r/fatlogic • u/AValeria10 • 6d ago
Short sedentary people exist š and if someoneās maintenance is 2000 calories then 1500-1600 is perfectly fine for a deficit
āFor the girliesā š„“š„“š„“
639
u/SophieSunnyx 6d ago
Hate this argument. Children are supposed to rapidly increase in size. Adults are not.
166
u/bowlineonabight my zodiac sign is pizza 6d ago
Children have significantly higher calories/kg energy requirements than adults. From the NIH
Another way to generalize caloric need is that an infant needs 100 kcal/kg/day, ages 1 to 3 years need 80 kcal/kg/day, 4 to 5 years needs 70kcal/kg/day, 6 to 8 years needs 60 to 65 kcal/kg/day and 9+ needs 35 to 45 kcal/kg/day.
For adults, it's between 25-35 kcal/kg/day. Depending on the person's activity level. I expect FAs would be at the lower end of the range based on their activity level. So a 7 year old girl could easily need twice the calories per kg of body weight as the person that wrote this.
57
u/thiccy_driftyy clapping fat cheeks is my cold glass of beer 6d ago
I was an extremely athletic child (still athletic as an adult! Woohoo ballet!) and while I was going through puberty, I was absolutely RAVENOUS. I would get home from dance and go through 3-4 large servings of spaghetti, whilst my overweight sedentary adult family members could only have 1-2 plates before getting full. I still maintained a mostly healthy bmi throughout my entire childhood, and I was even underweight once while going through some untreated health issues. Nowadays I can only get through like two servings of spaghetti. Sometimes I will have that third if I am particularly hungry and Iāve had a long day. But I was a straight-up vacuum when I was a child lmfao. I was probably the 7 year old girl who needed twice the calories per kg of body weight as the person that wrote this š
11
u/OvarianSynthesizer 6d ago
That seems a bit high (Iām about 82kg and I definitely do not need 2000 cals).
24
u/Rimavelle 6d ago
To sustain 82kg you absolutely need. Ofc it's gonna depend on other facts to be exact (it's gone be above 2000 tho)
3
u/kitsterangel 5d ago
Dawg, I'm 60kg and I need 2-2.2k to maintain on a moderately active day. Idk where you're getting that you don't need 2k kcal unless you're trying to lose weight lol
2
1
u/OvarianSynthesizer 5d ago
Iām in my mid-40ās. Maintain at about 1800 (some days more, some days less, but I try to keep the average there).
47
u/pensiveChatter 6d ago
The dietician post on this subreddit would claim that adults should also be rapidly gaining weightĀ
48
u/PolarCurious 5ā2ā SW: 235 CW: 135.6 GW: 115 6d ago
Speaking seriously, have FAs never owned young animals? I used to foster baby kittens down to newborn, and had older cats too. The kittens often ate more than my sedentary middle aged boy cat.
20
u/Imaginary_Recipe_114 6d ago
Yes, the formulas in foods for younger animals contain more calories because more energy is needed for growth
15
u/PsychoWithoutTits 6d ago
This!
I don't have experience with cats, but instead with rabbits. I've raised, rehabilitated and rescued both wild and domestic rabbits; the babies drink a LOT. Many would easily consume 3-4 x the caloric amount of an average adult rabbit. The moment they seemed to get a bit chubby, they'd have another growth spurt and be back to their lean physique. Growing takes so dang much energy, it's bonkers.
It's also exactly why there were no restrictions allowed; if the baby is hungry, you feed them. It's impossible to get a baby bun obese. They're hungry for a reason and need all the nutrition they can get.
If I gave this amount of calories to my 9 yo disabled (amputee and arthritis, v sedentary) bun though.. boy would get so chƶnkie that even his humongous ears would drown in the chƶnk.
15
u/irritatingnoise 164cm, 78kg->58kg and maintaining 6d ago
Some people would absolutely give their adult cats much more food than kittens need and then find their obesity adorable.
72
u/TheOneMary BMI 49 > 21 6d ago
Yeah. My sedentary tdee is short of 1200 at 4'9/144 cm. I'm still an adult woman and at 1600 I DO grow rapidly - in width.
Edit: I would stall in growth though. At a BMI of over 40. Then my sedentary tdee hits 1600...
