Caloric Needs Confusion
#1
FitDay Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 10
Caloric Needs Confusion
I've started counting calories to ward off the "newlywed bulge." I've been pretty successful (6 pounds in a couple of months), but I'd like to know for sure how many calories I can have per day and still lose about a pound a week.
I tried eight online "weight loss calculators" and got different numbers each time, ranging from 2,040 to 1,314. I then found the Harris-Benedict Formula, which gave me a daily caloric total of 1,831. I've been hovering around 1,400 calories per day, though, and 1,831 seems kind of high.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is the math to be trusted, or does it have to be trial and error?
I tried eight online "weight loss calculators" and got different numbers each time, ranging from 2,040 to 1,314. I then found the Harris-Benedict Formula, which gave me a daily caloric total of 1,831. I've been hovering around 1,400 calories per day, though, and 1,831 seems kind of high.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is the math to be trusted, or does it have to be trial and error?
#2
When I first started doing this I thought they all gave me really high numbers too, but it all depends on what your eating really. If your calories all come from carbs, then yes it's probably too high, but if you get 30-40% of your calories from protein, then it's probably fairly accurate. It also depends on the amount of exercise you get in the average day. For me the calorie counting only helps if I track both the intake and the burn, and make sure the burn number is 500-1000 calories higher than the intake. So I guess what I'm saying is "yes, it's trial and error".