does anyone have a chart or know of a site where i can look up how many calories i need in a day?



i know it varies from person to person depending on your metabolism and level of activity etc, but i want a general idea to base a mealplan on.



i feel i don't get enough calories because i don't have enough energy and tend to rely on sugar and caffeine to get me through the day. by mid evening i can barely get my butt off the couch but i'm a nightowl and like to stay up til midnight or later most nights, so my evenings are a lot less productive than they could be.



in any case, i ate about 1000 calories yesterday i think and today i've been dizzy all day



if anyone has a chart, i'm about 107 pounds and 5'5", 22 years old, let me know if you need more info than that. meanwhile i'm gonna search online

Here's what my bio teacher gave us years and years ago:



For a moderately active woman



weight x 15 = the # of Calories you would need to maintain your weight. It would go up or down depending on if you want to gain or lose, or depending on how active you are. ("Moderate" was defined as getting about 1/2 hr of exercise a day... nothing extreme.)



So for you at 107 lbs, you'd need 1605 Calories to maintain your weight.



(For men it's weight x 18 =Calories needed to maintain weight)



There may be something more accurate out there, but I don't know about it... and I don't know how you take into account metabolism and such. You definitely need more than 1000 calories!

cool, thanks!

it's not terribly far off from what i normally eat i think. yesterday i just couldn't bring myself to eat a full meal. i snacked and eventually gave in and had a veggie burger late in the evening but i really didn't feel like cooking.



now i just need to figure out how to add a few calories to my meals without adding too much sodium, carbs or grease

Avocados! They *feel* healthy to eat..



I don't know, I weigh about 107-108 and I'm 5'7.. I've found that any day under 2000 calories I'm completely sluggish. Today, for insance. No real meals, lots of snacks.. Very tired.

Personally, I believe calories and calorie requirements are a conspiracy by food producers to get us to buy their products. I can go days without food and still function as I normally do.

You're very lucky, then, Kurm. Can I borrow your metabolism?

Most people become incredibly moody, testy, obnoxious and hard to be around when they haven't eaten. Hmm...that explains a lot JK



Mskedi,



Your calculation is correct, but I wanted to add a couple numbers.

13 - Walk? What's that?

14 - barely active

16 - very active; Rainbowmoon-style active. 1+ hour in the gym, doing hard work-outs, for 4+ days per week.

Wow, that gives me almost 2,000 cals. Bring on the grub!

I am told I am like that even when I eat.

Hmm...perhaps you need to do the calculator to make sure you're eating enough

I don't know but this question always strikes me as odd. How come people never ask how often they should breathe in and out a day or how often they should blink their eyes or scratch their neck?



Do as your body tells you. When hungry, eat. Don't overeat. Eat natural, wholesome foods. Simple



You don't need anyone to tell you how much you "should" eat, except yourself.

Amen, Oatmeal.

what's a calorie????

Listen to Oatmeal. All my troubles with food and food obsession began when I asked how any calories I needed in a day and started looking at calorie charts. RUN AWAY! EAT WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY!

lovenlight,

linz

i go between 900 - 1300 daily. *but* i've had stomach surgery and am restricted on food. i use fitday.com (no whacks krista please )to keep track of the breakdown (protein/fat/carbs) of what i eat. i aim for 60-90 grams of protein a day per my nutritionist (i do see one) and i eat 3 meals a day and 2 sometimes 3 snacks. my only shortcoming is water....i HATE drinking water.....

I think that it's clear that if you're only getting 1000 calories per day, you need to find some way of ensuring that you get enough (more!) to eat. Whether that's by counting calories (fitday.com is great) or by counting servings (like the vegetarian food pyramid) you definitely need more calories.



By the way, according to what you wrote, you have a BMI of a little under 18 (healthy range is 20-25). You may actually want to eat more than you need to maintain your weight to get up to a healthy weight. (For example, add 500 to the 1600 calories you need to gain 1 lb per week).

You might want to plan ahead and have a lot of easily accessible, healthful foods around that don't require major or any cooking. It sounds like you might just be avoiding eating when you're really hungry because you don't want to deal with preparing a meal. If you go to the market on, say, Sunday and "prepare" a lot of small meals or snacks to keep on hand during the week you will be more apt to eat when you need to. That way you won't get so low on energy.

