Losing weight is so hard. How do you figure out your calorie needs?

[Super_Nintendo]

Every recent diet I've done worked well enough in the beginning but after 3-4 weeks I felt tired all the time, my muscle were drained, and even my hair felt brittle and my skin wasn't healing as fast from cuts. Then I stopped the diet and everything went back to normal so I probably didn't eat enough or have the right vitamins.

How do you know how many calories you need? How do you figure out a well balanced diet? I kept eating the same things, steal cut oats, chicken breast, quinoa, brocolli, rice, etc.. and didn't really vary the foods. Do multi vitamins do anything?

How do you know how much to eat and what kinds of foods? Are calorie calculators accurate and do they take into account body fat percentage?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Volador]

Every recent diet I've done worked well enough in the beginning but after 3-4 weeks I felt tired all the time, my muscle were drained, and even my hair felt brittle and my skin wasn't healing as fast from cuts. Then I stopped the diet and everything went back to normal so I probably didn't eat enough or have the right vitamins.

Going on a reasonable caloric deficit is very unlikely to provoke any of those things. It might be due to other things. Maybe you crash dieted or something else. I think multivitamins are pretty pointless, especially when it comes to losing weight. What's your height/weight/waist circumference?

How do you know how many calories you need? How do you figure out a well balanced diet? I kept eating the same things, steal cut oats, chicken breast, quinoa, brocolli, rice, etc.. and didn't really vary the foods. Do multi vitamins do anything?

If those are the foods you eat, they sound fine. I personally found good results by measuring how much I eat in a normal day (small home scale helps) and establishing a baseline. Once I know how much food I need to maintain my current weight, I know that by reducing my portions here and there by around 10%, I'll probably be at a deficit. Especially if I reduce highly caloric/fatty foods. Then you can weigh yourself a couple times a week to make sure your calculation is right, and then adjust from there, depending on whether you're losing weight too slowly/quickly/not at all. I usually waited a couple of weeks to see if I could detect a trend in weight change. Mirror pictures can help too, as well as measurements. I also try to get around 1g protein/lb of BW, eat plenty vegetables, lean meats, some fruit, good amount of fiber from vegs and grains, and avoid eating too many highly processed foods and sugary foods, or foods high in saturated fats. I know some people that have done some more drastic diets successfully. It depends on your personality a bit too, whether you prefer gradual changes or quicker results that require more drastic cuts.

 

[Super_Nintendo]

Going on a reasonable caloric deficit is very unlikely to provoke any of those things. It might be due to other things. Maybe you crash dieted or something else. I think multivitamins are pretty pointless, especially when it comes to losing weight. What's your height/weight/waist circumference?



If those are the foods you eat, they sound fine. I personally found good results by measuring how much I eat in a normal day (small home scale helps) and establishing a baseline. Once I know how much food I need to maintain my current weight, I know that by reducing my portions here and there by around 10%, I'll probably be at a deficit. Especially if I reduce highly caloric/fatty foods. Then you can weigh yourself a couple times a week to make sure your calculation is right, and then adjust from there, depending on whether you're losing weight too slowly/quickly/not at all. I usually waited a couple of weeks to see if I could detect a trend in weight change. Mirror pictures can help too, as well as measurements. I also try to get around 1g protein/lb of BW, eat plenty vegetables, lean meats, some fruit, good amount of fiber from vegs and grains, and avoid eating too many highly processed foods and sugary foods, or foods high in saturated fats. I know some people that have done some more drastic diets successfully. It depends on your personality a bit too, whether you prefer gradual changes or quicker results that require more drastic cuts.

Yeah, I think I crash dieted. Many days I was getting 1400-1700 calories, some days even less. I wasn't that hungry because I cut out most sugar and switched to filling low glycemic index foods like oatmeal and quinoa but the lack of calories crushed my metabolism. I'll start off slow at ~2000 and go from there.

How do they determine 1g of protein per pound of body weight? If someone is 200 pounds and 30% bodyfat, shouldn't they require less protein than someone who's the same weight but 10-15%?

Is this calculator accurate? Under settings there's only 1 formula that takes into account body fat (Katch-Mcardle), should I use that? Or skip that and pay for a Dexa scan, they usually give resting metabolic rate results too.

https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

 

[Trainspotter]

Figure your macros off what you would weigh if you weren’t fat. Profit...

 

[Volador]

Yeah, I think I crash dieted. Many days I was getting 1400-1700 calories, some days even less. I wasn't that hungry because I cut out most sugar and switched to filling low glycemic index foods like oatmeal and quinoa but the lack of calories crushed my metabolism. I'll start off slow at ~2000 and go from there.

I don’t think dieting alone without doing something very extreme would cause the things you mentioned, but it’s sensible to do something sustainable, yeah.

