Now a days on Tumblr and instagram i see so many people who are eating around 1200 kcals a day. And the thing is... that is NOT ok. The reccommended amount for a 5 year old is 1200. The RDA for women is around 1800-2000 and for men its 2500. And on the days you exercise - unless you need to lose weight, you should be eating what you burn.
Now... to explain BMR and TDEE.
BMR is basically the amount you burn in a day when you do absaloutly nothing. Its what your body burns just living and breathing. And for most people its around 1300-1500. So you should NEVER eat less than that. Not even if someone is trying to lose weight, because then your body isnt getting enough for its daily functions.
And TDEE is total daily energy expenditure which counts in exercise... and that can be around 2000+ That is basically what you should eat to maintain your weight +/- 300 hundred calories.
So for me, my TDEE is around 2400. And my BMR is around 1400.
Say if i eat 1800kcal a day, and then i burn 500kcal through exercise then i end up with a NET of only 1300kcal, putting me under my BMR and WAY under my TDEE. This in the long run wont help me, this will infact put my body into starvation mode and make my body hold onto water and fat.
Say your TDEE is 2200 kcal a day, and you need to gain weight, so you should be eating around 2700kcal a day, and then you go running for an hour and say you burn 400kcal, then you need to eat enough to gain weight and also what you burned so you need to eat 3100kcal tjat day. <--- a="" amounts="" arent="" calories="" driniking="" drinks.="" eating="" excessive="" if="" is="" lot="" nuts="" of="" or="" p="" quite="" supplement="" that="" you=""> THAT is one of the reasons why exercise is not reccommended during weight gain and recovery, because its hard enough to just eat food to maintain your weight, but then actually gain weight and ontop of that eat what you burn through exercise.... You get the dilemma?
If you arent struggling with an exercise problem, then you should only exercise if you know that you can eat enough.
Please dont bescared to eat. Infact you are doing your body more harm NOT eating than actually eating. You wont feel better by starving yourself, mentally or physically. Food is fuel and its important.
Hopefully now you understand why you shouldnt be eating less than your BMR, or eating low calorie amounts.
Dear Izzy,
ReplyDeleteyour posts are so helpful for me. Some days ago you wrote about half recovered. Well, I think I am half recovered and still gain weight. Gaining weight it's not that big problem than before but I still have problems to start using normal sugar or having a normal hot chocolate (I admit it's still a water-milk-mix) Especially my "Fear Food" is getting a problem... I think all time that if I eat it, it will bring me closer to the normal weight, which prohibts me to eat fear food and that I have to reduce my normal healthy plan.... At the same time the desire eating like body tells me is getting bigger and bigger but still the fear is there.
Do you know the situation? Was it close before you started to eat like you wanted?
Thanks for your helpful blog!!!
Best regards from Germany :)
Just came across this and it helped me a lot. Thank you
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