Obesity Discussion Forums

[Ireland]

Ok I just need someone to tell me how many calories I need to eat to loose 1 - 2lbs pounds a week. I have done many searches and get different informaiton.

I am 27
Female
Very Seditary (like no exercise)
5F 5"

[Obesity Discussion]

1450 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week, 1950 calories a day to lose 1lb a week.

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

1450 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week, 1950 calories a day to lose 1lb a week.

I dont think I could ever get it down to 1450 a day I have been adveraging on 1600 a day so I guess I should loose something every week

[Obesity Discussion]

1600 is a good start!!! Keep it up, give it a few weeks and see what happens. After you do this for a while you'll notice it'll get easier to reduce even further.

[Mira]

Ireland, All the best to you.

[healthy_drinkr]

Hello Mira,

Congratulations on your decision! It's the first step required to a healthier life.

This is not so obvious to most people, but I have NEVER relied on counting
calories.

Instead I focus on the quality of the foods I eat, and avoid any PROCESSED SUGAR, especially high fructose corn syrup (this is what you should watch out for in your food labels).

While technically, calories are the same, they get absorbed at different rates by your body, depending on where it comes from.

The faster it gets absorbed, the more likely you are to gain weight.

Why?

Because at some point, when you have a carb (or glucose) overload, then you go beyond your body's ability to convert that fuel into energy.

At that point, any excess glucose is stored for future use in the form of FAT!

Focus on eating whole foods; i.e. not processed commercially by our profit-driven food factories. These foods are converted to glucose more slowly, at a pace that your insulin production can keep up with.

This way, your blood sugar is stable throughout the day.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by healthy_drinkr

Hello Mira,

Congratulations on your decision! It's the first step required to a healthier life.

This is not so obvious to most people, but I have NEVER relied on counting
calories.

Instead I focus on the quality of the foods I eat, and avoid any PROCESSED SUGAR, especially high fructose corn syrup (this is what you should watch out for in your food labels).

While technically, calories are the same, they get absorbed at different rates by your body, depending on where it comes from.

The faster it gets absorbed, the more likely you are to gain weight.

Why?

Because at some point, when you have a carb (or glucose) overload, then you go beyond your body's ability to convert that fuel into energy.

At that point, any excess glucose is stored for future use in the form of FAT!

Focus on eating whole foods; i.e. not processed commercially by our profit-driven food factories. These foods are converted to glucose more slowly, at a pace that your insulin production can keep up with.

This way, your blood sugar is stable throughout the day.

You can eat all the healthy food you want, but if you're consuming more calories in a given day than you're burning, you're not going to lose weight, plain and simple. I do agree that eating better foods is important.

[nisha]

Here, here!

I agree with you both.

Firstly it's very important that you eat the right foods. If you have been eating a lot of processed foods, high in chemical content and refined hidden sugars, you will automatically start to drop (a lot) of weight just by switching to a "clean" diet, where you eat only fresh, organic, non-processed, wholesome foods. If you then start to plateau you may then need to look at how many carbs you're consuming. If you are eating more than 40% of your calories from carbs, you'll probably need to adjust the balance to favour protein.

I found this website doing research for a project I'm doing at work. I'm a fat loss expert from London (UK), but have found some really interesting discussions on here so decided to join as part of my ongoing education. If you are interested in the nutrition principles I use with my clients (it follows the clean food route), please let me know and I'll post details.

Just as an aside. My housemate is a member of overeaters anonymous and has lost 3 stone in the last year. She doesn't count calories at all and in fact eats loads - like 1700-2000 CALORIES A DAY! She also follows the principles of healthy eating. Methods are many principles are few, methods may vary principles never do, (said by some ancient philosopher but oh so true).

[healthy_drinkr]

Right on nisha! Indeed we need to focus on principles, and not methods.

Quality trumps quantity for several reasons:

1. you won't get hungry from one meal to the next
2. you won't have cravings

With both of the above, your body will naturally and SUBCONSCIOUSLY REDUCE, or even reject caloric intake. That's what 'not counting calories' mean - you don't even need to think about.

Cravings are your body's cry for NUTRITIONAL STARVATION. It's lacking something: potassium, vitamin C, water, enzymes, etc. etc. ... whatever.

furthermore, the most important benefit is:

3. the health of your cells

These are the basic building blocks of YOU.

Your body organs will live and die with the population of healthy cells vs. sick cells. Cells live and die with nutrition - which comes from clean food.

Disease, including obesity, starts to overcome you when one or more of your organs stop functioning.

[melissa77]

I know it is hard to get down to lower calories, but it is very doable...I currently am allowed only 900 calories a day by my doctor (he also has me on an exercise regime and multivitamins)....12 ounces lean protein...6 veggie servings (1 cup each) and two fruits....actually that is a lot of food if you think about it...you just have to watch and get the most out of your calories...Also, cut down on carbs (potatoes, breads, and pastas), and drink a good amount of water. And like what was mentioned before...stay away from processed foods and sugars...

Melissa

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by melissa77

I know it is hard to get down to lower calories, but it is very doable...I currently am allowed only 900 calories a day by my doctor (he also has me on an exercise regime and multivitamins)....12 ounces lean protein...6 veggie servings (1 cup each) and two fruits....actually that is a lot of food if you think about it...you just have to watch and get the most out of your calories...Also, cut down on carbs (potatoes, breads, and pastas), and drink a good amount of water. And like what was mentioned before...stay away from processed foods and sugars...

