To think eating 1500 cals daily is unsustainable?

[savedbythewell]

And if you disagree, how do you do it?
How do you satisfy your appetite and what weight loss is reasonable monthly, if three stone overweight

I would be starving on that amount of food and unhappy. I maintain on 3000 calories a day, I’m 5 foot 7 and a size 10-12. I have plenty of muscle and I personally think I look great.

I have no desire to be smaller and eat nutritious foods on a daily basis.

The thing with this statement is there is no information as to what they actually eat to make up those 3000 calories or what level of exercise they are doing. I ate 3000 calories a day and was morbidly obese and the person saying they are a 10-12 is only 1 inch shorter than me. So either they are over estimating their calorie intake, they are exercising a lot, have some sort of metabolic disorder or are just fibbing ?
The plenty of muscle thing makes me chuckle as mentioned earlier, obese people actually tend to have more muscle mass than their slimmer counterparts, this doesn't mean they are stronger per se , just that their bodies need it to move the excess weight of their bodies about, Mrs 5 foot 7 and size 10-12 doesn't have to carry 10 stone (63.5 kg) around with her all day, every day for every task she does, an obese person often does.

at least 51g of good quality protein a day

what would "bad quality protein" be, I wonder. Endangered animals? rotten eggs? milk?

I have found that obese people who are also into fitness are very strong, btw! Must be, with the constant extra load on their bodies.

My family member ate 3000 calories a day whilst training for international /olympic rowing competitions. She is 6’1”.

i suspect an average female eating that amount has body dysmorphia if they don’t see obesity in the mirror, or their thyroid needs checking.

I eat 3000 cals a day, but I lift weights regularly. I am in the gym a lot. This is to maintain.

my diet is healthy lots of unprocessed foods, protein, calories bumped up with lots of olive oil and butter etc.

im a size 10-12 and I am 5 foot 10. Age 33. I could be a size 8-10 if I dropped to 2000-2500 but I’m not that arsed and like my weight as it is.

my thyroid is also fine. Not too sure why that’s so hard to believe to be honest but there you go that’s mumsnet for you!

I’m 5 foot 7, not 10.

my unidentical twin sister is 5 foot 10 and she also eats a lot but she doesn’t train so she is around a stone heavier.

my niece is around 5 foot 5 she can also trains (she got me into the weights after years of cardio) she is a lot slimmer than me but maintains on 2500. She is 19 though!!

@JollyWilloughby so you are exercising a lot ?

I am interested in trying some weight training, how did you get started ?

Weight training and the calories it burns makes me question when pp's say it is mainly diet.
It can't be.
I wouldn't have the strength or energy for heavy weight training.
My nephew aims for 4500 calories to maintain his muscular shape he hasn't an ounce of fat.
I wouldn't be able to walk if I ate 3000 calories, it proves that you can eat, exercise and maintain.
You cannot eat and not exercise.

I wouldn't be able to walk if I ate 3000 calories,

You can eat suprising little on 3000 calories though, a large Macdonalds meal and a bottle of wine would see you at about 2,000, add in a bowl of cereal for breakfast ( not the carefully weighed out portion as reccomended on the packet ) and meal deal lunch and a couple of milky coffees and you would be there. A couple of small snacks and you definitely would be.
I very rarely eat takeaways, I am more than capable of making rubbish food at home
Even at my biggest ( 20 stone) I could still do a 5 miles walk without any real bother, putting my socks on was always the hardest part !

You need more calories and protien to maintain muscle. It's surprising that hunger you get when you're training. I'm sliding into menopause, I've gone down 3 back sizes since starting the weights. My maintenance calories are 1900 (which I still struggle to wrap my head around after years of female conditioning). Before I started, if I went over 1200 I gained weight.

I know what I choose. It is hard graft but the results speak for themselves.

I know what I choose. It is hard graft but the results speak for themselves.

I agree.

I disagree with the advice on fasting when a person can really enjoy food once they exercise well.

Weight training has something for everyone and burns calories at speed.

I can believe that. I've hit 3k before and not put on an ounce (just the other day actually). But for me personally it's only possible on the days when I train really hard (weightlifting, cardio, at least 30k steps) and I couldn't manage that every day.

I disagree with the advice on fasting when a person can really enjoy food once they exercise well.

I think that fasting has other health benefits that shouldn't be dismissed, most people I know who do it, combine it with the period of time when they are asleep and a bit of the day they aren't, so can still eat plenty and exercise too.