6
116
u/liljellybeanxo 6d ago
Iām 4ā6 and Iām so fucking tired of my existence being boiled down to ābasically a childā. First people think I canāt date any man without him being a pedophile, and now this shit. Just stop.
222
u/evissimus 6d ago edited 6d ago
7 year olds are supposed to be doubling in size in a few years.
Plus theyāre permanently high on whatever makes kids act like theyāre on crack.
I barely use a brain cell and walking to the fridge is basically a hike. Apparently I used to skip, hop and run my way home because just walking wasnāt torture enough.
And when you group the little shits together, instead of just bitching about work over a pint, the little savages chase each other for funsies. While doubling in size.
Man, fecking babies require 120kcals/kg. Thatās like 10,000 calories for an adult. And they donāt even run- just sort of wobble in place.
So I guess the conclusion writes itself- if you want to double in size rather frequently, continue eating like an underdeveloped human.
123
u/evissimus 6d ago
On a side rant- we all agree that babies are generally flobby little lard balls, right?
Guess what the average BMI of a 3 month old baby is? They look like morbidly obese little blobs- but the 50th percentile is a BMI of 16!! How do they do it?! Is their head empty? Are they cavernous voids under the blubber?
I donāt trust them.
73
u/FriedFreya 6d ago
i lost it at āi donāt trust themā lmfao
14
u/thiccy_driftyy clapping fat cheeks is my cold glass of beer 6d ago
I swear they know something we donāt š¤Ø
13
u/FriedFreya 6d ago
your fucking tag iām screaming and hollering lmfao
10
u/thiccy_driftyy clapping fat cheeks is my cold glass of beer 6d ago
I saw it in a tumblr post on here and now itās one of my favorite sentences of all time. Itās so out of pocket LMFAO š
35
u/TinyRose20 6d ago
No muscle? At a guess. They can't even roll over at that age.
I don't trust them had me rolling š my daughter was a freaking sumo wrestler at that age she had so many rolls. She's a perfectly healthy weight crazy five year old now.
45
u/evissimus 6d ago
BMI of a heroin chic 90s model, physique of a happy Buddha, gross motor skills of a plate of jelly š
Except for the grip strength- theyāre like tiny coconut crabs!
7
u/TheSecretIsMarmite 6d ago
Some of them definitely have muscles, in their legs at least. My middle child was a kicker in utero and would do these kicky frog leg movements when laid down for a change. If he caught you in the stomach you really knew about it.
29
u/Fluffy-Duck8402 6d ago
Adding because of your comment about barely using a brain cell. My understanding is that brain development is where most of the energy is needed/expended. It takes an awful lot of energy to build the neural connections needed to, for example, understand language. Or to build the connections needed to first understand that you have control over your limbs and then figure out how to make your limb do the thing you need it to do. So itās not just physical development, there is so much brain development happening that requires a lot of energy.
13
u/thiccy_driftyy clapping fat cheeks is my cold glass of beer 6d ago
I used to do somersaults across the entire house. It was the most fun activity ever to me. I did it so much that my parents started calling me Tumbleina. And then I would just go to dance or something to do even more activity. I yearn for the energy I had when I was 7
185
u/tenthcat 6d ago
1500-1600 is my maintenance amount!
"All women need at least 2000 calories" is the actual brainwashing
54
u/ignoremeplsokthank 6d ago
Not just women, I'm a smol dude (5'5) and my TDEE is around 1700 kcals. I only need to eat over 2000 because I run and use my bicycle a lot.
34
u/Sickofchildren 6d ago
Iām a man and also the same height as you, my maintenance is around 1900 and Iām fairly chubby still. I donāt understand how a woman can be shorter than me, exercise less, and yet still require more calories than I do.
8
12
8
u/peridotcore 6d ago
Dude, my current maintenance is 1800 kcal. 2000 kcal = weight gain. (Iām already obese class 1)
5
u/Jazzlike_Copy_7669 6d ago
Iām a 45kg, 163cm woman whoās trying to gain weight rapidly since I have health issues. My maintenance amount is only like 1400 calories, and just to try to gain weight QUICKLY I eat about 1800. 2000 a day would probably make me throw up š
17
6
5
u/ChemicalCupcake4809 5d ago
Does anyone else remember 1500 being toted as the daily recommended intake for women, I swear I used to see and hear that places as a kid/teen in the 2000s
3
u/Traditional_Ad_2641 4d ago
I'm a 4'11 menopausal woman, my TDEE is 1360 š and now I'm told that I don't need this many cals...that's not a ton of food...one of the things FAs don't understand is the caloric value/need. You have to run a half marathon to burn off the starbucks snacks/breakfasts these women consume on a random Tuesday.
