Calorie questions
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| Fri, 05-06-2005 - 3:51pm |
Do you keep track of your calories?
How do you go about figuring out the calorie range you ought to be shooting for?
I'm not going to ask how many calories y'all consume on a daily basis, because I know how sensitive we ladies can be about how much we eat. And I know we all have different levels of activity and different metabolisisms. But if you want to share that info, I would be interested.
I'm curious because I was lurking in this non-ivillage fitness forum, and a lot of the ladies there limit themselves to 1200 a day. And then I was reading "The Body Sculpting Bible for Women" and the guy advises something like 1200 -- 1500 calories a day. I would starve to death within a week if I had to eat like that. Then another website advises something like 3000 calories a day, given my activity level. That sounds really high, don't you think? That might be okay during marathon training though.
I'm not tracking my calories right now, and I'm not even sure how many I should be eating a day. I've logged onto fitday.com, and I wonder if their calorie info is accurate. Any thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?

we've discussed this issue many times here. there are no easy answers. i agree that 1200 is probably too low for you and 3000 is probably too high - but who knows where in between you should be? i've counted calories in the past, with a program that automatically changed my calorie budget depending on the info i inputed - daily weight, food intake, and exercise. so theoretically it accounts for my personal metabolism, but it was never able to figure me out very well. nonetheless, i lose weight when i count calories, even if it isn't very accurate. i think it helps to be aware of how many calories you are eating, and the nutritional value of the calories, and that information in itself helps me eat better. i can say that as a general range i net about 1500 calories a day after subtracting the calories i burn in exercise. (so perhaps i eat 2000 and burn off 500.) that maintains my weight - i'm 5'4" and 125 lbs.
keep in mind, many of us have realized from personal experience that regardless of what the science supposedly is on the subject, that not all calories are equal. for instance, i know that if i eat a very strict whole foods diet, i will lose weight regardless of how many calories i eat. i actually think this is the preferable way to lose fat as compared with counting calories, but sometimes it's easier just to count calories.
basically, i think the best thing to do is see how many net calories you taking in now. compare it to an online calculator. use one that calculates your sedentary metabolic calorie needs based on your weight. then add in your actual exercise. (DON'T use one that takes into consideration whether you are active.) if you do a search on the board for "caloric intake" or something like that, you'll find previous threads on this topic with links to calculators.
one you get a figure from a calculator, use this as a guestimate. if your current net calories are above that guestimate, and you are trying to lose fat, you can decrease it by a couple hundred a day (assuming you aren't going down below like 1200 by doing that) through a combination of less calories eaten and more burned through exercise. see if that works. if it doesn't, try something else. also, keep in mind that eating too few calories can slow your metabolism - some people actually need to increase their net calories to lose weight.
I'm weighing in late on this but I had my metabolism measured with the medgem test.
I meant to reply to this earlier but got sidetracked. I have a bit of a dysfunctional relationship with food (which in our society, may just make me normal) so this is a tough question. I did a very restricted calorie diet for a very long time through which I learned proper portion sizes but also made me very hypersensitive about calories and gaining weight. In order to simply be healthy, I had to increase my caloric intake and unfortunately, that caused a weight gain since my body had starved for so long. That has led to frustration on my part as my doctor tells me I'm healthy but I'm not happy with my aesthetic appearance. So....
I aim to eat about 1800 calories a day. I'm not keeping real close track but I don't seem to be gaining. I personally think those calorie calculators are way, way off because if I ate what is recommended (between 2500 and 3000), I KNOW I would gain even more weight. But then again, I know someone who is barely 100 lbs soaking wet and claims she eats about 3000 a day. *shrug* I think it's such a highly individual thing and it's best to experiment with your body instead of relying on math or science.