Question about Daily Calories

I just signed up for this site yesterday and started looking into the nutrition section so I can track what I am eating. I put in my current weight at 305lbs and my Height at 6’ 2" and my first goal of 275lb but Im a little confused on my daily calorie goal. The site says I need to eat 4200 calories a day to maintain this weight and I should plan on eating 3200-3500 to drop pounds.

Am I inputing something incorrectly to get these numbers? because yesterday I ate fairly normal meals (minus the soda pop) and I only hit 1950 calories for that day and I felt completely full.

Any help or advice in this would be great. Thanks!

Try entering your bodyfat % if you know it, see if that changes the calorie goals. That seems like an awful lot to me, too. What did you list for activity level? If you put moderate or intense it may be estimating you’re going to be burning 750-1000 calories during exercise, which isn’t unreasonable if you keep your heart rate between 115-130 for that amount of time.

I’m in a similiar boat. I’m a little heavier, but have set a more agressive goal. Even at light excercise, it says to eat 2949 calories to reach my goal. I use another PC based program and with the same weight and no excercise says 2437, so they seem somewhat in agreement. When I’m eating healthy food, I have a hard time getting into the high teens, let alone over 2k.

I’m in the same boat as you Daewood, in fact we have almost the same stats. I was on WebMD and they have a great calorie calculator and it said to eat less than 2000 calories if I want to lose 2 lbs a week.

The site uses the Harris-Benedict equation to calculate the calories needed. This formula is adequate for most people. However, it often calculates a number that is too high for those who are quite obese.

So you have two options:
If you know your body fat %, you can use the Katch-McArdle formula, which is more accurate. You can see it (and an explanation) at the Wikipedia article Don’t forget to multiply by your activity modifier, which is 1.2 if you are sedentary. The formula only calculates your BMR. Then subract 500 calories to give yourself a deficit.

The other option is to try eating 4200 calories for a week. If you don’t lose weight, drop this by 500 and try again for a week. Repeat until you lose 1 lb in a week.

I put moderate as my activity level since I hit the gym almost every day and do about 30+ minutes on eliptical/bike/treadmill and try to keep my target heart rate around 150 or so. I tried 130 and when I got done with my 30 minutes I hardly broke a sweat.

I used to be much lighter (230 or so) and do 3-4 miles a day of cardio and ate better. But once job changes and life changes rolled around I lost my motivation until lately. Back then I ate oatmeal or a bowl of cherrios for breakfast a low fat chicken wrap at lunch and then whatever the family made for dinner just in less purportioned.

I was curious because to eat 3200 calories in a day I feel I would be stuffing myself unless I go get the greasiest nastiest fast food there is for every meal.

I agree with dianebl’s approach. There are many formulas and everyone is different. You many need to experiment, starting with the recommendation and moving down depending on your body reacts. Give it a week or two and then make a change if you’re not seeing results. Also are you lifting weights? Resistance training can help you increase your metabolism and burn fat and calories more effectively. I would make sure you are including both in your work out plan if you aren’t already.
Pamela

www.ThrivePersonalFitness.com

I have the same problem (except that I’m female and weight a 30lbs more yet still 6’2) and it gave me an upper limit of 2400 calories my first week? Dude, I was so unhappy that I didn’t get my apples that first week. I never met a single goal – esp. since I’m not a big meat eater and my protein goal was crazy high.

You can edit your nutritional goals yourself (yes, even as a free user), giving yourself a bigger range of calories/fats/carbs/proteins. (Click on the underlined link on your NutLog and a popup will appear.)

My goals recently:

• Calories – 1200 to 2000
• Fat – 40 to 75 g
• Protein – 65 to 150 g
• Carbs – 145 to 255 g

I initially did the math with my preferred percentages of each (50% C/25% F/25% P) for the high end and the low end of the calories but I realized, even then, that there were days that I didn’t eat a lot of carbs and more protein and vice versa. Some of the numbers are arbitrarily picked, I’ll admit, but it’s a good range. Some days I’ll eat 1300 calories and some days I’m eating 1900. How has it worked out for me? Well, save for a few issues and missed days, I’ve still managed to lose about a pound or two a week 12lbs so far.

I am going to say this because it needs to be said and I fear someone didn’t realize it at the time: DO NOT JUST CONSUME 4200 CALORIES IN A WEEK! Do the math and you see that it’s only 600 calories in a day. That’s 1/2 of the lowest of the low. I saw that and I had to respond.