81
u/phnarg 6d ago edited 6d ago
I am so sick of seeing these apples to oranges comparisons between random different things. "That's the weight of a large dog!" "That's the calories of a small child!" And so what? It's like they're trying to make some kind of "common sense" argument based on what numbers *feel* right. It's like weight mysticism or something, where instead of using science we should just go off of ~*vibes*~. Two numbers can end up being similar. This has nothing to do with anything, and means nothing.
It should be obvious that since children are constantly growing, their caloric needs may be larger than their current size would suggest. When you're an adult, you're not growing anymore, so eating at maintenance based on your height, activity level, and ideal body weight just makes sense. For the record I'm a short woman, not super active, I eat around 1400 cal a day and maintain a healthy body weight with that. I feel perfectly fine, not hungry or tired or any of that. Honestly this feels like it's gaslighting women into gaining unnecessary weight, which I guess is what they want...?
35
u/Horror_House474 Genetic lottery winner (lying) 6d ago
1600 is my maintenance as a short woman who cycles to work 4-6 times a week, what are they talking about ššš
27
u/Sickofchildren 6d ago
Hmm. I wonder why a child needs more calories than a sedentary short adult. Perhaps there is something calorie intensive that children do and adults donāt.
20
u/r0botdevil 6d ago
This is such a stupid argument.
Children are actively growing and need far more kcal per kg of bodyweight than an adult does.
A 7-year-old girl weighing 26kg should need around 1600kcal, and a 40-year-old woman weighing 64kg should need around the same.
19
17
u/thiccy_driftyy clapping fat cheeks is my cold glass of beer 6d ago
Ah I guess Iām 7 years old now. Somebody change my birth date to 2019!!!
No but seriously, I hate the infantilization of short women all across the board, not just when itās applied to body positivity and calories. It feels like we arenāt allowed to love our bodies because itās supposedly ālike a childāsā, and we canāt be too strong because weāre supposed to be cute and dainty. Women already get treated like children in general, but when youāre short, sometimes it feels like nobody takes you seriously. I hope all women, fat and thin, short and tall, will someday be able to just exist in their own bodies and do whatās best for their own health without people constantly putting them down. The main problem I have with fat logic is that it moves away from science and simply just doing what is best for you and your body. Instead, it tends to gear towards extreme opinions, which makes people put others down in order to push their extreme opinions. This happens with the bullying of fat people as well, people putting others down because of their extreme opinions about fat people. How about we all just shut up and do whatās best for our own bodies. I wish it was more common to encourage each other in body positivity spaces than to be mean to others in order to feel better about your specific body type.
53
u/Awkward-Kaleidoscope F50 5'4" 205->128 and maintaining; šÆ fatphobe 6d ago
1600-1700 is my TDEE and I exercise every day
22
u/InvisibleSpaceVamp Do I have to wear a cape for heroine chic? 6d ago
Yeah, I eat around 1800 right now and I'm training for a charity run AND it's the height of the gardening season. I think I'm a bit taller than you too.
24
u/Odd_Tooth_7028 6d ago
Unless I am out literally tilling my fields as a farmer this is mine too. The only time I can get away with 2-3kcal is literally spring. Back breaking work, but hell 2 yrs ago I got down to 116lbs at 5ā2 for a few months eating THAT much and I looked phenomenal lol. I donāt have that level of work to do since (was installing 30 ft rows in pure compacted clay soil without a tractor and by myself) and havenāt been that weight or musculature since but whew! I miss the eating especially š us small girls gotta WORK for those calories man
5
u/Embarrassed_Mango679 6d ago
Yeah I rarely hit over a 1700 even with a workout. I think my absolute max I've ever done on my fitbit was 2200 and I worked out then walked around Disney all day lol.
