Calories in, Calories out; Advice?

Kat2002

Kat2002

Cathlete
Hi everyone. :)

I'm trying to reach a goal of losing 15 pounds by my birthday in late March. I'm trying to plan out my diet and exercise routine in order to reach this goal.

I'm trying to plan it out mathematically, which has me eating about 1200 calories a day. I'm a beginner/intermediate exerciser (Catheite wannabe :+) and plan to rely on the treadmill for my main calorie burning exercise. What I'm concerned about is that I've heard over the years that 1200 calories a day is "too low"; I don't want to risk going into starvation mode or not having enough energy to exercise, but when I do the math, it seems that that is what I need to do?

*Warning: boring math below* ;)

I used the calculator on fittv.com, which says that my basal metabolic rate is 1500 calories a day.

Diet: 1200-1500=-300/day; -2100 a week

Then treadmill exercise: 45 mins a day @ 3.5 mph=-228 cals a day times 6; -1368 a week

With that diet and exercise, it has me at -3468 cals a week, which will have me losing about a pound a week.

I do plan to do a small amount of weight training and maybe yoga 2x a week, but the treadmill will be my main source of exercise.

Sorry to be so long winded, but my big question is, am I going about this all wrong or will this help me accomplish my goal?

Thanks,
Kathleen
 
Hello Kathleen,

I am definitely not an expert on this and there are a lot more people on this board that are more knowledgable about this than I am, but I wanted to share what I have found effective. I zigzag. I eat at a deficit for three days, 20 to 30% of the total calories it would take to maintain my weight as is and then on the fourth day I have the total calorie day, then repeat. This has given me excellent results and I have maintained my weight better than I've ever been able to before. When I went to this last summer, I was too calorie restricted and it showed. I wasn't dropping those pesky 5 to 8 pounds that plague us from time to time and I didn't have any energy and I didn't realize just much I didn't have until I started eating more calories. Everything fell into place after that.

Sarah (imafitnessfreak) introduced me to this. She is so helpful. I'm sure she'd help you get start on this. She is usually on here, hopefully she will see this thread or you can post a thread directly to her.

Also I can't emphasize enough how important strength training is in conjunction with your cardio. It is absolutely essentially. There are those on here also that can give you guidance on this. Right now I am following Cathe's rotations so I don't do my own. Two that come to mind, Carole and Kathryn can really steer you in the right direction on this.

Direct a thread to them in the event they don't pop in on this on. They'll be glad to help.

HTH!! Good luck!
 
Hi Kathleen.

I don't know anything about the formula you used above but here's what I use....

Harris-Benedict Formula:

655*(4.354 x your weight in pounds)+ (4.569 x your height in inches) - (4.7 x your age in years)= This will give you your basal metabolic rate.

Once you have that you can figure out the cals needed daily to maintain your current weight this way:

BMR x 1.55 (moderately active)

(There are other multipliers if you think you are less or more active then that...just search Harris-Benedict Formula to find them.)

Once you come up with the # of cals needed to sustain your current weight than you can figure out a calorie deficit.

HTH!:)

ETA: BTW...I did the same calorie staggering that Jane does and lost 13 pounds with it! I have taken a break but will be going back to it to try to lose a few more pounds very soon!
 
Kathleen, thanks for asking this question. I am curious about the advice that you get and hope to use it for myself :).

Jane, thanks for sharing your zigzag approach. Would you mind sharing the number of calories of your deficit days compared to your total calorie days? Thanks.

Karin
 
Thanks Wendy for giving that information. Sarah set up my numbers, so I did have the actual formula. I'm bookmarking this for future reference.
 
No problem, Jane. I got curious one day and just looked it up for myself. Sarah had been figuring my #'s too.

There is also another formula that is supposedly more accurate. I forget the name of it but your caloric intake is calculated based on lean body mass or something like that. Sarah is the one that told me about it if you are interested....:)
 
I think it is the Katch-McArdle formula Wendy. That one allowed more calories, so I stay with the Harris-Benedict numbers.
 
Kathleen,

I may be wrong here because I'm not sure what FitTV used for their calculations, but I THINK that the basal metabolic rate refers ONLY to the amount of calories your body needs just to stay alive doing normal everyday things like breathing, etc. I think you're supposed to ADD on calories because chances are you do more than just lie on your bed for the whole day. You have to add calories for normal eveyday movement like walking to your shower, brushing your teeth, etc. Because 1500 calories seems really low as a "maintainence" amount of calories.

