what should my calorie intake be?

S

summerbreeze058

New member
I've always been afraid of not eating enough or eating too much and i need help figuring out how many calories to be eating. ive tried all these calculators on the internet, and they all tell me something different. so i'm just going to explain what i do and someone please let me know if i'm eating enough or too much

i usually consume 1200 calories a day in fruit/veggies, whole grains, and protein in the form of fish or chicken.

i do cardio 5 times a week for 50 min and do weight training 3 times a week for 40-45 min.

doing all this exercise, should i up my calories in order to break my plateau? or should i bring my calories down to 1050 or something? i hope my metabolism hasn't been killed because of my eating or anything :rolleyes: hopefully not.

thanks in advance if anyone knows what i should do
 
Never go down below 1200, unless you are doing so with a doctor's supervision! That being said, I am not sure what else to tell you. :eek:
 
A doctor can tell you best. Those calorie things online are just basic little programs written by visual basic or some such and your at the mercy of the person that programed in the information. Most are pretty close though. If you cant talk to a doctor go to 5 different sites and average all of the numbers together. If they are even close it should give you a good average. you should get a number between about 1100-1500 for a female. Then just adjust them by what you weight is doing. still gaining eat more small meals but take in fewer calories but not going below probably 1000 and exercise more. Its not an easy answer because the smaller you are the fewer it takes to maintain. a larger person takes alot more and would almost feel starved by such a low calorie count. Hope my opinion didnt confuzzle you too bad. Things sound better in my head and lose in the translation..............by the way welcome
(1500 would be high for a small framed female that would be for one that is pretty active)
 
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I would say you need to up your calories, maybe slowly for a short period of time and just see. If you don't eat enough your body will start to go into starvation mode and your metabolism will drop.

I went on a website recently to see how many calories I would burn on one of my usual cycles. 50 mins at 12 mph (10 mile journey) burns 634 calories. I am 5ft 9 and 182 lbs. It said if I was moderately active (up to 9,400 steps a day) my basic calories used would be 2,500, if I was active (9,400 to 24,000) it would go up to 2,700. So on the days I bike ride my total calories would be minimum 3,134!! I also understand that 3,500 calories equates to 1 lb of loss or gain (depending if your eating them or working them off!:D )

I worked out that if I cycle 3 times a week and eat 2000 calories a day, my calories lost would total 5,400, or over 1.5 lbs per week which although not a huge amount, is a nice healthy amount. Also eating the extra calories could restore your metabolism. And of course you are working out more often than this!

I'm sorry to be so long winded, but I thought this info might be useful in deciding how many calories to have. As Hillbillylee said, try a few sites for calories burned, average them out, see what your total for the week is and what the minimum you would be happy losing a week is, and go from there. If you plateau again, at least you will be able to cut back without your cals going too low.

Hope this has been helpful.:)
 
i'm so scared to up it from 1200 though because that's such a standard number that everyone uses, and i dont want to start gaining weight when i up it. but maybe you're right..i just can't imagine in my head how eating around 1500 calories a day could still mean i lose weight
 
Maybe just up it by 100 cals at a time, see how you go for a week then if its okay maybe up it again. It seems to make no sense, I know, but it is a scientific fact that you need to eat enough or you will not lose weight. They say that the average woman should take in 2000 cals a day, so 1500 is still under, so you should still lose weight. Keep us posted!:)
 
Here's what I do. take ur weight, 134lbs, multiply it by 15. 134x15= 2010.
So, to maintain ur current weight, you must eat 2010 calories. To gain weight, you must eat above 2010 calories. and to lose weight, you must eat below 2010 calories.

1lb of fat equals 3500 calories. Sooo... lets say you up your calorie intake to about 1500, (2010x7)-(1500x7)= 3570 calories.(2010=calories needed to maintain weight; 7=7 days a week; 1500=calorie intake per day). That means, you lose about 1lb a week. With ur current 1200 calories a day, (2010x10)-(1200x7)= 5670 calories u lose total per week. So, u lose 1.6lbs of fat a week with ur 1200calorie diet. This doesnt include exercise.

So, if u upped your calorie intake to 1500, you'd lose between 1-1.5 lbs still, because you seem to be very active. Just dont go over 2010, going over slightly won't change much, u can probably go 2150 n still be fine n maintain weight. Don't be afraid to go to 1500, either way, you'll still lose weight.

I hope that helps. = )
 
Mrs Bear said:
it is a scientific fact that you need to eat enough or you will not lose weight.
Click to expand...

where did you get this scientific fact from?

do you really think that if someone doesn't eat enough then they don't lose weight? think about what you're saying. did you see any fat people come out of the nazi concentration camps?

to the OP - if you're on a plateau, all anyone can advise is to make a change. i wouldn't recommend going under 1200. have you considered changing your carb/protein/fat ratio? when i hit a plateau i decreased my carbs and upped my protein and it worked for me. i have no scientific reason for it, but it worked.

good luck :)
 
when we say lose weight were talking about fat..... The concentration camp they were so malnourished the body was feeding on itself. fat,muscle, everything. you can go into starvation mode and lose weight but its everything not just the fat your supposed to burn.
 
so would you be happy for the quote to be "it is a scientific fact that you need to eat enough or you will not lose fat."? cos that's rubbish too.

of course the aim is to lose fat while losing as little muscle as possible, which is why exercise is important as well as eating, particularly protein. but i just object to someone posting rubbish as "scientific fact".

another thing for the OP - you could try changing your exercise routine. maybe try a different type of exercise? or do HIIT. the body seems to get used to a particular diet & exercise so plateaus can be avoided by making changes every 4 - 8 weeks. if 1200 calories has worked for you so far, there's no reason why it shouldn't continue to do so if you just make some minor changes. my initial reaction was that 1200 was a little low for someone exercising so you could still try to up your calories to about 1400 and see how that goes for a couple of weeks. if it doesn't help, or if you put on weight, you know you need to go down to 1200 again and try something different.
 
I apologise for my sweeping statement, I guess the point I was trying to make was that if you want to lose weight healthily, and more importantly keep it off, you need to eat enough .... and that has been scientifically proven. If you eat too little your metabolism drops so when you eat normally again you are probably going to put weight back on.
 
wow thanks guys. the problem is that i already use every kind of cardio machine in the gym because each cardio session i have, i do 50 min, split between two machines. so i've done the elliptical, stair climber, treadmill, arc trainer, and bicycle. there's nothing left but the rowing machine, which i did once but since i coudlnt listen to my ipod or read anything, ended up being quite boring. so as far as exercise goes, i dont think i can get anymore creative. i'm gradually eating more now, around 1300-1400 calories, which is still scary for me, but you're right about someone working out so much and needing to eat a little more. we'll see what happens. i eat around 35% protein, 50% carbs, and 15% fat. how should i change that up?
 
Hey Summer. I am on a UK site now called Weight Loss Resources (a bit like fitday I think) and it advises that you have 55% carb, 15% protein and 30% fat. I'm not sure what the reason behind this is, and because I don't know a lot on the subject I just go along with what they suggest. You could give this a go. I do know that if you eat healthy fats, like in olive oil, avocados, oily fish and nuts, they contain fatty acids that actually help us break down fats. It might be worth a try ;)
 
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