Age has a lot to do with it as well.
A tall 25 year old might maintain at 250 pounds with 3500 calories a day, a 45 year of perhaps 3000, and a 65 year old with something more like 2500.
This is strictly ballparking but the differentials with age are writ in stone.
Of course if you arre tring to lose, then use the 3500 calorie differential from maintenance equals a 1 pounds loss.
Does anyone know how many calories a 250 pound, healthy person should be taking in? I am 6"4'.
Also, how much fat?
I don't have an exact number usually I think it's about 2000 for a healthy female and about 2,300 for a healthy male but it also depends on how active you are. I do know that if you go under 1200 your body starts storing weight because it thinks it is starving.
__________________
Diagnosed with PCOS 6-9-04 @ age 18
I am 18 years old - and I exercise every second day for 2-3 hours. I lift weights, so I have some muscle, but I would like to lose a bit of weight.
If I were to follow steve's chart, it would mean that I am taking in 4250 calories a day. How many calories should I cut off if I want to lose 5-10 pounds?
Thanks a lot for your replies.
Last edited by Marchello-; 12-25-2004 at 03:33 PM.
Don't take 4250 calories as your maintenance need; I think that's far too high except for somebody waorking outdoors in the ANTARCTIC.
Assume something like 3500 instead; even THAT might be a tad high.
If it's a correct figure, then dropping to 3000 should give you a daily deficit of 500 or a weekly deficit of 3500. That means you will lose a pound a week.
If you lose more or less than the pound a week while eating the 3000 daily calories (averaged over several months) you can assume that you need to adjust the 3500 calorie/day maintenance figure.
To lose 2 pounds a week, drop to 2500 calories.
The "rules of thumb" for the maintenance amounts are just that, mere guidlines. Peoples' metabolisms differ wildly from the norms so you really need to determine your own caloric requirements by close observation.
Just a few more things...
I don't think my problem is the calories.I looked at the back of the food packages and came to the conclusion that I eat about 2000 calories a day.
3-4 times a week, I eat pasta, which is high in carbs. Could it be the carbs that are preventing me from losing 5-10 pounds?
Also, what does the "fat" mean on the back of the packages? I eat about 10-20g of fat a day... is that too much?
Btw, I only eat one big meal during the day most of the time... I heard that doing that is not very healthy - is this true?
First off, I'd say get a REALLY good daily calorie count over a couple weeks. I really doubt that "about 2000" is taking everything into consideration. I say this because it's almost impossible for a 6'4", 18 year old male to need so little food and STILL remain overweight.
You have to measure and weight EVERYTHING.
Likewise with the fat; 10-20 grams of fat per day is a VERY low amount of fat. It's almost impossible to achieve so little unless you are vegetarian...and even THEN it's hard.
If you go the caloric way to lose weight, it's enless counting and weighing of EVERYTHING: well, everything but water and diet soda.
A really honest count of 2000 calories will very likeley give you 10-20 pounds weight loss in 2 or three months...again, just a ballpark figure based on averages.
Another thing to add- its not the amount of fat or carbs you eat that are preventing a weight loss. Weight loss and gain comes down to calories- simple as that. You eat more than you burn, you gain, and you eat less, you lose.
That being said, it is HEALTHIER to lose or gain weight by eating a balanced day, meaning not too many carbs or fat or protein. But again, if you have a carb heavy day, but are still within your calorie range, you will not gain!
I also agree that it is highly unlikely that you are eating only 2000 Cals per day and are not losing weight. I would estimate you are eating more like 3000, or around there. If you do eat at 2000 calories you should be experiencing a slow weight loss (1-2 lbs per week), or more because you are taking off quite a bit. It isnt truly necessary to know how many calories you are eating in order to lose weight- just know what you are eating! Are you eating in front of the tv? Are you skipping breakfast in favour of donuts or other sugary snacks later on? Are you going out with friends and having 3 beers? Things like that are the things people miss.
Start making healthier choices:
- HAVE breakfast in the morning, choosing a bowl of oatmeal, a couple slices whole grain toast, fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.
- Have lunch, choosing veggies without a lot of sauces (like salad with low fat dressing), protein (turkey, chicken, lean beef occasionally, fish, etc), and "good carbs" if you want (a whole grain bun, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice (you can mix this with veggies and make like a pilaf if you want), etc. If you can heat things up at lunch (at work, in a microwave, etc), you could look into the occasional Lean cuisine, or a thermos of soup/chili, or things like that.
-If you go out, try to follow these same guidelines (avoid the fried foods, cream sauces, and cut the portions in half...choose veggies as your sides, have wraps/sandwiches/salads with sauce on the side- and use only a lil, etc)
- Guzzle tons of water, and if you must, diet pop. You can have the occasional drink with friends, just try to limit yourself to one or two (max) and sip club soda or diet pop instead.
- As for dinner, follow the same sorta thing as lunch- lean meat, lots of veggies, and good carbs. You can have your pasta too, just dont have a huge plateful!! Try to fill up on veggies rather than junk foods.
- Treat yourself occasionally, if youre craving something, so as to avoid a total diet crash later! One chocolate here or there wont prevent a weight loss. And if you do "fail" once, dont abandon all hope- keep going like nothing is wrong!
- Try to eat often, 5-6 times per day, keeping portions a little smaller than usual. Snack on veggies, small portions of nuts, fruit, low fat cheeses, etc.
You dont have to completely deny yourself, nor do you have to count all your calories. Just eat way more veggies, way less junky foods, drink lots of water EAT TO HUNGER AND TO SATISFY IT ONLY, and be aware of your choices.
Alright, I will do that, girlygirl11.
My schedule was: wake up, do Yoga, go to school, come home, eat a huge meal of pasta or something else, go for a 2-3 hour walk and then to homework for about 2 hours while snacking on an apple and lemon, and then lift weights before bed. I also used to eat lots of chips up until 1 month ago
(I stopped eating chips and candy bars altogether after that). So, perhaps I am slowly losing weight now.
Starting today, I am going to eat 5-6 times a day, with small portions of things... like an apple or a piece of bread. I drink about 10-15 glasses of water a day. Btw, most of the veggies I have laying around are broccoli, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, yams, iceburg lettuce and squash - hopefully these veggies are healthy enough. I never have as many fruits on hand, but 99% of the time I have apples,lemons and oranges. I also take a multi vitamin every day.
Last edited by Marchello-; 12-28-2004 at 11:35 AM.
Basically any veggies are great, especially if you eat a variety of colourful ones (therefore increasing the amt of nutrients you get)
Your routine sounds good, except for the part where you only ate one meal a day!! Eating 5-6 times per day, in smaller portions, is definately the way to go! And drinking lots of water will keep you from eating tons of junk later
By the way, you can still have pasta! But try to have a smaller portion when you do, and consider switching it up with something else a couple times/week. Also, maybe you could try whole wheat pasta...its similar, and you may not like it, but it's worth a try! (Regular pasta isn't horrible though- you can have that if you like it better!)
Keep working on it and you should s l o w l y see results! Keep us posted!
