Hi there, Can anyone advise me regarding calories? My daily intake of calories on Fitness app saying 1,200 meanwhile the NHS one saying 1,550. I have 5 stone to lose.
Also I've been to the usual weightloss groups where fruit and veg were 'free' I assume we must count everything on this plan? Good old fashioned calorie counting?
How does anyone else track calories? do you use fitness app then transfer into a diary/weightloss plan/record? Any tips, advice no matter how small and trivial would be very much appreciated. Thankyou for reading
hi Amanda i am not a calorie counter, a calorie is not a calorie - 100 calories of watercress is not the same as 100 cals of chocolate chip cookie and your body deals with those 2 foods very differently, what has worked for me (i lost 14kg in under 3 months just the last 7lbs to lose now) was to do Intermittent fasting (sometimes longer fasts) and eat low carb (almost no carb) healthy fats - LCHF - so my meals would be a lot of leafy green vegetables (that is my only source of carbs) medium protein and high fat like avocado's, eggs, butter on vegetables, olive oil or avocado oil on the salads, home made mayo made with olive/avocado oil and cut out every bit of sugar (including artificial sweetners) and alcohol - this is what worked for me - i chucked the fitbit in the drawer when i realised it hated me not eating every day and refused to calculate my daily results unless i put in a 'minimum' number of calories. no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, biscuits, cakes etc etc but 2 squares of 85% dark chocolate after a meal as pudding
I'm confused as I've submitted my weight, height etc into 3 different apps and ALL 3 have given me different result they vary from 1,000 -1,550 cals a day. No wonder people are so misguided by so many different recommendations.....Eeeeeekkk.
Well done Ketogirl on your weight loss.
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At the end of the day they use different variations of formulas to calculate your calories It's a little bit of trial and error to find the amount that works for you
generally speaking from what i have read, is that lowering your calories will also lower your metabolic rate which is why shows like The Biggest Loser where intense exercise and calorie restriction usually end up with the contestants losing a lot then gaining it all back and more within 6 months, however lowering your calories to below 500 (for women, 600 for men) for just 2 days a week (5.2 diet) as in many of Mike Moseleys diets and intermittent fasting, is so successful and sustainable, we were fed the idea that we needed to eat 3 times a day and snack inbetween by the food industry (and why wouldn't they!) but we definitely do not - the first time i did a 24 hour water fast i could not believe how empowered i felt at the end of this, food was still available for me to eat the next day i didn;t feel deprived as i knew i could eat then and i could feel my whole body sighing with relief.
Bless you, i am a little obsessive when it comes to my weight, i was so shocked to find that after being put on medication for a heart problem that my weight previously stable just went sky high, so i read everything i could on the why of it, the what of it and found Dr Jason Fung who treats T2 Diabetics and his blog on why we put on weight, why we can't take it off, and why calorie restriction fails in 98.9% of diets, once i understood the whole insulin concept, taking it off was the easy part - knowing that i was giving my body a holiday and a treat by not eating for one day at all and then eating what i wanted (not sugar or carbs though) was that great lightbulb moment - all diets work and all diets stop working. try looking through some of these blogs
There's a danger of this getting overly-complicated, I think! The basic thing is that if you consumer fewer calories than you use every day, you will lose weight. It is scientifically impossible not to lose weight if you eat fewer calories than you use.
If you;ve been given a variety of suggested calorie allowances, why not start with the highest, try that for a week, counting your cals carefully, and see how you get on? If you lose weight, stick with that allowance, and if/when the weight loss slows down, reduce the allowance by 100-200 cals a day and see if that starts it going again.
If you are losing weight at a rate of 1-2lbs a week, you are doing brilliantly, whatever you are eating. The main thing is to find a regime which suits you enough so that you can stick with it to lose weight and to maintain your weightloss afterwards. And that improves your health. No point losing weight on 1500 cals of mars bars every day, and ending up slim, but tired and spotty!
