Obesity Discussion Forums

[TimeOut]

I'm 23 years old, female, 5'7, 370, and usually pretty sedentary, although the past week I've been trying to exercise for at least 20 mins daily. (My version of exercise is what for most would be light-moderate, but for me is strenuous.)

I'm trying to figure out what my daily intake should be. I've been playing around with various calorie calculators, but most are saying I should be eating around 2500 calories a day to lose weight. That doesn't seem right. But then again, I've never been able to successfully drop weight despite many attempts, so I've obviously been doing something wrong.

[bigdaddy38]

The only way to really find out what your daily intake should be is to get your body fat done, with this information you can figure out exactly how many calories a day your body is burning, the height and weight charts are not accurate because only lean body mass(muscle and bone)burn calories. Many hospitals do hydrostatic bodyfat testing they do this in a pool, because of our size this is the best method to be accurate. You have to be carefull because everybody will try to tell you how many calories you need but anything less than finding your base metabolism through a bodyfat check is just a guess.

[TimeOut]

Thanks for the advice, but I don't really have the money to be going to a hospital for any kind of testing right now. I'm kind of screwed in that respect.

I've kept my calories under 1600 this past week, and that seems more reasonable than 2500... and I haven't been hungry at all. But I haven't lost a pound since I started eating healthier and exercising a week ago either. This is the way it usually goes, and after a few weeks, I get frustrated and give up.

After watching the Biggest Loser and seeing the girls getting yelled at for not eating enough, I'm afraid I might be cutting back too much. Yet eating more is so counter-intuitive and just feels wrong.

[bigdaddy38]

well if you look at it from the aspect of average, woman typically are supposed to be around 1800 calories per day, so if your at 1600 per day you are burning 200 calories of stored fat plus what ever you burn exercising. You just have to stick with it, three weeks ago I struggled to do 15 minutes of cardio now I'm already up to 40 minutes. And the biggest loser is great but not realistic for the average person, these people work out for hours everyday with a trainer so that they can lose the amount of weight that they are losing, most of us just don't have that luxury.

[Treasure]

I don't know much, as I'm new here too. And I haven't had the opportunity to have a professional body fat analysis done either. I'm sure it's really high.

I'm trying to follow the South Beach plan which is focussed on what you eat (lean protein, low-fat/non-fat dairy, vegetables, legumes) than how much you eat. For me personally, I've found in the past that 1200-1400 calories a day is a good caloric intake, spread over 3 meals and 2 snacks.

I know it can be frustrating, but don't give up!! If you went a week and didn't gain a pound, that's still a victory. If you keep eating well and increasing your amount of activity, you will be in a much different place six months from now.