If anyone has any advice on sites that explain weight training for beginners, and more importantly what not to do, I would really appreciate it.

@Wrongkindofovercoat

I would recommend going to a PT. Let them know you want to gain muscle as your primary objective. My niece was able to really show me the ropes and educate me (it seems a lot of that generation follow the insulin model and not the calorie deficit model). I never had a clue how to weight train prior to being shown the ropes and I was constantly overdoing the cardio (without the results).

My niece and a lot of her friends train and regularly post the “what I ate in a day” type posts on Instagram. It is usually around the 2500 max 3000 mark. These are slim and beautiful young ladies who I don’t think will be eating 1500 in the future. Granted they are very young and their metabolisms are running very hot.

I find exercise (I run and do martial arts. Weights in just 20s) suppresses my appetite. Does anyone anyone find that?

The only exercise that has ever made me hungry was swimming.

Lots of typos there!

Anything more than 1400-1500 and I put weight on.
i eat 1000-1300 to lose weight.
Cut sugar. Cut refined carbs and limit other starchy carbs.
Eat lean protein. Lots of it. Eggs, fish, chicken, plain beans, prawns.
calories are low but they fill you up.
over time you adapt to need less and lose weight.
Once weight is lost you can up the caloires.

Watching this thread with interest. I've lost 7 stone so far,by eating around 1700 calories per day,but have got stuck,with 4 more stone to lose for the last 2 months. I've been told that I need to cut down to about 1400 - 1500 calories per day to continue the weight loss,but I cannot sustain this for more than a few days as I get so hungry! How do other people do it?!

Meant to add- I never eat cereal. Hardly ever eat bread. I never drink wine and only drink sprits a few times a year.
chocolate is my vice so i have to be careful.
If I enjoyed all these things regularly though I would feel very unhappy with how I look.

Protein protein protein.
what are you eating for breakfast currently? Eating right in the morning is key for me

@ALongHardWinter there are a few ideas on this thread and you can find more by looking for "volume eating" online I think.

However, before cutting calories further, can you "up" the exercise a bit, and start measuring inches as well as pounds too? What are you doing currently?

See if I never had those things @Silverswirl I'd be fucking miserable. I'd rather be a bit podgy and enjoy the good stuff sometimes.

I'm going to die one day, not caring what size I am, and certainly not regret all that lovely bread I ate!

Silverswirl
I don't actually eat breakfast. I have managed to lose the weight by intermittent fasting,i.e. no food before 5pm,and then only up until midnight. I have 2 meals in this time window,one at 5pm,the other at about 10 - 11 pm. My downfall when I was overweight was evening snacking,so I found that saving all my calories for the evening helped resolve that. I admit I found it hard going at first not eating during the day,but I've got used to it. A lot of people who have asked me what my weight loss 'secret' is have been horrified that I go from midnight to 5pm the next day without food,but hey,it's worked for me so far!

Yogacurl
Exercise is a bit difficult for me as I'm disabled with quite bad mobility problems,due to osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. Even walking very much is quite difficult for me. I know I should take up swimming,as it's a weight-bearing exercise,but the way I look in a swimsuit,forget it! Unfortunately, having lost quite a large amount of weight,I've been left with a hell of a lot of excess skin,which quite frankly,looks awful.

That should have said NON weight bearing exercise!

Today I have done 40 minutes of bodyweight cardio, 10 minutes of dancing, 10 minutes of pilates and 45 minutes of weightlifting. I've also walked over 16000 steps for a grand total of 284 active minutes in the day.

My calorie total for the day (exercise plus living) will be just over 2200 calories.

I totally know what you mean- I don’t like alcohol much but love bread and chocolate.
However, I do eat them, just on special occasions such as holidays, visiting a friend if she made me lunch, a treat lunch or dinner out or my birthday / Christmas.
just day to day in ordinary life, I don’t eat them at all or severely limit them.

Im not stick thin. 12-14 and in mid 40’s. I could get thinner but as you say it would require me to really cut so much totally out, lower my calories further or spend a long time weight training which I find hard because of a bad back.
if I chose to eat the bread and chocolate pasta etc regularly I just go up and up in size. Anything past a 14 and I am totally miserable. All my clothes are tight and look bad. I feel self confious and my boobs/ stomach get enormous.
so it’s a total trade off and balancing act every day.