How do they determine 1g of protein per pound of body weight? If someone is 200 pounds and 30% bodyfat, shouldn't they require less protein than someone who's the same weight but 10-15%?

Pretty sure you just answered your own question lol. Regardless, it’s just an easy guideline to remember, it really doesn’t matter if you get exactly that much or not. And yes, an overweight person doesn’t need to include fat mass in the calculation. This can be approximated and true absolute accuracy is not really important in that regard, the 1g figure is arbitrary anyway.

Is this calculator accurate? Under settings there's only 1 formula that takes into account body fat (Katch-Mcardle), should I use that? Or skip that and pay for a Dexa scan, they usually give resting metabolic rate results too.

I’d say focus less on absolute accuracy and more on finding a process of how to regulate and find out how much you eat in a reliable way. This can be weighing your food (most accurate) measuring portion size in some visual way, or counting calories. Once you know what intake is needed to maintain your current weight, reduce by 10% or so and see what happens. I usually get calorie info from the Nutrition Data website. Dexa scans and exact metabolic rates are totally unnecessary in order to lose some weight. Unless you just want to get into those things out of pure curiosity, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m not a pro bodybuilder either, so I’m talking from that perspective, I just try to stay in a reasonably healthy weight.

 

[RollSonnenRoll]

https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html

-Calculate your BMR
-Subtract 300-500 calories
- Divide those calories to 20% fat, 45% carbs, 35% protein
- Download MyFitnessPal, track every single thing that you eat
- You put creamer in your coffee, track it. You have mayo on a sandwich, track it. You have ketchup with dinner, track it.
- Weigh yourself every morning and track your progress. Average what you weight every week.
- When that weight is no longer dropping, either do more cardio or drop the calories a little more

 

[NoSmilez]

Set a cheat day for yourself. You can't be too strict. You aren't going to keep to the diet if it isn't natural to you. It has to be a lifestyle change or it's something you will do for a little bit then drop. Cut out some of the junk food slowly.

 

[hardheart]

1. Be honest with yourself
   1. With how active you are
   2. With how much you are eating
2. Count every calorie
3. Log every liquid
4. Calculate your TDEE
5. Stick to your caloric deficit for 6 months
6. Stick to your macros for 6 months
7. Stick to your workout plan for 6 months
8. Post results

 

[wufabufa]

Lots of good advice in this thread.

I tend to lean towards Cronometer instead of Myfitnesspal when logging my food.

 

[Armand Ruiz]

I wouldn't stress over calorie counting, I'd pay more attention to when your actually hungry and focusing on nourishing your body. You sound like your doing great with what your eating now.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

You don't need to scientifically count every calorie to a tea but it's important to at least know your ballpark figures so you can use it as a frame of reference and adjust accordingly. But most important of all, consistency is key. I've seen plenty of people go on Monday through Friday diets and then basically eat all those calories back on the weekend

Also it's important to have realistic goals. I think a lot of people want to lose weight fast in a very short time span and the moment they don't succeed they become extremely discouraged. You shouldn't set yourself up for failure

 

[TXstriker]

Don’t want to count calories? Even easier. Cut out the bullshit in your house to prevent grazing. If you drink any sodas get rid of that nasty shit, even the ones that say “diet” and “zero” all over them.
Start doing road work, if you can’t run or jog start by walking then progress up. Do that and you can loose 15-20 lbs easy before even picking up a weight. Yes it’s that simple.

The real trial stars once you plateau loose that 15 lbs and want to keep going. That’s when seriously dialing in your diet first comes into play. After that there’s really no excuse not to count calories. It’s free and takes a couple minutes to log what you’ve eaten.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myfitnesspal-calorie-counter/id341232718

Think of your diet as a lifestyle change. It happens here all to often “Ill just loose extra weight look good then I can go back to eating bs” starting a yo-yo effect.
Start looking at labels when you’re shopping, sodium content, sugar, carbohydrates..ect. One can of wolf chili has 1300mg of sodium in it! That’s almost more than the recommended daily allowance for one person. Most of your processed and restaurant foods have the highest sodium contents not the salt shaker. Get in the habit of reading labels.

Recently we made a meal plan for my wife’s cousin. On doctors orders he had to totally revamp his diet. So we sent a list of healthy crock pot meals to make up. Just put your proteins, vegetables seasoned in one pot come home and eat with minimal cleanup. It’s as simple as it gets. Now all the sudden cant eat this, can’t eat that. Hard helping people that don’t want to be helped themselves.

All of this may seem like common sense but I can go outside or step in a grocery store to see it isn’t.

