880 calories??

[caribbeandream]

Just got my Flex 2 yesterday. Put all my stats into the app. I'm 5ft, 118lbs and want to lose 8lbs. I have it set to lose .5lb a week.
It tells me I can only eat 880 calories a day to achieve this. What?!? LOL, I cannot function on 880 calories per day. I have only eaten breakfast, coffee, and lunch and already over. This can't be right.
On My Fitness Pal, it gave me 1200 per day and I had just got used to limiting my calories to that.
Any advice?

[marfar]

Well, two things are necessary for a sustainable and effective weight loss: a caloric deficit and a balanced metabolism. Anyone can lose in a certain period of time, but unless you do it right, put everything in place, as happens with 95% of those who want to lose weight! And you risk to accumulate more fat than before; this happens 66% of those who want to lose weight! But why? Most believe that your metabolism works: reducing calories - lose weight - have a balanced metabolism. In fact, things look like this: do you have a balanced metabolism - naturally reduce calories - lose weight effortlessly!!! Calories are part of both equations. Their degree of importance differs!

[caribbeandream]

Well your answer went way over my head.
But anyway...I cannot find anything about eating only 880 calories per day that is at all healthy. At my present weight and future goals even if I am somewhat sedentary.

[marfar]

What are you trying to do is called starvation ... I wanted to say that you do not have to reduce inputs but outputs must be amplified! I mean eat fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts for healthy protein! And walk briskly! It's easy to be champion of health!

[SunsetRunner]

There are no good or bad foods, though when desired aim to get 90% of the calories to come from natural foods as dear @marfar suggested (10% for treats and prevent binge eating).

Natural foods leaving satisfied for longer on lower calories overall, these also contain essential nutritients for the body to use (for repairing muscles, growing your hair, nails, regenerating skin, quicker healing when injured, being less sick as aiding the immune system to recover faster).. 

Calories matter, food quality does to. The foods with labels are faster to log (since having a label), though natural foods (without labels) are the best for the body.

The body should crave when hungry for natural foods as nature intended us to have, though if a non natural food craving appears and doesn't go away, possible to have with care, enjoy the taste, prevent binge eating and beats the craving. 

When eating natural foods mostly, the body gradually desires to have those foods instead over time, not wanting 'junk foods' anymore.. 

Junk foods = preprocessed foods, mostly with added sugars to want even more from even if not hungry anymore, just for the taste, higher in calories, not leaving as satisfied as natural foods do. As the body desires to want more foods to get all the nutritients it needs..

[A_Lurker · Accepted solution]

@caribbeandream - calories to eat default to the sedentary setting.  This means at any point in the day it assumes that you're not going to move after that point.  This can give you extremely low calories earlier in the day.  I'd suggest that you eat your 1200 and see where you end up at the end of the day.  Depending on your activity level even the 1200 a day might be too low.  I like this site:

http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/

Assuming that you're mid-20s and female, your BMR comes out to 1334.  This is usually the number they suggest you don't eat below.

[caribbeandream]

I wish I was mid 20s! I am 41 and yes, female.

[caribbeandream]

Thank you lurker! Just added that link though my home screen. Mighty helpful. 🙂

[A_Lurker]

Well, you have to pick a point to start.  With the extra details, you see:

Custom BMR Calculation
Entered information: 41 year old female, 60 inches tall, weighing 118 pounds.

From the information that you entered, you'd like to weigh 110 lbs.

Harris-Benedict Formula
There are a few different methods to calculating yourbasal metabolic rate (BMR). One of the most popular, developed in the early 1900's is called the Harris-Benedict formula. Based on this formula, your current BMR is 1259 calories.

So if you do nothing all day your body will burn 1259 calories,  That's the lowest that you should probably eat.  The site gave the following for weight loss:

Activity Level Daily Calories

Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job)	1469
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)	1683
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)	1897
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)	2111
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)	2326

NOTE: Please remember that this calculation is just a guideline. Your metabolism may be higher or lower based on the amount of lean muscle you have. Use these numbers a a starting point and tweak them up or down based on your weight loss or gain. It may take a couple weeks to get your exact calorie level.

[A_Lurker]

No problems.  I find it relatively close for myself.  I eat to what it tells me I need to eat for lightly active, however, I've got a lot of weight still to lose.  From my Charge 2 I figure I'm closer to the mid-point, but at the moment I'm more interested in a slightly faster loss.  Good luck. 

