Food Plan Calories seem very low on some days

[LadyKB]

I have my food plan set to personalised so it looks at my activity etc to gauge my calories... but seriously as i wasn't very active this bank holiday mainly in the garden sunbathing i get this, i know i have set my plan as Harder which is 1,000 cal daily deficit.... but really allowed only 600 cals on a non active day?

Sun 06 May, You ate 1050 of your goal of 661 cals

On Mon 07 May, You ate 1036 of your goal of 587 cals

[Daves_Not_Here]

Hi @LadyKB - can you share your current weight and age?  If you are pretty light, it's very conceivable that your Resting Metabolic Rate could be 1,600 calories per day or lower.  A 1,000 calorie deficit may be too aggressive.

[LadyKB]

My age is 43 and my weight is 13s 3lb or 185lb not sure in Kg

[Daves_Not_Here]

@LadyKB - According to a BMR Calculator which is based on the Harris Benedict equations, your estimated Base Metabolic Rate is around 1,570 calories (increases slightly with height, I assumed 5'6").  To get Total Daily Energy Expenditure for someone who is sedentary, multiply by a factor of 1.2 for a TDEE of 1,880 calories.  It appears that Fitbit's estimate for you is 200 calories lower.

(People who want to quibble with these estimates are invited to surf over to www.gopoundsand.com/comeupwithyourownnumbers)

Your actual TDEE may be higher or lower than these assumptions.  No matter what, to establish a 1,000 calorie deficit on an inactive day means not eating much.

[LadyKB]

Hi thanks I’m actually rather tall at 5ft9 my bmi is 27.3

What does that make my metabolic rate?

So basically I cannot really do the hard food plan unless I’m working out, I do workout 5 days a week so I quest over the week it would balance out.

Karen Brown

[Daves_Not_Here]

@LadyKB - 5'9" puts your estimated BMR at 1,580 calories instead of 1,570 -- weight, age, and gender are much bigger drivers than height.

As to whether you should run a large deficit when inactive versus active, I think the jury's out on that.  Some people feel you should increase exercise to generate larger caloric deficits and that if you eat less than your BMR you risk triggering a "starvation" response that substantially lowers your BMR.  

But I'm not aware of evidence that supports that conventional wisdom.  I hold almost the opposite opinion:  I believe that increasing exercise intensity and caloric deficit at the same time is a recipe for stress leading to elevated cortisol, increased hunger, slower recovery and exhaustion.  And if we believe reports that people who fast actually increase their metabolism, then it's hard to buy into the starvation response idea.

My opinion comes down to: if you want to lose weight, eat less.  If you want to get fit, exercise more.  But if you try to do both at the same time, you get neither (for evidence, just see dozens of "I'm starving while exercising my butt off but I can't lose weight" posts in this forum).

By the way, don't believe me, I'm completely in the fringe minority on this point.:)

[Dominique]

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@Daves_Not_Here wrote:

@LadyKB - 5'9" puts your estimated BMR at 1,580 calories instead of 1,570 -- weight, age, and gender are much bigger drivers than height.

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I use the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, which is supposedly more accurate than the Harris Benedict one. It’s also what Fitbit and MyFitnessPal are using, AFAIK. A calculator can be found here. According to it, your calculated BMR would be 1559, i.e. in the same ballpark. Bottom line: if you are only going to be moderately active, you will have to eat very little in order to have a deficit of 1000 calories. 

[Reeshe]

No one should ever go below 1200 cal a day. Your body needs those calories to feed your vital organs.