 

[WDSTK]

Although tedious and takes a lot of discipline, I have used Dietpower (https://www.dietpower.com/) software to loose weight with great success. They recommend you shoot for losing 1 -1.5 lb per week. Has extensive food and exercise (has boxing, karate ect already included) database that you can add to, edit and save favorites to cut down on keystrokes. You can add and graph health data like blood sugar. You set your target weight and date (which you can adjust especially if you make better progress then expected). The weight loss plan you set up allows special diet or health concerns to be addressed which will translate to your daily score based on the foods you selected. The software scores your diet and food choices daily. It calculates your daily calorie rate and adjusts it to keep you on your weight loss plan. I like the fact it shows you the score it will give you when you select a food choice and even has a section for recommended food choices that will not hurt or even increase your daily food score. You can view your entire day nutritional data anytime you want to see for example how you are doing on sodium intake. May not be for you but has been a help to me to control my snacking as I want to eat as much as my diet plan allows. What works for me is to plan tomorrows meals the day before. However, I only input the exercise when I do it. You do need to weigh or measure all your food. I have taken a scale to restaurants. I weigh what I can eat and put the rest in a doggy bag before I chow down. Still have to keep the junk food out of the kitchen. Real pain I know but only thing that has worked for me. It is now free.

 

[Toothlessjoe]

I just did a steak and eggs diet for one week. Didn't count anything.

• 300g (10oz?) fatty steak (rib eye, bavette etc), and 3 eggs any way you like, cooked in butter. Lunch and dinner.
• Water, unsweetened black coffee or tea.

Lost about 10lbs. Did around 30 minutes light exercise each day. Never felt better.

For those counting though, it's about 230g protein per day, and around 2000 calories. It's satiating, mimics an elimination diet, and the high protein means your metabolism stays sharp using the calories to break it down. You're guaranteed a deficit.

 

[brownbelt86]

I've recently got a device called whoop. It's free for the device and you get 1 month free. It tracks a bunch of shit like sleep and recovery and stress, but the only thing I'm concerned about is calories burned. I've lost 8 lbs in a 3 weeks so far, but to be fair I also decided to not drink at all for August.

 

[chimpoehurricane]

Every recent diet I've done worked well enough in the beginning but after 3-4 weeks I felt tired all the time, my muscle were drained, and even my hair felt brittle and my skin wasn't healing as fast from cuts. Then I stopped the diet and everything went back to normal so I probably didn't eat enough or have the right vitamins.

How do you know how many calories you need? How do you figure out a well balanced diet? I kept eating the same things, steal cut oats, chicken breast, quinoa, brocolli, rice, etc.. and didn't really vary the foods. Do multi vitamins do anything?

How do you know how much to eat and what kinds of foods? Are calorie calculators accurate and do they take into account body fat percentage?

Any help appreciated.

I got sick. Stupid. And thrn meds induced weight gain.

I lowered calories. Intermittent fasting. No cheating. Add in cardio and activity. Winning!

 

[Be the ball]

The oats could be the culprit. They are known to block mineral absorption. Look into it.

Also it sounds like your diet could be low in fat. Load up on grass fed butter and use in liberally in all of your foods. Almond butter too if it fits your diet. Good fats keep your t levels up.

 

[Trabaho]

Why eat only Chicken for protein
Why eat only Broccoli and not other vegetables
Why take multivitamins and not eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and whole. Food
Healthy fat sources ?

 

[Trabaho]

Yeah, I think I crash dieted. Many days I was getting 1400-1700 calories, some days even less. I wasn't that hungry because I cut out most sugar and switched to filling low glycemic index foods like oatmeal and quinoa but the lack of calories crushed my metabolism. I'll start off slow at ~2000 and go from there.

How do they determine 1g of protein per pound of body weight? If someone is 200 pounds and 30% bodyfat, shouldn't they require less protein than someone who's the same weight but 10-15%?

Is this calculator accurate? Under settings there's only 1 formula that takes into account body fat (Katch-Mcardle), should I use that? Or skip that and pay for a Dexa scan, they usually give resting metabolic rate results too.

https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

1 g of protein per pound of weight is bodybuilding philosophy. It's not the requirement for fighting sports or just health. It's to gain stage muscles.

 

[hardheart]

Why eat only Chicken for protein

Incredible amino profile is hard to beat.

Why eat only Broccoli and not other vegetables

High fiber, low sugar. Veggies are fine, just answering why broccoli is superior.

Why take multivitamins and not eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and whole. Food

Multivitamin makes it easier/less of a hassle to cover all micronutrient and mineral needs. Getting everything you need in the quantity you need it is a lot harder than people think, doubly so because soil has gone to shit in most areas.

Healthy fat sources ?

Fat is good in moderate amounts.

1 g of protein per pound of weight is bodybuilding philosophy. It's not the requirement for fighting sports or just health. It's to gain stage muscles.

It's generally understood that to preserve muscle mass and strength you need about 1g protein per lb of bodyweight. It's not just for bodybuilding or strength sports. Additionally protein is generally a high quality source of calories and is more satiating.