Calorie Burn

[SunsetRunner]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on here. I've found a few posts on here relating to my issue but none fit exactly so I thought that I'd seek your opinion.

I am a big guy. I'm 6ft 2in and 414 pounds. 7 weeks ago I weighed 436 and I decided that I needed to address that and lose over half my body weight. I'm 48 years old and if I don't make serious life changes now then I know that I won't be here on 10 years time. I joined an online healthy eating forum, bought a fitbit blaze and away I went. The problem I have is that I don't know how many calories I should be eating. My daily routine is that I get up at 4.15am, I walk 20 minutes to the train, I go to the gym at work and do 30 minutes walking on the treadmill, nothing too pacey just a normal paced walk. At lunch I go out for a 20 minute walk then I catch the train home at the end of the day and walk the 20 minutes home. My daily average steps is 14,000-15,000. At the weekends I walk around 7 miles each day. An average of 35-40 miles per week for the last 7 weeks.

Fitbit syncs my exercise with myfitnesspal and says that I burn on average 5,000 calories per day. This seems really high to me and it's left me totally confused about how many calories I should eat. My average calorie intake at the moment is 2,500 - 3,000 calories and is made up of fibre rich breakfasts, Salad and fruit at lunch then lean meat and vegetables for dinner. I have stopped eating crisps, chocolate and biscuits and have substitued them with dried fruits such as apricots and dates and some almonds. I drink at least 1.5 litres of water each day. I no longer take tea or coffee or fizzy drinks. After myfitness pal has synced all my calories it tells me that I should be eating 5,000 calories a day. I have successfully lost weight twice before losing 140 pounds and 155 pounds but personal problems involving mental health resulted in me gaining back all this weight both times. Both of these times I did very little exercise and lost between 4-8 pounds a week. This time my weight loss seems to be very very slow.

Can anyone offer me some advice on how I can find out the correct amount of calories my body needs to consistently lose weight and whether you think that the burned calories figure from my fitbit and subsequesnt sync with myfitnesspal could be correct. A BMI calculator I used told me to eat between 3,500-4,200 calories per day but I think this seems like far too many. I weigh and count/track everything I eat and drink. I don't want to put my body into starvation mode. Just really confused about the whole thing. Any help, advice, words of wisdom would be gratefully received. Thanks

Kenny

[Dominique]

First of all, kudos for your decision and your step count, which is a real achievement.

Based on your personal information, your calculated BMR would be 2818 (I’m using this online calculator). With "high activity", your TDEE would be 4860 and with "moderate activity", it would be 4367. The 5000 calories burned reported by Fitbit maybe a bit on the high side, but not that far off.

I would say, keep eating whatever causes you to lose 2 lbs per week.

[JohnRi]

First of all Kenny,

The more your weight, the more calories you body needs.  It takes a huge amount of calories to feed all of the fat cells in your body.  So 5000 calories burned might be a little high, but probably pretty close.

I'm 2" shorter than you, but back in 2015 when I was 281, I typically without exercise burned around 2800 calories a day.  Today at 210, I burn around 2100 or less on rest days. My BMR was 2600, now it's 1900.

As for how much you eat, 3,500-4,200 doesn't sound too far off either.  I'd lean more toward the 3,500 range.

When I first started walking I burned a ton of calories for very short distances.  Now I have to walk very far, or very fast to burn enough calories. 

Sounds like you've made great diet changes, and doing good so far.  As for how much you should eat, depends on how quickly you want to lose.  At your weight, you can a very large deficit and be ok.  However you're going to have a ton of skin due to your weight.  I've lost 70 lbs in 10 months, and I have some loose skin.  Neck under my chin, upper arms, thighs, and of course my stomach.  So if you lose more than 2 lbs a week, you're going to end up with loose skin.  Chances are you have stretch marks.  If you do, those areas, the skin will probably not shrink.

If you have seen the show The Biggest Loser, you don't want to see what they look like under the clothes.  Think Deflated balloon.

