Getting too FEW calories? Yikes

[thatsright]

My BMR is 2400 cal and my ‘maintain weight’ is about 2700. But I just started working out with lots of weights and resistance training. And now I’m worried I’m not getting enough calories in total? I eat super healthy, high protein, modest carbs and low fat. But I’m going through the day starving (which wasn’t the case before I started the weights) and probably eating 2200 cal or fewer per day and not even realizing it. I eat several times a day and now getting more hungry. I have a feeling this will wreck my metabolism perhaps and retard my fat loss. Should I go up on the cal count? By about how much? I’m not trying to get ‘super big’ just burn fat and build lean muscle.

 

[brikis98]

Start by reading the fat loss sticky. Next, start actually tracking your calories on fitday.com or thedailyplate.com. Speculating about your caloric intake is a bad idea, so start measuring. Finally, if you are constantly starving, you are probably doing something wrong. Eating too little or eating the wrong type of food. "Low fat" is not necessarily healthy and as fat can be quite filling could be part of it.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

definitely pick up a food scale. Helps when you're tracking calories.

 

[bommy261]

definitely pick up a food scale. Helps when you're tracking calories.

also helps when weighing drugs.. just sayin 😉

 

[imagoon]

Start by reading the fat loss sticky. Next, start actually tracking your calories on fitday.com or thedailyplate.com. Speculating about your caloric intake is a bad idea, so start measuring. Finally, if you are constantly starving, you are probably doing something wrong. Eating too little or eating the wrong type of food. "Low fat" is not necessarily healthy and as fat can be quite filling could be part of it.

Random question, on thedailyplate.com what should I put for activity level if I work computer work all day but try for 45 minutes on the bike (HR 140+) 3-4 days a week, plus air squats on the off days? Setting it to cycling sets me at like 3800 even with 'lose 2 lbs a week' which sounds way high.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Random question, on thedailyplate.com what should I put for activity level if I work computer work all day but try for 45 minutes on the bike (HR 140+) 3-4 days a week, plus air squats on the off days? Setting it to cycling sets me at like 3800 even with 'lose 2 lbs a week' which sounds way high.

Don't pay attention to the caloric maintenance calculations. They are ALWAYS off. Pay attention specifically to your BMR (which has some good calculators and a lot fewer degrees of freedom). Read the fat loss sticky and ignore the caloric maintenance estimators.

 

[ckoons1]

My BMR is 2400 cal and my ‘maintain weight’ is about 2700. But I just started working out with lots of weights and resistance training. And now I’m worried I’m not getting enough calories in total? I eat super healthy, high protein, modest carbs and low fat. But I’m going through the day starving (which wasn’t the case before I started the weights) and probably eating 2200 cal or fewer per day and not even realizing it. I eat several times a day and now getting more hungry. I have a feeling this will wreck my metabolism perhaps and retard my fat loss. Should I go up on the cal count? By about how much? I’m not trying to get ‘super big’ just burn fat and build lean muscle.

count your calories to insure fat loss. once a week have a free meal to prevent metabolism slow doen. repeat
Clif Koons
Mr America
2x Mr Universe
:]

 

[thatsright]

Ahh, okay sorry guys. I do use daily plate and it calculated yesterdays intake at about 2000 cal where I should be at 2400 minimum. I was thinking to add natural PB to my MetRx shakes, or eat some trail mix during the day at work?

 

[KoolDrew]

The important question is whether or not you are losing weight and at what rate, not what your calories are in relation to some estimation, that is more than likely off to begin with.

 

[brikis98]

Random question, on thedailyplate.com what should I put for activity level if I work computer work all day but try for 45 minutes on the bike (HR 140+) 3-4 days a week, plus air squats on the off days? Setting it to cycling sets me at like 3800 even with 'lose 2 lbs a week' which sounds way high.

It's important to understand that all calorie "tracking" is really just estimating. You can't measure it at home and all your calculations and calorie calculators online are just rough guesses. However, you can measure your bodyweight. If your weight is changing in the proper direction at the proper rate (e.g. dropping 1lb per week) then your estimates are pretty good. If not, then you'll need to tweak your estimates (and consequently your diet & exercise) until it is working as expected. Note that bodyweight can also fluctuate on a day to day basis, so always weigh yourself under identical conditions (e.g. first thing in the morning, no clothes) and pay attention to the trend from week to week as fluctuations will average out over a longer timeframe.

My experience with the dailyplate is to pick one of the lowest activity levels on there and then manually - and conservatively - add in any exercise I do on top of that. At 190lbs, that puts me around 2,000 calories baseline + ~500 calories of daily exercise & activity. YMMV.

 

[kalrith]

Don't pay attention to the caloric maintenance calculations. They are ALWAYS off. Pay attention specifically to your BMR (which has some good calculators and a lot fewer degrees of freedom). Read the fat loss sticky and ignore the caloric maintenance estimators.