Melissa

Lowering calories is tough, but many people will find that eating a lot more protein will help make them feel full longer....as well as lower glycemic foods.

[MikeB]

1450 calories of 145g of protein and 145 g of carbs with 32g of fat is a ton of food:
8 boneless/skinless roasted chicken breasts = 128g of protein and 16g of fat
10 cups of romain lettuce = 18g of carbs and 5g of protein and 1g of fat
20 cups of brocolli = 116g of carbs and 50g of protein and 6g of fat

Now switch that up with a typical american diet of white flour and crap:
Blimpies BLT
830 calories
50g of fat, 60g of carbs and 34g of protein along with 2830mg of SODIUM!
Wow you get 2 of these and you're at 1660 calories vs my TRUCKLOAD of food.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by MikeB

1450 calories of 145g of protein and 145 g of carbs with 32g of fat is a ton of food:
8 boneless/skinless roasted chicken breasts = 128g of protein and 16g of fat
10 cups of romain lettuce = 18g of carbs and 5g of protein and 1g of fat
20 cups of brocolli = 116g of carbs and 50g of protein and 6g of fat

Now switch that up with a typical american diet of white flour and crap:
Blimpies BLT
830 calories
50g of fat, 60g of carbs and 34g of protein along with 2830mg of SODIUM!
Wow you get 2 of these and you're at 1660 calories vs my TRUCKLOAD of food.

I know, that seems like a no brainer!

[andy009g]

I can confirm 1450 calories

[weightlossdoc]

Counting calories doesn't work. What you eat and when you eat it are just as important as how much you eat. This is because what happens to those calories is largely determined by your homrones and these hormones are strongly influenced by these other factors.

Exercise is very important for weight loss. I am a preventive medicine physician and have written a book on this subject (researched over 5 years!). I am posting the chapters one at a time on my blog at www Stop the diet roller coaster . com. first two posts are on exercise - it's not your mother's exercise advice! This actually can be much easier than you think. So please check it out.

I'm looking for feedback on this so please leave your comments at the bottom of the posting. I will be adding chapters fairly regularly now so if you like the posts sign up for automatic notification by e-mail when there is a new post.

I hope you'll try the advice given in the book and let me know how it goes....

[Chrisydj]

i wouldnt say counting calories doesnt work but it isnt for everyone for me just eating healthier foods makes a difference and i do eat smaller portions too but i dont count calories honestly if i wasnt in such a hurry all the time counting calories would probably work for me but i'm always rushing around to much to take the time to stop and figure out how many calories i'm eating

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by weightlossdoc

Counting calories doesn't work. What you eat and when you eat it are just as important as how much you eat. This is because what happens to those calories is largely determined by your homrones and these hormones are strongly influenced by these other factors.

That's a very bad blanket statement. Counting calories is imperative along with eating healthy. If you down 6k calories of any type of food, good bad or otherwise you'll still be gaining weight. I would say that you should be counting calories along with strictly monitoring your intake to remove hidden corn syrup and white flour and go for natural, unprocessed food for as much of your intake as possible.

[healthy_drinkr]

Originally Posted by MikeB

That's a very bad blanket statement. Counting calories is imperative along with eating healthy. If you down 6k calories of any type of food, good bad or otherwise you'll still be gaining weight. I would say that you should be counting calories along with strictly monitoring your intake to remove hidden corn syrup and white flour and go for natural, unprocessed food for as much of your intake as possible.

I think that's part of the problem MikeB. It appears that you are well educated about health.

Unfortunately, most people don't care to educate themselves, and they take "calories" at face value.

They simplify and say that 100 calories of a donut = 100 calories of an apple = 100 calories of fish. So they conclude that they can burn off the donut just as easily as the apple, or the fish.

The concept of calorie counting was invented at a time when there weren't any other tools. Today, I think its obsolete because science knows better using glycemic load.

Check out this article: Natural Weight Loss Coach’s Blog » weight loss coach - sugar, part 1

I'm in my late 40s, and never counted calories at all, ever. The most that I've been overweight is 7lbs over, when I peaked at 180lbs. It's a good thing that my wife slapped me awake, before I fall headlong into the slippery slope.

Initially, I pulled off my hair in frustration trying to lose just 5 lbs with restriction and exercise. Maybe I was too lazy.

Confused with all the mixed messages in the media, I educated myself. I lost 15 lbs without any exercise. I just ate the right foods. And yes, I also learned that the timing also affects weight gain/loss.

[milfredo]

I developed a bad heart not long ago and had to have open heart surgery. I was introduced to a little known diet by my daughter's friend. The main thing was cutting out all sugar and wheat and/or flour products, along with rice.

Protein, veggies and salad greens. I lost 86 pounds in just over 6 months without any exercise. I couldn't exercise as my heart's ejection fraction was between 25 and 35.....if you know about heart things...that is extremely low.

The diet I went on was more an eating plan...I never went hungry and once weight was off, I was able to have my surgery. While on the diet, I was monitored by my primary dr., my cardiologist and my heart surgeon. As a result of the eating plan, I was able to get off insulin also.

As posted in another thread I detailed my journey in an e-book. Again it is free and no hidden costs or strings attached. I just want to help others as I was helped by someone in my time of need.

I wish you all the best in your quest.
Milfredo

[SunShine]

I take in around 1400 calories a day. I am averageing around 1 pound a week with it right now but am increasing my exercise now and so am hoping to burn more of those calories in the future.
My doctor said I could go as low as 1200 calories a day for my age but we will see.
He said on 1200 calories I could lose around 2 pounds a week. I just feel that is to low.