Calorie Counters?

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  • Hi I am curious as too how many calories those of you who started at over 200lbs ate during your weight loss journey.

    I just recaluted my calorie goal on two websites at my current weight of 223 and I am surprised that at sedentary cal goal is 1300 and I know that we try things and see what works but I just didnt think it would calculate such a low number while being over 200. This could be why I havent really been losing I mean I have been eating about 1400-1700 but mainly 1500 per day.
  • It seems to me that 1500 calories a day is resonable for you. I started out at over 200 pounds and mostly ate about 1400 calories a day and lost.
  • I started at 245 and my original calorie target was 1650. I have only very recently dropped it to 1500
  • I use the calculator at http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
    and then about the middle of the page (Daily calories needs) it will take you to the page for the Harris Benedict equation. So you find your BMR and for a sedentary life style I would take my BMR and multiply it by 1.2. That gives me the calories I need to maintain. Any less and you will lose weight.


    For my height, weight and age now that would mean 1862 calories to maintain so I would need to eat under that.

    That's just how I do it though.
  • the calcutors are just an estimate, they can't tell what your individual body's metabolism is. Also, how aggressively did you say you wanted to lose? I'm thinking that the 1300 is to try to lose 2 lbs a week -it would be higher if you goal was to lose 1 lb a week. 2 lbs is doable (not that you can ever guarantee anything of course!) but it's definitely more aggressive and takes fewer calories and/or more calorie burn via activity.

    However, if you haven't been losing on 1400-1700 for a while, then it probably is time to try something else to see what happens.
  • I started at 333 pounds and ate 1200 calories a day for the first 3 months. Then until the end of the weight loss stage, (14 more months) I continued 1200 calories a day Monday thru Thursday but began eating up to 1500 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday. Now to maintain for the last 24 months I eat 1200 calories a day M-Th and pretty much eat what I want (within reason) F-Sun.
  • You might want to learn a little more about Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). I'm 5'11". I started my most recent effort to lose weight at 353 lbs. I did calcs online and found my RMR was around 2300 calories. I lost a little at that weight because I was greatly overeating and couldn't help but lose weight when coming down from 3000+ calories a day. But now at 300 lbs, my BMR is 2080 calories, and all I can do is barely maintain my weight at that level.

    I started to play around with the numbers and found that to maintain my goal weight of 170 lbs, I needed just under 1500 calories. And I actually lose weight at that caloric level. But as I get closer to that weight, I'm going to have to cut even more calories to achieve it. Like maybe down to 1200 calories. Or less. I can go back up after that to see what it'll actually take to maintain the weight.

    I don't factor anything in for exercise. Otherwise, I'll tell myself I can eat more.
  • I averaged @1500 per day and took 72 weeks to lose 100 lbs.
  • At over 200 I was doing 1800 or so a day. Only recently I've scaled it back to 1500-1600. But I worked daily. Now I work out 6 days a week.
  • I did 1500 calories all way to maintenance. Now I've upped it to 1650-1700.
  • I average 1500 a day. I typically eat within a range of 1200 - 1800.
  • In my 20's and 30's, when I weighed between 250 lbs and 300 lbs, I would lose weight even on 2200-2500 calories per day, but I was young and active. I had a job I had to be on my feet for 3/4 of the shift, and then I also took graduate school classes, and when I was finished with grad school, I taught in a community college (both requiring a fair amount of walking on campus).

    Now, in my mid-40's, with health problems, including pain and mobility issues, I'm very sedentary, and so I have to go a lot lower.

    I think your hunger and energy level are clues to whether you can go up or down with your calories. If you're hunger isn't so intense that you can barely stand it, and if you have the energy to be as active as you'ld like to be, and you're losing steadily, your calorie level is probably find where it is. If however, you want to try a different calorie level, you can experiment to see if it works better.

    You might find that you lose better at a higher calorie level (which doesn't necessarily mean you have to believe in "starvation mode"), it could be as simple as a higher calorie level gives you more energy to be more active, or that at a higher calorie level, you may go off plan less often and if you don't count the calories of your off-plan foods, you may actually be eating less weekly by eating more daily.

    Experiment, and see what works best for you, mentally and physically.
  • I started @ 323, and ate 2000 calories and LOST! at 275 I dropped to 1800 cals, and at 200 dropped to about 1650-1700 and continued on there

    weirdly, now that i've lost all the weight for the most part, i'm back UP to eating around 2000 cals and haven't gained? wtf? LOL is that normal?? I'm busy and active but don't hard-core work out or anything
  • I started out at 274 eating 1450. I'm 237 now and am at 1300, plus 100-200 more on days I exercise. I have a desk job and do 30-45 mins of cardio every other day. My overall average loss is just over 2 lbs per week.
  • Wow I am shocked that you got such a low number-what sites were these? I use the Mifflin equation
    "As recent as 2005, the ADA (American Dietetic Association) published a comparison of various equations2. The Mifflin-St Jeor was found to be the most accurate."
    I put in your numbers and guessed that you are 30 (just a wild guess!) and got a BMR = 1717 Calories/day. I put in that you were "sedentary" just to be safe and got
    you need 2060 Calories/day to maintain your weight
    you need 1560 Calories/day to lose 1 lb per week
    you need 1060 Calories/day to lose 2 lb per week
    It depends on what you think is slow. If you are more sedentary and you are losing 1 lb a week, that sounds about right.