In the fat-loss sticky, you said to be between your BMR and caloric maintenance to lose weight. How do I figure out the caloric maintenance for my wife and myself. My BMR is 1930, and hers is 1410. Should we just "guess" by adding 20% to the BMR? That would put my caloric range at 1930 - 2316, and hers at 1410 - 1692. Or should we try to stay closer to the BMR than that (like 2000 and 1500, respectively).

 

[imagoon]

It's important to understand that all calorie "tracking" is really just estimating. You can't measure it at home and all your calculations and calorie calculators online are just rough guesses. However, you can measure your bodyweight. If your weight is changing in the proper direction at the proper rate (e.g. dropping 1lb per week) then your estimates are pretty good. If not, then you'll need to tweak your estimates (and consequently your diet & exercise) until it is working as expected. Note that bodyweight can also fluctuate on a day to day basis, so always weigh yourself under identical conditions (e.g. first thing in the morning, no clothes) and pay attention to the trend from week to week as fluctuations will average out over a longer timeframe.

My experience with the dailyplate is to pick one of the lowest activity levels on there and then manually - and conservatively - add in any exercise I do on top of that. At 190lbs, that puts me around 2,000 calories baseline + ~500 calories of daily exercise & activity. YMMV.

Good info, I was looking for a baseline for the site itself. I have been weighing myself regularly and I can definitely see 1~2 lbs variance at times but the general direction is down at least.

I have a bit of a hard time still putting down 400 calories of exercise, I am getting there however. I was interested in the calories side of it mostly because there are days where it is really hard to get the workout in and on those days I like to drop out some calories to try and compensate a bit.

 

[SlitheryDee]

In the fat-loss sticky, you said to be between your BMR and caloric maintenance to lose weight. How do I figure out the caloric maintenance for my wife and myself. My BMR is 1930, and hers is 1410. Should we just "guess" by adding 20% to the BMR? That would put my caloric range at 1930 - 2316, and hers at 1410 - 1692. Or should we try to stay closer to the BMR than that (like 2000 and 1500, respectively).

Caloric maintenance changes based on your activity level on a given day. For instance, on days that you work out your caloric maintenance will be higher than on rest days. Most of the online calculators will arrive at a figure by taking your BMR + a fixed value for your general non-workout daily activities + any calories burned by working out. This seems like as good a way to do it as any to me.

So if your bmr is 2000 calories and you are relatively active all day, you might add 1000 calories to your bmr for your daily activities to arrive at 3000 calories. This is a figure you could use as a baseline every day that you just do your normal thing without working out. An hour of vigorous weight lifting plus cardio might add another 1000 calories to that to arrive at 4000. So if your goal is to take in 500 calories under maintenance, you'd eat 2500 calories on rest days and 3500 on workout days.

I'm taking these figures roughly from my own calculations on thedailyplate.com. I'm getting results, so I know it works, but your numbers would obviously be different due to different age, weight, activity levels, etc.

 

[kalrith]

Thanks, SlitheryDee. I know in high school when I weighed about 10 lbs. more than I do now, was extremely active, ate 3,300 calories per day, and lost about half a pound a week for the entire school year.

Unfortunately I'm not nearly that active any more. I'm trying to get back into things though with running, cycling, and lifting weights. I don't have a great weight setup, but I'll use what I have and save up for some better equipment. There's certainly no reason to wait until I have better stuff rather than using what I already have.

I might shoot for 2300 - 2500 right now and see what my weight does. Since the calories will be estimated, the scale will be the real sign of whether I'm at a deficit.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

In the fat-loss sticky, you said to be between your BMR and caloric maintenance to lose weight. How do I figure out the caloric maintenance for my wife and myself. My BMR is 1930, and hers is 1410. Should we just "guess" by adding 20% to the BMR? That would put my caloric range at 1930 - 2316, and hers at 1410 - 1692. Or should we try to stay closer to the BMR than that (like 2000 and 1500, respectively).

Well, it's like this: you find your BMR. Add 200-300 calories, and you will be in a caloric deficit. If you're losing weight at 1-1.5lbs per week, then you're in the right spot. If you're losing more, you need to add a couple hundred calories (~100-200 to start) to slow weight loss (and reduce muscle loss as a result).

 

[mchammer187]

Ahh, okay sorry guys. I do use daily plate and it calculated yesterdays intake at about 2000 cal where I should be at 2400 minimum. I was thinking to add natural PB to my MetRx shakes, or eat some trail mix during the day at work?

Eat something that you will find satisfying

I'm guessing adding some PB to your shakes is not gonna cut it in that regard

You said you are constantly hungry which is definitely a bad sign.

When you are cutting you should budget your calories toward real food and stuff like shakes is are not that great of an option because they are typically not filling compared to the real food it would be replacing.

Don't get me wrong shakes are a good thing but if you find yourself in a situation where you are getting hungry alot than that is problem because a shake is very calorie dense but not very satisfying (it won't keep you full for a long time).

Also there is no reason for low fat.

I always aim for between 40/30/30 or 33/33/33 for carbs/protein/fat cals which translates to ~ 2-3g carb/ 2-3g protein / 1g fat and if you plan your meals around that kind of balance they will be alot more filling. Also eating high fiber foods I've found is key.