How many calories?
Anywho, I've been at a stand still in my weight loss since March of this year. I know lots of post-ops tend to gain (from what I've read) between 8-15 pounds and I've fallen into that category. My lowest weight was 159 in early 2006. I never saw that again and have been at 172 for several months now. Thanks to www.dailyplate.com I realized I have been eating a little too much carbs so I'm working on cutting that down and eating more protein.
My question is how many calories should we be consuming? I'm sure it all depends on height and weight. On that note, I'm 5'3 and like I said, currently 172 pounds. My goal is to get to at least 135-140 and then get plastics. So according to Daily Plate, I should consume 1,635 calories a day to lose at least 1 pound a week. Does that seem like too little calories? When I factor in exercise 3-4 times a week for about an hour, it seems like I'm starving myself. I know "starvation mode" makes us gain weight.
If anyone can give me some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Our daily calorie needs really do vary so much that it's hard to say what's right for you. I can say that most dieticians and nutritionists suggest that we create a 500 to 1000 calorie a day deficit when we want to lose weight. I believe that deficit should be calculated based on your BMR plus the number of calories you burn through exercise, although I think some folks calculate based on their BMR.
You can estimate your BMR using a BMR calculator - you should be able to find one with a quick search on google, or perhaps that the 1635 number you're getting from thedailyplate.com. Given your height and weight, I think that 1635 might be a good range for you, but it might be a little too low if you are exercising a lot.
I had been maintaining around 185 for about 2-3 months. My average daily calorie intake during that time was 2500-2600 calories a day and I was burning about 2200+ calories a week through exercise (8-10 hours of exercise per week). So I was netting out to about 2285 calories per day. I recently cut my daily calorie intake down to about 2200 calories and maintained my level of exercise. My weight has dropped to 179 in the past 2-3 days at this lower calorie level; not sure whether it'll go lower or not, just waiting to see what happens.
All I can say is try the 1635 per day and see what happens. If you stick with that and start losing a pound a week, that's great. If you stick to it and nothing happens, try bumping your calories up 100-200 calories and day and then see what happens. For me it takes a lot of tinkering to get my body to lose weight these days, but if I work it just right, it cooperates.
Good luck on your continuing journey -
Kellie
I am ready to pull my hair out trying to figure how many calories I need for the day.
I have been working out twice a day for about a month now and when I got on the scale saturday it had gone up 9lbs I about freaked out as you can imagine.
One thing I wasent doing was not recording my food intake my bad.
Now I am doing it every day.
I know I am burning over 1000 calories a day.
I am 5'4 268 but with the nine pounds that puts me at 277.
Right now I have my food tracker set at 1500-2000 a day I am not sure if this is what I should do.
Any help would be great.
I am trying really hard to get to my first goal of 200.
I am attaching my profile from spark people.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=ANNIEP59
Annie
uwe0306 · 2 replies · 110 views
