enough calories?

[bake51]

Just a quick question for some of you. I am a 24 year old male and I am 5'10 195 pounds. I have been trying to cut for a couple months now but have been struggling. I went from eating 1800 calories down to about 1650. Do you believe this is to little calories and am just impatient? I have cut before and did pretty good but I used to work in a restaraunt and burned calories working but now I have a desk job so that doesn't happen anymore. Any suggestions for me? When I calculate the calories I should be eating 1950 calories and was thinking maybe I am eating to little?

[bake51]

My workout is 5 days a week chest/tris, back/bis, legs, shoulders, and the 5th day is anything I missed during the week. I do 4 sets and the reps are 12, 10, 8, 6. Maybe I should chage the routine uo a little.

[BGoodman88]

You need (a lot more) calories. Depending on your activity I'd say something like 2300-2500kcal to lose weight.

Read the sticky about calculating calories and macro (can't post links yet).

[KayPS]

Way too little. That's what I'm cutting on. Please read the relevant stickies at the top of the forum, calculate your TDEE, and come back and post it, along with any questions you have.

[md42]

Sounds like too little cals. Go read the stickies as said above

[cumminslifter]

like everyone else has said. calories are WAY to low
read the stickies and calculate your TDEE and macros

[bake51]

Thanks for the replys. I appreciate it cause I am very hard headed so it takes a couple people to tell me before I change. I have uped to over 2000 so hopefully that works.

[Tegan88]

Hey i think you are moving in wrong direction because you are taking too little calories for a person having a routine like what you have been following. so its is better if you re-access your routine and take a balanced diet according to your needs.

[_Translucency]

Thanks for the replys. I appreciate it cause I am very hard headed so it takes a couple people to tell me before I change. I have uped to over 2000 so hopefully that works.

One should gradually make alterations to their caloric intake.

Also, what is your TDEE?

[Leeuf]

You just need to be patient. It took me two months to find my ideal cutting macros by adjusting here and there based on the mirror and scale.

[Hardz10]

Hey OP, I am exactly in the same situation as you. I am 24 next month, 5ft10 and weigh 192lbs. I work out three times a week doing heavy lifting. I have been counting calories using MFP for the last three months and let that calculate the calorie intake for me. Originally it set it to around 1500 but that was an error on my part as I had set it to lose 2lb per week. After doing much reading on these forums I amended it to 1lb a week and it calculated it at around 1800.

I made a post and was told it was far too little calories to lose weight and chances were I was in starvation mode. I then upped it to about 2000 and have struggled to a) eat this many calories in a day as I'm just so used to eating very little and b) lose anymore weight.

I have gone through all the stickies and have made a calculator spreadsheet with the various methods of calculating. I actually had another mess around with this yesterday and it's suggesting that I eat roughly 1950 calories a day, which is what you have also calculated.

I know the calculation is a rough guide but can someone please try and calculate what our intake should be then as I have been doing this for three months and feel like i'm eating too much already. I am worried about increasing my intake more because I think I may even add weight and not cut.

Thanks OP and other members.

[nhvider]

Hey OP, I am exactly in the same situation as you. I am 24 next month, 5ft10 and weigh 192lbs. I work out three times a week doing heavy lifting. I have been counting calories using MFP for the last three months and let that calculate the calorie intake for me. Originally it set it to around 1500 but that was an error on my part as I had set it to lose 2lb per week. After doing much reading on these forums I amended it to 1lb a week and it calculated it at around 1800.

I made a post and was told it was far too little calories to lose weight and chances were I was in starvation mode. I then upped it to about 2000 and have struggled to a) eat this many calories in a day as I'm just so used to eating very little and b) lose anymore weight.

I have gone through all the stickies and have made a calculator spreadsheet with the various methods of calculating. I actually had another mess around with this yesterday and it's suggesting that I eat roughly 1950 calories a day, which is what you have also calculated.