I went on www.fitnessmagazine.com under the Calrories Needed to find my calorie intake.

I LOVE the idea of going hi and low with the calories because it shakes up your metabolism. I may have to try that myself!

Chrissy
 
Chrissy,

Yep, the basal metabolic rate is the min. amount of calories burned doing nothing. I figure I'll shoot for losing 1 lb a week using the formula and any uncalculated activity would push me closer to 2 lb a week.

I think I'll start off with this and try calorie staggering if I hit a plateau.

-Kathleen
 
I love this thread! What I don't understand is..how do you accurately count the calories in the food you're eating? For instance, tonight I made a huge pot of turkey soup with barley and tons of vegetables. I had two medium size bowls but I have no exact idea how much turkey, barley, and vegetables I really ate. I just don't know how to count calories unless it's a simple yogurt with the counts on the package, or measuring out a l/2 cup of cottage cheese or something.

Thanks for the help! :)
 
Hi Ladies!!

First, I would love it if you would consider a bit more than 1200 calories. That is super low for almost every single person out there. If 1500 is your basal, that is what you need to be awake...assuming you plan on staying in bed all day. If you plan on getting out of bed, you need more calories...the trick is eating the right calories. By eating too few, you are not helping yourself and do not be surprised if you actually gain weight. Once your body reaches starvation mode, it begins storing all calories as body fat for survival...clean food or not.

May I suggest eating to feed the muscles? Muscle mass is an excellent calorie burner!

I have several women here zig zagging. We figure their calorie needs based on age, weight, gender, height and activity level. Then, we do a 3 day 20%-30% calorie deficit, then 1 day of eating to maintain body weight, repeat 3 days low, then 1 maintenance day. I also suggest a healthy serving of fats, carbs and proteins with every meal and snack.
 
Nancy,

I just found out about sparkpeople.com; it's a free calorie counter similar to Fitday, but they also have meal plans. You may have to estimate the amounts of turkey/veggies, etc, or you may also be able to type in turkey vegetable soup and maybe a canned product will have similar calorie counts.

HTH,

Kathleen
 
Sarah,

I'm not sure I understand the concept of the 20-30% deficit (that or poor math skills are tripping me up ;)). Can you give me an idea of what a sample week zig-zag calorie pattern would be like if my basal is 1500?

Thanks,

Kathleen
 
I very much believe that it comes down to "calories in, calories out," and therefore I track calories. I consider myself "moderately" active, so I take my desired weight and multiply it by 15 to get my calorie level. If you are very active, like you're a waitress who walks a lot on the job plus you exercise on top of that, you could be "very active" and would multiply your desired weight by 16 or 17 (determined by which number results in weight loss). This plus increasing my fiber intake dramatically helped me lose 14 lbs. and keep it off.
Just Do It! :)
 
>Sarah,
>
>I'm not sure I understand the concept of the 20-30% deficit
>(that or poor math skills are tripping me up ;)). Can you give
>me an idea of what a sample week zig-zag calorie pattern would
>be like if my basal is 1500?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Kathleen


Kathleen,

I'm not Sarah but I got my info from her...if your basal is 1500 then you need to find out what your calorie need is based on your activity level by using the activity multiplier. Once you have THAT then you can figure your deficit.

Let's say for argument's sake though, that your calorie need is 1500 per day. Take 1500 multiplied by .20 and .30 which equals 300 and 450 respectively. Then subtract those #'s from your calorie need to get your defecit range which would then be between 1050 and 1200 cals per day in order to lose weight. If you are zigzagging you would eat the 1500 cals every 4th day...

HTH!:)
 
Thank you Kathleen. I'll try that. I'd be in better shape if only I could keep the calorie count down....(sigh)!x(
 
"Muscle mass is an excellent calorie burner!"

Sarah, I've been hearing that, although this was thought to be true for some time, the latest information is that muscle mass is only a fair calorie burner at best. Have you heard such reports?

I hasten to add that Kathleen should not ignore strength training, which I think is very important for fitness.

-Nancy
 
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