I personally favour calorie counting, as you can (in theory) have anything you want as long as you fit it into your calorie allowance, and it is probably the most flexible regime as you don;t need any special foods to do it. If you go on this one, then count cals in everything apart from leafy green veg, which you can eat freely.
The low carb regime described by ketogirl above works fundamentally because it reduces calorie intake. Just because they aren't being counted doesn't mean they haven't gone down! Calorie counting is rather boring and a nuisance at times, so if you don;t like counting everything, weighing and measuring, then the low carb-type diet is a way of losing weight without having to go through all that faff. However, there are lots of foods you can't eat on those diets.
You could try both approaches and see which one suits you best.
If you;re losing weight and you're happy and healthy, then you are probably on the best diet for you!
I'd like to be able to give you sound advice on how many calories to have lol but I'm struggling a bit myself! I'd say 1200 is too low and to give yourself a few weeks (two or three) on 1550 calories and see how you do from there. If you lose, great! If not, maybe drop it down a bit at a time This is what I am currently struggling with, and I'm trying to follow this advice myself Many people on here have lost loads of weight eating towards the middle-top range of their NHS recommended calories
And yes if you are calorie counting, count everything! Even fruit Try to make good, healthy choices along with counting calories (I'm struggling to not have 300 left over at the end of the day without immediately eating 300 calories of chocolate! a little bit is fine, but not 300 calories a day lol). When I first started I also gave myself the rule that if I had reached my calorie max but was really really hungry, like could not go without food for another minute, I would allow myself something if it was fruit or veg which was considered "free" on slimming world.
I hand-write all my calories down as I find this easier when cooking and weighing everything, but then I transfer to "my fitness pal" using the "quick add", just to help me keep an electronic track
I hope this helps and isn't too long! Calorie counting takes getting used to and is a big change if you're used to things like Slimming World or Weight watchers, so be patient with yourself and give yourself time to adjust Good luck!
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Thankyou Kinbun for taking the time to post that great reply. I will take your advice and maybe start at the higher end of calorie count for a few weeks then drop if I feel comfortable.
Of course we would all love to drop 7lbs a week but realistically this needs to be incorporated into my life long term so will follow the trusted NHS amount of 1-2lbs a week.
Hello, I'm on week 2 and I'm calorie counting too with 6 stone to lose. I am not restricting anything and am having around 1500 cals a day, this amount is not making me want to cheat at all. The NHS BMI calculator said I should have 1731 as a minimum to lose weight of about 1-2lbs a week (can't remember the higher cal figure). I have a fitbit watch which tells me how many calories I am using in a day and write all my food intake down in my daily diary. I lost 4lb in week 1 and know I have lost this week already as I did a mid week weigh in, but will wait till Monday as my weigh day to keep track. You can't have too much bad food, but I still can fit small treats in occasionally such as a couple of choccy biscuits with a cup of tea. At the moment as I'm still new to the diet, I'm spending a lot of time looking at store websites for meal ideas and the products have the cals on there also, so I can prep my shopping list and meals a few days in advance. I mainly shop in Aldi, and they have loads of healthy filling foods there. Just old fashioned calorie counting seems to be working for me, and I'm still motivated. Good luck with your dieting.
Thankyou Doitthistime, You sound like you have it sussed out, still living life yet losing weight at the same time. This is exactly the plan I hope to follow. Thankyou. Aldi have such good products at the moment, I'm new to them but love their fruit.
I was advised on here to look at the weight of an item by weighing it, then divide this amount by 100. When you have this amount multiply it by the number of calories (kcal) per 100g given on the nutritional info. So say an item weighs 21grams this divided by 100 makes it 0.21. If the nutritional info is 365kcal per 100g, 0.21 times 365 =76.65 calories. Hope this helps for you okay. Good luck and all the best!
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Calorie counting 
Need to lose weight
Calories!!
Off to a bad start!
How do you stay motivated when you're not seeing (or feeling) results?