I know the calculation is a rough guide but can someone please try and calculate what our intake should be then as I have been doing this for three months and feel like i'm eating too much already. I am worried about increasing my intake more because I think I may even add weight and not cut.

Thanks OP and other members.

We can't just tell you how many calories to eat. You have to get a rough estimate and then experiment. Not everyone's body works the same. It's up to you to lose the weight, not us.

[Hardz10]

We can't just tell you how many calories to eat. You have to get a rough estimate and then experiment. Not everyone's body works the same. It's up to you to lose the weight, not us.

I didn't ask for someone to tell us how much to eat, but if they calculate and see what it comes out at as I'm unsure whether I've calculated correctly. I know it's very rough but a lot of the members that have posted feel that 1800 is way low. I just wanted suggestions. Thanks for your 'useful' post.

[Hardz10]

Bump!

[BGoodman88]

Hey OP, I am exactly in the same situation as you. I am 24 next month, 5ft10 and weigh 192lbs. I work out three times a week doing heavy lifting. I have been counting calories using MFP for the last three months and let that calculate the calorie intake for me. Originally it set it to around 1500 but that was an error on my part as I had set it to lose 2lb per week. After doing much reading on these forums I amended it to 1lb a week and it calculated it at around 1800.

I made a post and was told it was far too little calories to lose weight and chances were I was in starvation mode. I then upped it to about 2000 and have struggled to a) eat this many calories in a day as I'm just so used to eating very little and b) lose anymore weight.

I have gone through all the stickies and have made a calculator spreadsheet with the various methods of calculating. I actually had another mess around with this yesterday and it's suggesting that I eat roughly 1950 calories a day, which is what you have also calculated.

I know the calculation is a rough guide but can someone please try and calculate what our intake should be then as I have been doing this for three months and feel like i'm eating too much already. I am worried about increasing my intake more because I think I may even add weight and not cut.

Thanks OP and other members.

If you don't lose weight at a given caloric intake, there are basically two causes:

1) You're not eating under maintenance (maybe you aren't tracking well enough)
2) Due to prolonged low calorie diets your metabolism has slowed down

If you claim that eating 1950 calories is a chore because you are used to eating a lot less, you shouldn't be in a position to cut in the first place because you're skinny (unless you switched from calorie dense foods to low calorie/high volume foods).

So before changing anything, try to accurately measure everything you eat to get a good idea.

[Relomy]

Bump!

What is your question? You seem to be eating 1950, which seems rather low for someone of your height/weight, but you should still be losing weight. Have you lost any? Have you stalled? How long have you stalled? Etc.

[Hardz10]

I'm using MFP to track calories and originally had this set to 1500 which enabled me to lose about 3lbs but I hit the wall inevitably as this was too low a calorie intake, though I didn't know it at the time. After recalculating I got to 1860 and tried that for a month and haven't lost any further weight.

I think I struggle with eating more because in the past I used to skip breakfast and have two large, unhealthy meals for lunch and dinner. So now that I am trying to eat at least three regular meals and getting the right amount of protein in, I'm feeling fuller throughout the day.

I'm quite new to all this you see so apologies if I come across as unexperiened or daft but just wanted some guidance from those who have more knowledge with this. For someone with similar stats as me and the OP who lift heavy 3-4 times (1hr sessions), what do you guys recommend roughly as a daily calorie intake. I would be happy to lose a pound a week.

I've tried various methods and getting an average calorie intake of 1,964 calories a day.

Thanks

Using the Mifflin Joer calculator I got the following:
- BMR of 1885
- Activity level set to 1.3
- TDEE of 2450
- Daily calorie intake of 1950 by minusing 500 from my TDEE (1960 if reduced by 20%)

[BGoodman88]

I'd start with a 10-15% reduction so have have some room to adjust later on. Try this for at least 2 weeks, if you don't see any weight loss you could decrease calorie intake a bit.