Calorie requirement

#1

I am 34, 5’3, 134lb, lightly active everyday, 23% bf, and have been low carb for about four months and have lost 26 lbs. I have been stalled for almost a month and am starting to second guess my caloric needs to continue to progress in losing body fat. I was taking in 1100-1200calories. I am now experimenting with 1400-1450 with 70%fat, 25% protein, and 5% fat. I also am incorporating intermittent fasting and walking with a 14lb backpack on my treadmill (3.5mph at 3-5% incline) 5 days a week. It is hard to figure out how much calories I need to lose being short. Calculators give me a number below 1200…when others stress not going below that. Anyhow, has anyone had a similar experience?

(Allie) #2

You need enough so that you’re not hungry as that way your body is getting the nourishment it needs.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

I never counted calories. The easiest guide to how much to eat is to eat when hungry and not eat if not hungry.

That said, however, here are some considerations to bear in mind. Exercise is pretty much useless from the point of view of losing weight. It is excellent for restoring insulin sensitivity and promoting mitochondrial health, so don’t stop; just don’t expect it to help you lose weight.

Also, some people cannot trust their satiety signaling. It’s rare, but it does happen, and for such people “eating to satiety” is meaningless.

If you are keeping your carbohydrate intake under 20 g/day, your body can certainly make use of your excess fat store. But remember that weight loss slows down, the closer we get to our ideal weight. Also, unfortunately the body sometimes seems to feel that it has reached its ideal long before it has reached ours, lol! You don’t say whether you are a man or a woman, but 23% body fat is around ideal for a woman, btw.

If you’ve been around these forums very long, then you are familiar with the thought that too low a caloric intake can cause the body to slow down the metabolism to compensate, thus making weight loss even harder. On the other hand, giving it more calories can cause it to speed up the metabolism, so it seems there is a fair amount of leeway for how much to eat.

The best advice seems to be to mix things up. Fasting should help, but do it irregularly. Change your eating time around, that sort of thing.

(mole person) #4

You no longer have a great deal of fat to lose and often the ketogenic diet requires tweaks at this stage, however except for people who have very broken satiety signalling calories are not what they should be concentrating on. It’s very important, on this diet, to eat until you’re satisfied, and if you’re concentrating on calories you may bypass this and slow down your metabolism.

First of all, are you tracking? And are you sure that your carbs are less than 20 net grams per day and that you’re not eating way beyond your protein macro?

(Casey Crisler) #5

If there is but one truth in life, that is it. I’m living proof of that. Only 15 or so pounds left and nothing I do is making a big difference anymore.

(mole person) #6

What have you tried?

(Casey Crisler) #7

IF, OMAD, calorie restriction, calorie non-restriction, more and less fat, ACV, collagen, mct oil, exercise. Upcoming is a dairy elimination (but for inflammation not weight) trial. I’m not going carnivore since I like vegetables…the right kind. I’ve lost nearly 60 pounds but the last two months have been at a standstill.

One detriment to my IF is I chew gum. I have to have something for breath since I deal with people all day.

#8

I track via myfitnesspal. Protein is between 80-90g, fat is around 100, carbs are below 20.

(mole person) #9

I was in a similar spot, with ten pounds to go I stalled out. Semi-regular OMAD helped but didn’t get me all the way either. In the end I realised that certain keto friendly foods still triggered me to overeat either immediately or over the coming days.

One actually was gum. But my relationship with it was broken. I could easily chew through three packs in a day. I now use the breath spritzer and don’t find I abuse it and it works perfectly well. I have no other artificial sweeteners in my eating, and I think that is best for me.

Second was nuts. I’d assure myself that I’d only have 1/4 cup a day. But I could rarely stop at that. Not only did I usually have twice that but even that just triggered more hunger and I usually ended it with a big hunk of cheese. Same with nut butters.

Which brings me to my last tweak. I was an abuser of cream in my coffee and I kept failing to control it. Like you I also had inflammation issues so I decided to do a trial without any dairy for 6 weeks. I’m two weeks into that trial now and my inflammation IS down, but interestingly I’ve dropped 5 lbs in that time as well, which is a shocking amount at my current size.

I think you will likely find similar luck with the dairy tweak if you are currently consuming a fair bit of it. It was probably the tweak that has moved the needle the farthest and fastest that I have attempted.

I wish you the best and congratulate you on achieving what you already have. Sixty pounds is a very impressive result.

(mole person) #10

Are you eating to those macros because you are hungry for them or because you are trying to hit certain macro targets?

#11

Well…because that is the number I have acquired, so I aim for it. I tend to eat either too little (1000cal) or too much if I don’t pay attention.

