a much higher weight then you. So every time I as much as move, not even exercise, just plain and simple move - I'm burning waaay more calories then you. So I'm losing at a much faster rate then most. And we are all different. I ballooned myself up to 287 POUNDS, at only FIVE FEET TALL. So when I finally got it together to clean up the mess I've made, yeah, I'm just not as hungry. And it is a blessing. And very long in coming. I've got A LOT of catching up to do. You actually dropped from an 18 to a 12 with only 13 lbs. gone???? That is amazing!!! Whatever you're doing you most certainly are doing it correctly. Like I said earlier - we are all different and we have to find what works best for ourselves.
On to yesterday's calories . I went to a fantastic party last night (in honor of New Years, yeah whatever, the day was a little off) at a friends house. She had about 20 couples, all of which are my very good friends. We all brought a dish, I made a yummy, no oil salad. It went like hot cakes. Some of my favs were there - eggplant parmagania, lasagne, vienese crunch, chocolate covered pretzels, pecan pie and on and on and on. I sampled a few of the things, in tiny portions. I had my salad, 4 bites of a spinach cheese souffle, a small serving of some kind of slaw with sunflower seeds and chinese skinny noodles - yum. And then I succumbed to about 1/3 of a long, braided heavily seeded bread thingy - yummy. And 4 bites of cheesecake. And lots and lots of Diet Coke. Overall not terrible. The earlier part of the day I stayed extra low. So whatever it was calorie wise, it was.
The party was great though. I was getting hit with compliments left and right, many people I hadn't seen since before my weightloss. So it was real nice. At one point it even got to be too much and I just felt my fact turn beet red. And then of course there was the male attention. Something I haven't experienced much of lately. Whoa. I need to come up with some quick comebacks. I'm working on it. This whole thing is a learning experience for me.
The nicest thing was at one point a bunch of us women were seated in a corner talking about "diets" and for the first time in waay over a decade, I didn't have to cringe and want to die for having nothing to contribute. They were actually asking ME for advice. Pretty incredible stuff coming from all these mostly very fit women.
Have a great day everybody and:
Have a very, very happy new year!
And here's to the year 2007 May it bring us all everything our hearts desire in every aspect of our lives!!
That is so wonderful Rockinrobin! You must be so happy and proud of yourself for changing your life so drastically. That must have felt so good to get all those compliments, it brought tears to my eyes. Believe me, I envy you being able to eat the low amount of calories you do, I just get so famished..it really stinks!
Hope everyone on 3FC has a successful (w/ weightloss that is!), happy and healthy 2007!
In anticipation of our Indian food-fest tonight, my fiance and I hit up the gym and did 30 mins on the elliptical thing with the arm extensions, and then threw a basketball back and forth for about 15 more minutes, just to get some arm-exercises in and some squats. (We have this weird routine we do to keep us from getting bored.) I wish I'd worn my heartrate monitor, because the guesstimator at the gym, and fitday's guesstimator were totally different and off.
I'm having an apple this morning, I snuck in a small piece of toffee, but nothing else until our early dinner (around 3pm). I'd rather save the calories for chicken tikka and naan! Mmm mmm.
Forgive me girls, but I need to tweak my carbs and don't know what to eliminate. My fat should be 20 - 26 grams, Sunday's was good at 20 g. My protein should be 90grams, it was 82 g. My carbs were terrible. Should be at 150 - 165 and they were a whopping 213! My goal is 1200 calories, I accomplished that @ 1,221. Sunday's menu: Fiber One carbs-46 g. (Eat around 4:30a.m. and again at bed time) Oatmeal - 27 g. S.F.Applesauce - 13 g. Apple-23 g. Low calorieBread-17 g. F.F.Turkey Bologna-6 g. F.F.Mayo-3 g. lettuce-1 g. F.F.milk-12 g. Elk Meat loaf-12 g. Winter Squash-38g. Whoaaaaa, we have about two dozen in our breezeway from our garden, and it's like candy to me! FF Cool Whip-3 g. FF Milk-12 g I messed up and forgot my daily Olive Oil, but we didn't have a salad. I don't know what I can tweak, the squash was terribly high but we have so many of them to use up and we only eat squash about once a week. The Fiber One was high but I eat that to prevent constipation. What can I do, or should I not get my underwear in a bundle? Bobbi
Bobbi - I don't pay a lot of attention to exact carb measurements anymore. It looks like you're eating the "good" carbs instead of bad ones anyway, so personally I wouldn't sweat it. BTW - you asked in the other thread about my name. I used to be "PhatButt", but when I was in the Biggest Loser forum, Jillian Michaels posted on there a few times and didn't like my name. She isn't big on self-deprecating humor I guess. She said I should be "sexybutt" or "smarta$$" or something like that, so I chose smartbutt. I suppose it's better than calling myself fat every day.
Here's a new example of my food intake for a day:
Breakfast: 3/4 cup 2% milk + 1 cup honeynut cheerios
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich, made with whole grain low-cal bread, 1 slice of regular cheddar, and ICBINB spray instead of normal butter, plus 1/2 a can of campbell's chicken soup w/rice
Dinner is going to be: 1 whole wheat pita w/greek chicken filling & yogurt sauce (made from a low-cal recipe found here on 3fc)
I also snuck one Peppermint Pattie today
Total calories: 1166, with my fat/carbs/protein pie chart being about equal in all 3 sections.
I may have some SF cocoa later to get me to 1200. Or maybe fruit as a snack if I get hungry, although those will up my carbs.
About to go for a nice walk with the man. Finally nice weather today!
May it bring us all everything our hearts desire in every aspect of our lives!!
