question for Kara :P

[xxt]

Hi Kara,

I couldn't figure out how to pm you on this site...they might not do email though SO here I am We discussed a little bit about my workout goals a few threads ago. I've been using thedailyplate for four days and been working out a lot. Now that I'm getting settled into routine, I've come across some questions. thedailyplate recommends I take in about 1450 calories a day to lose about a pound and a half a week. As you know, you log exercise on there as well. When I log my exercise, say I burned 400 calories, it will add those calories onto how much food I should be eating a day (in that example, it would be 1850 calories a day). My friend said that's too many calories to eat to lose weight. I figured I need another opinion. What I've been doing now is taking in about 1450 calories (or trying to anyway ) a day and if I exercise, not adding those as more calories I can eat. So even if I burn of 600 calories, I still eat 1450. Will this give me the results I want (I aim to lose about 1.5 lbs a week) or should I change things around? Thanks so much for your assistance!

Christy

 

[KaraCooks]

Hey there. Glad to help if I can.

Ok, I'm gonna start backwards with this: Your friend said that 1400 was too many calories, right? Ask your friend why. Ask your friend how many calories you should be eating and then ask her to tell you exactly how she came to that number. I'll bet you money she'll tell you around 1200 or less and she doesn't know why .. but that's just the number she heard somewhere.

Most people have no clue how many calories they should be eating. They have no idea what their BMR is. They have no idea what a healthy rate of loss is. They've been brainwashed by years of reading magazines and listening to ads for "Lose Weight Now" and "Drop 10 lbs by Saturday!" and all that stuff. Somewhere along the line someone said in a big booming voice "If you're a woman, thou shalt eat 1200 calories to lose weight." and like lemmings we all believed it. We all believed that no matter how big you were you had to drop your calories to rock bottom or you would never lose weight.

The truth is ... no, not even truth, but scientific FACT is ... when you drop your calories, you slow down your metabolism. When you want to lose weight, the idea is to drop your calories low enough to lose, while keeping them as high as possible in order to not stall out your metabolism. If you start at rock bottom (1200 calories), then what happens when your metabolism stalls? You have nowhere further down to go.

The number of calories is not the same for everyone. It's based on current body weight, and activity level. The easiest way to calculate your calories is to work with an average figure. The average for a moderately active adult is 15 calories per pound of bodyweight to maintain. So you weigh 150 - if you wanted to maintain your current weight, you'd eat 150 * 15 = 2250 calories.

If you want to lose at a healthy rate, you should start off with dropping your calorie intake by about 20% - 30%. So lets say for you, we subtract 30% of 2250 (or 675 calories). That leaves you with 1575 calories in order to lose weight safely and reasonably. And notice that's about 1/2 way between the 1450 and 1850 figure that the DP came up with - with and w/out exercise. It takes into account your current weight and activity level and setting calories for YOU.

Ok, now, back to the other part. I think the DP makes things too complicated with the whole net calories deal. I also think it's highly inaccurate because it's just not that easy to calculate calories burned. I wore a heart rate monitor and then a BodyBugg for a full year and I found that the number of calories I really burned was *radically* different from what the Daily Plate calculated for me. Sometimes it was drastically more and sometimes it was drastically less. That's because the number of calories you burn is not just about your weight and the amount of time and so forth - it's about your heart rate. And you just can't calculate that based on the averages that the DP uses.

So ... here's what I do. I use DP to track my food and my macro nutrients (the carb/protein/fat ratios). I do *not* use DP to track my exercise. In fact I don't even bother to count the calories burned in exercise. I set a healthy limit for my food calories (using the calculation above) and then I exercise and consider any extra calories burned in exercise to be a bonus.

I truly believe that's the best way to do it w/out making yourself crazy. Because it would be easy to become number obsessed and try to track to the n-th degree.

I hope that helps some.

 

[xxt]

thanks, Kara. That's what I figured. I asked and my friend didn't have anything to back it up nor was she pushing it on me, it just made me think about it. I think that seems like a healthy caloric intake for me and will probably help me lose weight steadily over time

I think I will just use tdp for food. Thanks so much for your help and guidance. To give you an update, I think it's very user friendly and helps me really see what's in what I'm eating (thus it's a great motivator). I've been doing the gym a lot as well. I think I'm losing weight..although just a little. My scale has shifted down a few pounds I'm not trying to obsess over the # though nor do I expect to lose 10 pounds in a week. I think I'm pretty realistic about my goals and expectations. I will be really happy though once I get in the 140s definitely (instead of fluctuating between 149-151 forever like I usually do!). That will be definitely be a milestone and something to motivate me a lot Anyway, I'm also noticing some body differences which is nicer and something I'll probably notice more than the scale

Thanks again for all your help! I'll probably be on here from time to time with questions and progress reports

 

[KaraCooks]

Glad I can help.

I asked and my friend didn't have anything to back it up nor was she pushing it on me, it just made me think about it.

Yeah, honestly I don't think most friends are trying to push anything ... they're all trying to help. Even my housemate thinks he's helping when he points out that whatever it is I'm eating is "fattening".

It's just that most people don't really get nutrition - they've never really had to think about it, so they have a vague idea of what's "good" and what's "bad". It's kinda sad really. But that's a soapbox I should leave for another time - my opinions on nutritional education in the US.

 

[Jynus]

activity makes a HUGE difference to your metabolism. and the food you eat can even influence it. When working out to full intensity just 5 hours a week with no other real activity in my daily routine, my metabolism is 3000 calories a day to maintain. I can lose at 2700 calories a day.

1200 calories is the bare min someone should eat who doesn't workout, and is sedentary. Anyone who is active needs more. Your friend is pretty much straight up wrong on this i'm afraid..