(mole person) #12

Ok, well this is a simple fix then. A lot of people think they have to eat to their fat macro when they start. But you don’t and you shouldn’t unless you are hungry for it all. 100 g of fat is the MAXIMUM you should have but you needn’t have a bite more then it takes to satisfy your hunger during the day. it may be that you need much, much less to be satisfied.

(KetoQ) #13

Hi Meemers –

First of all, I’m going to assume you are a lady …

That said, 5’3" 134 sounds like you’re at a fit and healthy weight, and 23% bf is firmly on the lean side for women. To put this in a bit more perspective, lean female athletes are typically at 14-20% bf, and you are admittedly lightly active. Although the workout regime you describe sounds otherwise. Sounds a tad rigorous.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

Its not for me to say what you should weight at, but perhaps you might consider weight training to help firm up and recompose your physique. Furthermore, the additional cardio might be what is holding you back:

http://main.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/1138/Does_Cardio_Make_You_Fat.aspx

My advice: INCREASE calories + BEGIN weight training + REDUCE cardio. I think that will help you get a leaner and tighter looking physique.

Food for thought.

Good luck,
Q

#14

You may want to get your RMR tested. It’s a simple process, and tends to be fairly accurate. Its certainly more applicable than online calculators. The test typically cost less than $150 and is available at university fitness centers, hospital wellness facilities, and some full featured gyms.

(mole person) #15

People are very different. When you look at % body fat how MUCH actual fat it is depends hugely on the person’s amount of muscle, bone, water and these in turn are dependent on the person’s age, genetics, lifelong fitness level, and current fitness level.

When I started keto I was 50 years old, and had been slowly accumulating weight for 8 years. I was 5’5, 130 pounds and 21% body fat (according to my scale, but as we all know they aren’t at all accurate). I was 20 pounds heavier then I’d been my entire life. None of my clothes fit. I felt matronly and unattractive.

I am now 110 lbs and 18% body fat and once again have the physique that I like, and trust me, there is still plenty of womanly fat. I can still pinch that Kellogg’s inch just about everywhere.

While some women look fantastic at 23% body fat, many of us do not. Also, there is just a preference variability. Some women like to be more curvy and others favour a more athletic physique. We don’t question men who want to lean out, and in general, unless someone is shooting for a dangerous goal, we shouldn’t discourage them from attaining a physique that makes them happy.

(KetoQ) #16

Ilana Rose –

I’m not questioning women who want to lean out. I’m giving her the same advice I follow myself, as a dude. As I clearly mentioned in my post, its not for me to say what her weight should be at. That’s a personal preference. For whatever reason.

That said, she is currently at a healthy weight. Losing additional weight isn’t always the answer to looking better or actually being healthier. Consider she is doing all of the following: calorie restricting, extended cardio and intermittent fasting. All that hard work and hard dieting to look perfect (totally subjective) is not getting her to where she wants to be and is probably not worth it – as It may be near impossible to maintain. That’s why I suggested looking into a body recomposition approach. Consider the following:

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She does mention she’s been eating at 1100-1200 calories a day. She may hinder her ability to maintain weight loss with extended calorie restriction. The Biggest Loser Study, which has been extensively discussed on this forum, confirms what a 1200 calorie a day diet can do to a metabolism. After I read that study in Jul/Aug, I increased my own caloric intake from 1750/day to 2100/day, and have continued weight loss w/o slowing down my metabolism.

She also mentions she’s walking with a 14lb pack on an incline 5x week. The cortisol from what is likely extended cardio can inhibit weight loss. I’ve almost totally abandoned long cardio sessions in favor of weight training and calisthetics. The benefit to weight training is creating better hormonal balance, a key to weight loss w/keto/low carb. Its not about CICO. And for women specifically, weight training helps with estrogen control and helps to build lean muscle mass by the release of HGH.

See: https://experiencelife.com/article/how-strength-training-balances-your-hormones/

Finally, I gave her all of that advice in that it could be an approach that could help her achieve a physique she may be happy with, hopefully thrilled with – and most importantly – an approach that she may be able to maintain without obscessing over food choices/calorie counting and hours and hours of cardio. She should be able to live her life like a normal person while looking marvelous.

In advance, you’re welcome for all this sage advice.

(Pete A) #17

A few months ago I upped my calories by 200-300 a day and it broke a bit of a stall, along with upping my game with exercise.

I’ve never looked back!

Good luck.

(Carl Keller) #18

This reaffirms what @PaulL was saying when he said to switch things up. I believe it’s important to reassure our bodies that starvation is not around the corner. Then it’s less reluctant to let go of fat stores. Here’s a pretty good article that talks about stalls and gives some ideas for how to get past it: