question about Fitday.com

ShanaMarie · February 8, 2004

I'm about a month post-op and since my Dr. doesn't do fills until 2 months out, I'm really struggling with trying not to gain a bunch of weight before that fill. I signed up at fitday.com to track my foods and activities, but I have a question about the basal calories burned. Between the basal calories and my lifestyle calories, it's over 2,800 calories per day, not including calories I burn when I work out. Some of you have posted that you should try to eat a few more calories per day than you're using, but how am I supposed to eat close to 3,000 calories per day, especially if I'm supposed to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. That just seems wrong to me. Any suggestions or clarifications for me? Thanks =)

Alexandra · February 9, 2004

You know, I'm glad you brought this up! I've been meaning to ask our resident expert, Donali, about this. Donali, according to Fitday I burn 3310 calories a day just living. That seems like twice the number of calories recommended for me to take in. How can that possibly be right?

donali · February 9, 2004

You want to meet your BASAL metabolism requirements - not all the extra calories you burn with your lifestyle.

Of course, this is based on what I've read. At 5'6", 218 my basal metabolism burns (supposedly) 1721 calories a day. It is a struggle for me to get in that many calories on a regular day, and I don't log very often, so I can't say for sure how I'm doing in that regard. I am not what anyone would call a "fast" loser, but I am happy and eat what I want, and unfortunately have not really added any kind of exercise to my lifestyle.

I am certainly not losing as fast as my negative calorie intake would imply, so either my metabolism is suppressed, or my not getting in my basal calories really does make a difference, or...??? [edit]: I am actually losing almost as fast as the negative calorie intake implies - my average weightloss per week has not dropped below 1.55 pounds per week in the past year. [/edit]

I have read several things, though, that discourages people from dropping their calories too drastically right away, and I have to say the logic makes sense to me. Our caloric needs will continue to drop as we lose weight, so our intake will need to become ever smaller until we reach goal, but it is not necessary to drop to our goal weight's caloric requirements at the beginning of our journey. Most metabolic sites will say it is actually a detriment to drop calories that drastically, and really does not speed weightloss.

I have not heard anyone on these boards report that these theories do or do not work for them. So if anyone else is trying to eat their basal caloric requirements and are NOT losing weight, it would be interesting to hear from them.

One thing seems sure, though - the concrete reality of math seems to have little to do with the reality of the body and how weightloss occurs. There are many more aspects to weightloss than the numbers on the scale - inches, and internal changes that we cannot measure all take their part in this journey.