How do you know how much to eat? I am reading various theories on this today (bored at work again!). The latest Runner's World mag says to lose weight you need to create a calorie deficit of 2000. It doesn't explain how this works.
Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function - even before you do any exercise. This is BMR (basic metabolic rate). Mine is 1550 calories. To maintain my weight, I apparently need 2402 calories, given that I exercise 3-5 days per week for an hour a day. Each of my sessions burns between 446 calories (weights) to 500 (spin class or running). Some websites recommend I eat 500 calories less than this figure, to lose weight, which brings me to 1900. Others recommend 1370-1600.
I wish this was an exact science! I want someone to give me the answers!!!! Doesn't everybody though?
The reason I am thinking about this is that over the last week I have lost weight. I am averaging 1200-1400 calories a day. However, after about a week of this my weight loss slows or virtually stops. I start hovering again. I also get really hungry. Both these things indicate that I am not eating enough.
I still don't get where the 2000 calorie deficit comes in. Maybe it is my 1550 calories plus 450 of exercise, which brings me to 2000 calories burnt? It still doesn't tell me how much to eat.
Anyone else better at this than me? Anyone got any brilliant suggestions?
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4 comments:
BMR is the number of calories your body needs each day if it is purely to stay competely still, like on the sofa and never move. It needs so many calories to breathe, to pump blood, build new cells.
But how many of us sit still all day long and never move once. For a start we all trek to the bathroom at some stage, or out of bed or to work, so they body needs more calories to make those muscles move and get you from A to B. That usually brings the girls total to 2000 cal a day and for the boys 2500. That is purely for your body to function.
However we all exercise which burns more off, if you want to maintain weight then u just eat the calories you burnt off and everything is balanced.
But if you want to lose weight and still have a healthy body it is advisable to eat more than ur BMR, but you must also have more calories being burnt than eaten. make sense?
If you eat too few calories yeah sure you drop weight for a couple of weeks but then u plateau. This is because you are playing around with your metabolism and your body adapts to it, which isnt a good idea.
Trainers like Jillian Michaes from the biggest loser suggest working out how many cals u can have in a week and never eating the same number each day. e.g
Mon- 1500
tues- 1100
wed 1300
and so on
This in theory keeps ur body guessing and ur metabolism keeps going and prevents any long term cells damage.
Hope that makes some sort of sense, if not email me and i will attempt to explain it more or i can attempt to find literature that will help
I'm not sure what the 2000 Cals thing was about - that's a crappy piece of journalism.
The general 'rule' is that to lose 1 pound per week, you need to create a Calorie deficit of 3500. Because 1 pound of fat contains 3500 Calories. So that would require a DAILY deficit of 500 Calories. But in practice it's not that simple. You have to factor in individual differences in metabolic rate, how much fat mass and lean mass the person has, what type of diet and/or training program they're following and about a billion other things. You CAN use it as a general rule of thumb and then tweak things to suit your own body.
Tom Venuto has some more info and some good advice on his blog here: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2007/09/3500_calories_to_lose_a_pound.php
Hopefully, that will clarify things a bit.
Hey babe!
Are you able to maybe book one dietician session and see what advice they can give? Like a special sports dietician?
Just a thought!
Hey Emm,
Not to tout Vision's work (again), but in the last month, I've lowered my amount of cardio, and changed my food (ala the macro guidelines they gave me) and lost 5kg.
Example day (for me):
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs (1 whole, 2 whites), 100ml milk, 2 slices Burgen toast.
Snack 1: 4 corn thins, 70g tuna, 100g cottage cheese
Lunch: Sandwich - Burgen bread, 100g chicken, lettuce, tomato, avocado
Snack 2: Yoghurt, punnet strawberries, 8 almonds
Dinner: Steak (200g), broccoli, carrot, peas, capsicum
I have no idea what the calories are, but I CAN tell you that it's 122g carbohydrate, 181g protein and 53g fat. Those amounts were worked out for my body type, lean mass (which is the only bit you should be feeding) and actviity levels (including work & exercise).
Honestly honey, I have tried calorie counting, and it officially sucks, and is massively confusing, cause the online calorie calculators are usually WAY off - I've seen anywhere from 1400 calories to 2700 calories for me for a day on different ones.
I think a dietician, nutritionist would be a great idea. Or (again, ignore this plug if you want) do an initial consultation with Vision ($150) and they'll tell you what your macros are, and you can go from there.
Whatever you do, I reckon you'll get there Emm - you're ever so determined and you'll get what you want!! :)
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