Another good way for figuring out what you should eat is take your BMR (I tend to use the un-adjusted number) and multiply it by seven. If you want to lose 2lbs in a week, that’s 7000 calories you have burn extra. Subtract 7k from your weekly BMR total then divide by seven. Tada! A nice little number you can eat safely even if I don’t exercise. (My BMR is around 2400 so after all that, I can do 1400 a day and still be safe.)

BMR x 7 – Calories for lbs per week / 7

You can eat more with more activity.

I’m sorry this is so long but these are my little tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years. (I do A LOT of math!) I hope it helps!

Except that your BMR is not your maintenance calories. Your BMR is just what your body needs if you don’t move AT ALL. Even a sedentary person needs about 20% more than their BMR, just to maintain their weight.

This means if your BMR is 2400 and you are sedentary, your maintenance calories is 2880. A 500 calorie deficit puts you at 2380. You cannot safely go down to 1400. That’s a daily deficit of 50%!

The question from the original poster was about a VERY high maintenance calories question, and that was because the Harris Benedict formula doesn’t work so well for those who are at 300 lbs.

I have been eating what I normally eat for the past few days and punching in the foods from the nutrition tracker (minus not drinking mountain dew or going out to eat every meal) and I’m having a hard time meeting my calorie goals. However, I do not feel hungry at all (most the time I fill stuffed) and dont have any weird cravings for anything.

I’m just going to keep this up and see if my weight goes down (2lbs the past 4 days or so from gym and eating less fast food/sodapop).

Thank you all for the help, dailyburn.com has been a huge resource so far with my diet and exercise just reading the forums and being able to track everything that goes into my mouth.

@Daewood, calculations aside, being that you have a fair amount of weight to lose you should certainly see results at 2000 calories/day. With that said, don’t consume fewer than 2000 calories/day as you need to ensure you are properly fueling your body.

On the subject of fueling your body, while I understand that often people view the primary goal as being weight loss, ultimately you want to be focused on your overall health.

Not all calories are created equal and I urge you to move away from the convenience foods and take-out and move towards eating whole foods such as fresh vegetables and fruit, lean sources of protein, whole grains and healthy fats.

Your diet right now is way too high in saturated fat and sodium. Continuing on this course can potentially lead to serious health conditions, regardless of your weight.

Please don’t hesitate to continue to ask questions!

Susan
www.CatapultFitnessBlog.com

I guess I should have scrolled down in the forum before I posted. I posted a related question here: http://dailyburn.com/forums/diet_and_nutrition/… about the fact that I get different recommendations from different sites. The range is about 700 calories. That’s a huge difference!
Stesa

@stesaray, there is no one-size fits all formula. Not even the experts can predict exactly how many calorie you need because everyone is different.

This is why you need to monitor your progress and adust the calorie intake to suit your progress. Try the suggested calorie intake for two weeks. If you lose ~ 1-2 lbs a week, you’re good. If you lose more, bump up your calories. If you lose less, bump them down. Eat at the new rate for a week, then monitor and adjust again if needed.

Just a couple of things to add / comment on- unless you are fanatical, your daily numbers for both nutrition and exercise are going to vary. Focusing on the weekly average is a healthy approach, while still making sure that you don’t drop too low on any one day, definitely not two in a row or close together. Which doesn’t mean that you have to eat more than you feel you HONESTLY need just to get that apple, but you must have enough calories for your well-being, and they need to be mostly healthy foods like @Susannyny pointed out . Until you get a really good feel for your needs and what level will let you lose weight at a safe, healthy rate, try setting your activity level at the lowest (sedentary) level no matter what you’re actually doing.

I’m certainly not an expert on this topic, but I think one problem might be if you have a first goal of 275 pounds. That will probably throw off your calculation, because it will assume you want to reach and then maintain at that goal. I’d suggest putting in a “real” goal and trying that for a couple of weeks. I’m close to your height (I’m 6-3) and was 260 at my heaviest. I’m now just under 190 and my target weight is 180. My calorie goal is 2500-2800. That’s maybe just a touch under what I’d like to eat, but I’m making it work.

I’d suggest you put in something like 220 pounds as your goal and give it a shot.

Also, I think it’s also really important to focus not just on the total calorie intake, but also on the fat/carb/protein totals, as that can also really be key. It took me a while to get that balance right, but now I’m in the ballpark most days. (Carbs are generally the hardest for me, as I often go over.)

I’d also like to add that you need to be VERY CAREFUL to not eat too little. Eating too little will cause your body to go into starvation mode and it start burning lean muscle as opposed to stored fat. Please please please do not eat below your reasonable target. That’s even more important if you’re working out regularly. Eat your calories. It can take a long, long time to get your body back from starvation mode, and it will make everything more difficult for you.

Eat your calories…just make sure they’re the right kind!