So for this reason I highly recommend going slow.  So I'd recommend you eat around 1200-1500 calores below what you burn each day.  This should give you a loss around 2 lbs a week.  If you lose more than 2 lbs a week, you might add 100 or 200 more calories to your diet.  If you are not losing 2 lbs a week, then drop 100 or 200 more calories.  This should be around 3500 at the moment.  But keep in mind as you lose weight, this number of calories you eat will also go down.  When you get to a healthy weight, and aren't feeding the fat cells, you'll be down to eating around 2400 calories a day.

Try to keep it around 2 lbs a week lost, and you will minimize the loose skin issue.

Two things to remember.  First of all it took you years to gain the weight.  It's going to take you years to lose it.  So don't be in a hurry to lose it.  Second, slow and steady wins the race.  When it comes to weight loss, losing it slowly is better than trying to lose it quick.  Dramatic weight loss is bad for your metabolism, and for lose skin.  Skin you will have to have surgically removed if you lose too quick.  So keep it slow and steady.

Last thing, once you get to a normal weight, then the hard part starts. Maintaining your weight.  It may surprise you to learn that you body is happy weighing what it weighs!!!  And for at least 4-5 years after losing weight, your body will try everything it can do to get back to your old weight.  So you have to maintain your weight for at least 4-5 years for it to accept the new normal weight.  Yeah 4-5 years!  This is one of the reasons you gained the weight back the last two times. 

Bottomline weight loss won't probably end for you until you are 56. I'm in the same boat, I started losing weight at 48.  I'm 49, and I've got another 26-36 more to lose.  So I'm going to continue to monitor my weight for the next 6 years at least... 

Good luck dude, you can do it.  The only one stopping you, is you!  So don't let it happen!

[A_Lurker]

Welcome Kenny,

I've been pretty much where you are weight-wise.  Like the others I'm guessing that the 5000 calories a day isn't far off.  I've decided that my Charge HR is pretty accurate.  I know the desire to drop the weight super fast, but in my opinion this weight loss isn't maintainable.  In the past the faster I lost the weight the easier it was to put it back on.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the appeal of losing weight quickly, but what you're trying to do is find a new way of living and eating.

I'll second the suggestion of 3500 calories, keeping the 1500 calories as your deficit.  This should allow you to lose weight at a reasonable pace and not screw up your metabolism.  I also understand how it can be really hard to eat a large calorie allowance without resorting to junk food.  I find the easiest thing is to add fat into your diet, which you can slowly cut out when you eventually need to cut calories.  ie. scrambled egg with herbs, veggies, butter and cheese... can become scrambled egg in a non-stick pan with herbs and veggies only when you need to.

Good luck with your weight loss.  It's a good day when you decide to start.

[shipo]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

I drink at least 1.5 litres of water each day. I no longer take tea or coffee or fizzy drinks. After myfitness pal has synced all my calories it tells me that I should be eating 5,000 calories a day.

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Two comments:

• Like others, I don't think a 5,000 calorie burn per day for you is all that out of line.
• Water; maybe it's just me, but 1.5 liters per day strikes me as being maybe an eighth of what you should be drinking.

[Ukase]

Kenny - 

 The first steps are the hardest. 

There's sooo much information - and some of it conflicting. 

The one true fact about weight loss: Energy in must be less than energy out. 

As long as you're at a caloric deficit, you're going to lose weight. But - what kind of weight? 

You're not a kid anymore. You've probably got a lot of muscle, so like the others, I agree that a 1500 calorie deficit is a good target - but only up to a point. Once you hit about 275-300 pounds, I recommend you switch to a 1000 calorie deficit. 

When you get to 250#'s, a 750 calorie deficit. When you're at 225#, a 500 calorie deficit.

I also want you to do some research and make sure you're getting enough protein throughout the day. Fruits are fine, but try some nuts, too. They are calorically dense; so don't ever have more than what would cover a post-it note in a single-layer; about 18 - 24 almonds, for example.

There's a ton of information, so I don't want to overload you. Just keep doing what you're doing.

Understand ahead of time that you might have lost 4000 calories - but the scale may not reflect it for a number of reasons. Just stick with it, the scale will cooperate eventually.  

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks very much for all of your replies. They have given me food for thought.