The whole required calories per day has never really worked for me. Maybe I just have an extremely slow metabolism, but I am active, and on GOOD days eat 1200 calories. I am usually around 1000 (i am guessing), and have energy and don't get grumpy. I go by what Oatmeal say-eat when your body tells you to

WOoohoo! I get 2240 if I put in my proper weight, (140) and 2000 if I put in my "I wish" weight - (125)....

Makes me feel a LITTLE less bad about my mass nut binge today. :embarrassed:

Just worthless banter.

normally i agree and that's how i've been doing it for a while. but i naturally just don't eat a lot, always been like that. i snack a lot but don't eat big meals. my energy is really low lately and i'm more prone to come down with colds and things lately. i'm thinking the reason is that i've become more active but my eating habits stayed the same. also by going vegan i eat as much as i did before but i eat less calories because of my choices in foods. what i eat has changed and my activity level has changed.



i walk about 25 minutes to work and back almost every day. some people wouldn't consider walking strenuous excercise but i walk fast. i suddenly have great big muslces in my calves



and also i'm concerned because i've lost some fat. i've gained muscle so i don't notice a difference in how clothes fit or my weight, but i really can't afford to lose anything. as it is my boyfriend can touch his fingers and thumb together around my bicep. some people think i'm too think to be healthy. i know i'm healthy and this is my natural size but i don't want to mess with it ya know?

i agree that counting calories is a bad thing to do when you're trying to lose, you end up feeling guilty if you go over or end up eating way less than your body really needs to function normally.



but, i'm not doing it to lose or gain, i just want to make sure i'm healthy. i'd posted a little while ago that i noticed i'm getting bony around my face and neck, my collarbone is sticking out way more than it used to. when i first went vegan i was doing ok and a friend actually commented that i looked really healthy and had more colour than usual and didn't look quite so skinny.

last couple months i've been going downhill and look more pale and bony than ever. it's scary because i keep reading threads about eating disorders and i don't ever want to face something like that. i know they can happen for more reasons than self esteem or whatever so i'm just being cautious.



i promise i won't obsess and if i start getting wierd about it feel free to slap me around a bit krista

Hmmm, I understand and of course you can look/should up the recommended calorie intake, I won't hold you back



Personally what I do when I feel something's not quite right, is to experiment a bit (e.g. eat more/less, eat more/less fat, do more/less sports, etc) and see what happens. Usually I just know when I'm "in the zone", without external input.

i'm having a blast on fitday right now. you can go through and list all the activity from the day including showering, sitting on the toilet, sex...



we burn a lot of calories doing day to day stuff!!



this makes me wonder if i need to up my calorie intake even more to make up for what i burn all day or if that's all considered in the weight x 15 thing

If you do about 30 minutes of moderate exercise 3-5x per week (walking, light swimming, light weights) then 15 is fine.

Good God, vegansurfer, no wonder your parents complained about you not eating enough.



Ladyfaile,



Sounds like you don't eat enough. Get more calorie dense foods in your diet or eat more in general.

that's the idea.



but.. i walk about 25 minutes to work and back every day remember, i walk fast. and am on my feet through my shift.

we're talking 50 minutes of excercise about 5 times a week not considering the time at work.

but hey i just filled out everything on fitday and i did pretty well. a little low on calories and a few nutrients still but not half bad really. i set a goal to get to my healthy weight according to the site which is about 115 by my birthday which is in september. it's only 8 pounds but i think it'll be tough





eta: if i decide before i reach 115 that i like my weight i'll stop trying to gain, i'm not going freak out over every pound. but i've weighed the same since about 12 years old which is why it's going to be hard so i don't expect to really reach my goal and i'm fine with that. just need something to strive for i guess.





and it'd be nice if i could gain it all in my chest. j/k!

I don't understand your "but" - the word, not the body part.



You admit you don't eat a lot, so that's easy to fix. Your physical activies aren't extreme, so eat more, gain back the weight you lost and see how you feel.

That's what I was hoping when I made myself go up to 115... didn't happen.

yeah with my luck i'll gain it all in my stomach. that's the only part of me that i actually could consider fat because that's where all my squishiness is, it's out of proportion to the rest of me. hard to find pants that fit my waist and aren't too big in the bum.