[Appaloosa05]

Thank you for the link, very helpful!

[marfar]

I do not know how my advice is worth. It is the advice of a friend. Feeding cells is the key to health, not calories!

We have fifty trillion cells (Bruce Lipton - Biology of faith)! Nourishes blood, lymph cleanse! The engine of blood is the heart, lymph engine is brisk walking! Alkaline food, brisk walking, forgiveness, prayer, meditation are simphony of nutrition!

The theory about calories burned is outdated! Alkalizing the body is healthy!

I started to understand watching the documentary ,,Forks over Knives" . And serious study of naturopath! Hiromi Shinya, Candace Pert, Mikhail Tombak, Bruce Lipton and others, are required reading! Otherwise, count goofy how many calories entered and left the body! Fat covering garbage from cells because we do not move lymph!

But we do not understand why we are tired! And why we gain weight!

Although burn calories !!! Many !!!

I do not advise that keep so! It is the advice of a friend who has results! The body responds when it is fed healthy and clean lymph! Experienced made!

I would be happy when YOU will be healthy!

I repeat: it is disinterested advice of a friend!

[I-train-hard]

880 kcl bad very bad idea for you.  

more problems than benefits, not worth it. 

[Annabel398]

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@marfar wrote:

I do not know how my advice is worth. It is the advice of a friend. Feeding cells is the key to health, not calories!

We have fifty trillion cells (Bruce Lipton - Biology of faith)! Nourishes blood, lymph cleanse! The engine of blood is the heart, lymph engine is brisk walking! Alkaline food, brisk walking, forgiveness, prayer, meditation are simphony of nutrition!

The theory about calories burned is outdated! Alkalizing the body is healthy!

I started to understand watching the documentary ,,Forks over Knives" . And serious study of naturopath! Hiromi Shinya, Candace Pert, Mikhail Tombak, Bruce Lipton and others, are required reading! Otherwise, count goofy how many calories entered and left the body! Fat covering garbage from cells because we do not move lymph!

But we do not understand why we are tired! And why we gain weight!

Although burn calories !!! Many !!!

I do not advise that keep so! It is the advice of a friend who has results! The body responds when it is fed healthy and clean lymph! Experienced made!

I would be happy when YOU will be healthy!

I repeat: it is disinterested advice of a friend!

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@marfar - reading your posts is like reading the Dr. Bronner's soap label sometimes...   If not now, when? If not you, who? All One! All One!

[marfar]

Hey, @Annabel398 ! That sounds like irony! You to be healthy happily ever after! Meanwhile, eat healthy and do exercise! The rest are soap bubbles! 😉

[Annabel398]

No, not irony... I just think your distinctive style sounds a lot like the Dr. Bronner's label. It's All Good. 😃

[marfar]

Well, what you yourself seem like a label, it was unknown to me until I started to read and understand the authors say. But maybe you're right ... Until we suffer, we understand that health can not be anything other than what we were taught it! A clever man, learn from the mistakes of others. A stupid man, learn neither from his mistakes! If we share what we have learned, we hope that others will learn not to make mistakes! It seems simple as brisk walking! I now go daily 34k! That sounds like a label you? You leave the soap in the bathroom, and come out to walk briskly!

[marfar]

Hello again ! To understand we need to study! Well, what govern us, are hormones (insulin), not calories! The calories are not equal! A calorie is not just a calorie !!! Proteins are made to build and repair tissues. Excess glucose, lipids are eliminated through urine (glycosuria, Ketonuria). Otherwise the human body is an open system - applied the second law of thermodynamics, entropy. But it ignored by opinion that,, a calorie is just a calorie "!!!   The Obesity Epidemic, Zoe Harcombe, 2010.

[Dominique]

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@marfar wrote:
what govern us, are hormones (insulin), not calories! The calories are not equal! A calorie is not just a calorie !!!

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See my long response to your other post: a calorie is a unit of energy, and as such a calorie is a calorie. Now, not all foods have the same nutritional value for the same amount of calories, but that’s another matter.

[marfar]

@Dominique Everyone's attention to a number of calories. This post has a title: 880 calories (?!). And a calorie actually kilocalorie, was obtained in the laboratory using a piece of meat !!! Not a human being! And that in the 19th century in Germany! In short: no calories fatten us! Calories do not matter !! The amount of carbohydrates fatten us !!! With all due respect .