A Question about daily caloric needs (and an intro:)

[Callie]

Hi! My name is Callie and I have been gradually moving towards raw for several years now. I'm 19 and I have found this whole board to be very inspiring.

My RMR is 1730 and I figure I burn around 200-300 cals. on top of that in daily movement. I keep hearing about how people are eating so little calorically and I don't want to stall my metabolism (while losing weight) Does anyone have any input on whether a low cal diet can slow your metabolism or have any input on how much I should be eating? I know this question is a bit all over the place but I am just trying to figure out what's what:) Thanks a lot!

[sport]

Hi. I have never in my life tought of food in terms of calories and I have never put on exess weight. I have found that if you only take in natural food made of natural ingredents then your body will deal with it. It is only when you eat rubbish that you need to worry about calories. I hope that you can change and think of food in a different way.

[Callie]

Sport, thank you for replying. I don't think I phrased my question correctly. I personally don't want to have to think about calories. But today I had an appt. with my hormone specialist dr. and she kept stressing to me that I not eat below 1500 cals. And I know right now I have been eating soo much food and it's hardly ever over that. Should I be concerned? And I apologize if I gave you an incorrect impression of myself:)

[Revvell]

I'm not sure what the outcome is in this particular regimen yet, if you are eating until you are satisfied ~ all raw ~ and a variety of foods, I would not even concern myself w/ calories. I've never paid much attention to calories ~ actually, never at all. Is there a particular reason for her telling you this?

:cool:

[angelandarose]

Hi Callie,

The basic advice for starting out Raw is don't worry about counting calories etc... You will hear this from lots of folks here.

I would say as long as you don't have too many days under your BMR (or more than 500-1000 under your BMR) you should be fine. Once in a while having a low cal day won't hurt. Lots of low calorie days will slow down your metabolism. Juggling calories back and forth (zig-zaggin') from low to high will keep your body guessing and not get stagnant.

I'd say as long as you are eating raw and feeling full then you are on the right track. Play with this, listen to your body. You might keep a journal to help track what works and what doesn't for you.

My BMR is over 2500 cals a day. I have a hard time hitting that some days, but the days I eat nuts and avocado's I have no problem reaching that goal.

Good luck to you!

Love,
Angie

[Callie]

Thank you all for your great responses. Peanut, that link was also very helpful. I think what I'm going to do is just listen to my body and eat accordingly and just trust that things will work out. I really don't have time to be thinking about whether or not I'm eating enough etc etc.. Thanks again:)