Hi everyone.. I am so confused.. not sure what is best for my body.. I know everyone says everybody is different but i can give you my info and if simnilar people will help me understand what works for them then i can hopefully use that for me.. I have been journalling for over a month now and tried a couple different calorie ranges.. and I am losing but not sure which is the right calorie range for me..

I am 43, 5' 8 female..mom of 4 at home.. 230-230.5 (right now) kind of sedendary..alot of sitting but up and down cooking cleaning and chasing kids at times..haha... I am new to exercising again.. so i am doing watp 2 mile video 3x a week....

So what would be a good calorie range for me... then i will deduct the appropriate amount of calories to lose weight.. i thought it was like 3000 then i was taking in only 2000 a day and still was only losing 1/2 pound a week and not very consistent at that... then i have not intentionally but not real hungry dropped it down to 1400-1600 with 1/2 ound to a pound loss.. haven't done it very long at this level.. worrried about which calorie level is best for me.. please help.. thanks alot.. Kim

Kim,

How many pounds per 7-day-week do you want to loose? Once I know that (and I already know your weight) I can plug it into a spreadsheet I made and it will calculate your daily-calorie intake.

But for now, I'll give you some answers for a healthy-loss rate:

weight lbs to loose per week cals per day
230 1 2950
230 2 2450
230 2.5 2200
230 3 1950

So, basically if you keep your calories 2000 to 2500 per day, you can expect to lose 2-3lbs per week. (Losing over 3lbs per week is not considered too healthy)

Good luck!

yep determined sent me the sheet i've just started but i wiegh in tomarrow so i'll let you know i feel lighter i'll just see what the scale says.......LOL

We're all very different, and not everyone can eat that much and still lose weight. Many of our dieters have to limit themselves to 1200 to 1600 calories while dieting. I can lose 1 or 2 pounds a week at 1600 cal, with lots of exercise. As I approach 2000 calories, I usually find myself gaining rather quickly.

It's all trial and error

What Suzanne said...

I'll tell you what I did, though it may or may not apply to you. I started calorie counting when I weighed about 280 something. I wsn't doing much exercise at first and ate an average of 2000 cals/day. I was losing at the time over 2 pounds/week.

As I've lost weight, I've slowly lowered the calories and increased the exercise. Currently, I weigh 202. I exercise regularly and eat an average of 1800 calories/day. Weight loss has slowed some over time (but that may be normal). I'm now losing an average of 1 - 1.5 pounds/week.

You have to take the long view, and be DILIGENT about tracking what you eat if you want to track this, but over time you can learn a lot. Depending on how much exercise you get and how active you are also affects the equation.

It may help you to pick a number that sounds reasonable, and carefully track for a few weeks to see what happens. If you lose, keep it there. If you maintain or gain, lower it a bit (but not too much too fast!).

I agree with Suzanne as well. I can't eat OVER 2000 and lose weight, even when I was 211 pounds. I started out at 1800 calories a day at that starting weight and lost 1-2 pounds per week WITH exercise.

Once the loss stopped after about 15 pounds, then I had to drop that calorie level down a bit to 1600-1700.

A spreadsheet, as I mentioned before-is just a guestimate. Everyone is way too individual to calculate how many pounds per week by that method. What works is what works-period.

slimkim-you stated that you were indeed losing 1/2 a pound per week doing 2000 calories. A healthy range of weight loss is 1/2 to 2 pounds per week on average. You are at the slower end of healthy weight loss at 2000 calories. If you would like to have the loss be more towards the full 1-2 pounds per week, then simply drop your calories down to the next level-do 1800 for a while.
You have to give it a while though-you can't really be on a certain calorie level for only a week and then decide that it isn't working...actually 2000 calories WAS working for you, just a little slower than what you wanted...so drop down calorie wise one notch. Keep that up for a while-and shake up your exercise.

Weight loss takes time.

How do you know that you are doing the correct calorie level for YOU? By weighing in once a week, and if you are seeing a 1/2 to 2 pound loss...then you ARE at the correct level.
It is normal as well for you to have a week without a loss, and have it pick up again the next week. So, judge whether or not you need to drop your calorie level by what happens over the course of a FEW weeks, not just one single week. If you have no loss for 2-3 weeks...then it is time to drop a notch, or UP your exercise.

I eat between 1900 and 2000 a day, but I also exercise 400 to 600 of those back off. My goal is to be at 1500 to 1700 net depending on how much exercise I do.

I actually calculated mine from a nutrition calculator. In order to maintain a weight of 165, which is my goal weight, I can have up to 2200 calories a day. It is working incredibly well. I am steadily loosing.

slimkim- if you're not terribly hungry-- it sounds like anywhere from 1600-2000 was working for you. it takes time for the weightloss to kick in on the scale sometimes, too. also, if you can squeeze in a walk during the day somewhere, that will help your cardiovascular system and speed up the weightloss, too.

as for me, i lose if i keep it about 1400-1700. it is VERY difficult for me to eat less than 1500, but somedays it happens. i am 5'4" an about 145-147, and I exercise almost everyday-- either running, elliptical, long walk, kickboxing, yoga or weights or a mixture of the above. i still lose weight when i don't exercise, but my body is mushier and i have to eat less (like 1200 cal per day).

For all us Math nerds out there, here's the formula for finding daily maintenace calories for a sedentary lifestyle. (I always do my calc based off sedentary, then just calculate any exercise seperately)

10*weight+6.25*height(in inches)-5*age(in years)-161

So I'm 193 right now 5'6''(66 inches) and 27 so

10*193+6.25*66-5*27-161 = 2046.5 maintenance calories per day

Yours would be weight=230 height=68, age=43
So:
10*230+6.25*68-5*43-161 = 2349 maintenance calories per day


It's a lot less than most folks think it would be.

i like that formula-- do you know where you got that?

my number was 1584. this explains why i am losing so slowly... but i am gonna try harder to stick to my caloric goal of 1500 (side rant: i failed today bc my husband brought home cookies from work! there are 3 left and i'm doing my best to stay away from them. it sucks how one cookie is so full of calories...)

I got the formula through a lot of surfing on the web, it's known as the Mifflin equation for finding RMR (Your resting metabolism rate, not to be confused with BMR-Basal metabolism rate). It's been really accurate for me, and it is the best one I've found to use for while you're in the "losing weight" stage.

Once you get to maintenance stage there should be a little adjusting:

Sedentary = Maint. Cal. X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = Maint. Cal. X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = Maint. Cal. X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = Maint. Cal. X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = Maint. Cal. X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)




Hope this helps!

P.S. I'm totally with you on the cookies

Megan

But if that formula calculates RMR, then that is just the number of calories you burn doing vital functions -- heart rate, brain function -- in which case, the calories you actually use in a day are actually quite a bit higher. I may be confused, but I thought it was even less calories than a sedentary lifestyle.

Either way, RMR does NOT represent by itself your maintenance calories. By the info I've seen, RMR only represents 60-80% of the calories you burn in a day, provided it's accurate.

I set up my fitday account as bed bound so that I can error on the side of caution, of course I am not bed bound, but have very little exercise right now in my line of work. I am definitely seated work to the extreme.


I figured out that even with it listed as bed bound if I could stick to a 2000 calorie diet each day I would have a deficit of about 200 and then with my exercise program about 300 more a day.

So, if I calculate this correctly, that is 500 a day, 3500 a week, and it takes 3500 deficit for one pound, so I should begin losing about 1 lb per week, perhaps a little more since I have a little more activity at work then a bed bound person.

I am starting tomorrow, hopefully I will come back and tell you guys I have a 500 deficit like I am hoping for!