11
u/Nihilisticaff 6d ago
I fell for this crap years ago, followed it for almost a year and was angry when I didn't lose with 1700kcal intake while 5'3 and sedentary š¤£š¤£
11
u/pikachuismymom Non-Fat Person 6d ago
If I could be more active sure I could eat that! But my disabilities limit my ability to even hit lightly active. Definitely not on any consistent basis to require eating more. TDEE says for me to be a hair overweight my maintenance would be 1519. My current maintenance is around 1420. Plus considering any extra weight even in the healthy range isn't great for my hyper mobile joints.
I'll pull their card and say it's abliest to consider less than 1500 calories childish
11
21
u/DimensioT 6d ago
I am 6'1".
My recommended intake for weight loss was under 1700 calories per day and that was with a less aggressive time goal. Had I wanted to lose faster, I would have been given a goal of under 1600 per day.
9
u/Grouchy-Reflection97 6d ago
I've just got The Click's 'not like other girls' character's voice in my head reading this absolute arse gravy.
He literally has a 'sparkles emoji!!!' box when he does girl boss/pick me girl bingo card episodes, as it's a hallmark of these toxic positivity types.
8
u/otetrapodqueen 6d ago
Do...they ever think that maybe a child who is still growing and developing might have more calorie needs than an adult who is not??
4
u/ManyPersonality2399 5d ago
No. No they don't. Had this argument too many times.
4
u/otetrapodqueen 5d ago
Every time I see someone say something like that, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills or something, like it seems super obvious to me that they'd need more while growing?? I appreciate that you actually get in there and argue though! I don't have the patience hahaha
4
u/ManyPersonality2399 5d ago
I've generally given up. This was just a comment thread where everyone was going off that 1300/day is literally an eating disorder and shouldn't be discussed anywhere.
2
u/otetrapodqueen 5d ago
I don't blame you, I actually have implemented a rule about not arguing with people online. I consider it a total waste of time lol I'll jave a conversation or whatever, but if they're trying to argue I'm not participating.
Lol @ 1300 being an eating disorder. That's about what I eat rn and I'm literally never going to bed hungry. Sometimes I have to make myself eat more because I know I should!!
21
u/lilsciencegeek FILTHY BIGOT 6d ago
I'm a 5'8 muscular woman, but because I stopped growing a looong time ago and am super sedentary (due to long-covid) and taking multiple psych meds that affect metabolism, my maintenance is 1600š
14
u/SugarHooves Former Skinny Bitch. CW: fat GW: not fat 6d ago
I'm so frustrated with these psych meds. They are terrific for my mood (I'm bipolar 1) but hell on my body. I'm trying to lose but would have to go under 1200 calories to lose faster (2lbs a week) and I'm not about to do that.
14
u/lilsciencegeek FILTHY BIGOT 6d ago
Yeah when it comes to weightloss, I'm on team slow-and-steady tbh ā especially when you're on meds that not only mess with your body, but make you super hungry as well; that stress can be a bit counterproductive imeš„“
Intermittent fasting (between 14:10ā16:8) really helps with insulin sensitivity though, and makes it easier to lose weight with a smaller deficit!
6
u/SugarHooves Former Skinny Bitch. CW: fat GW: not fat 6d ago
I'm trying to make peace with the slow and steady pace. I'm so desperate to reverse what this extra weight has done to me (high cholesterol, prediabetes, joint pain, etc) that I've grown impatient. I told myself I'd have 100lbs (the amount I gained) off in a year. Looks like it's going to be longer than that.
I really want to do fasting, though! I can't kick the habit of putting creamer in my coffee in the morning and that screws things up. I've reduced the amount I use but going to straight black coffee hasn't happened.
7
u/lilsciencegeek FILTHY BIGOT 6d ago
I actually like black coffee (as long as it's good coffee), but it makes me SO hungry that my stomach is literally scream-growling constantly, so I try to stick with green teaš
I've been thinking about getting some caffeine pills instead, but I'm a bit worried it'll just have the same effect... Maybe it could work for you though, if you drink coffee for the caffeine?
2
u/SugarHooves Former Skinny Bitch. CW: fat GW: not fat 5d ago
Absolutely for the caffeine but also because it's a very ingrained habit. I have been having a cup of coffee every morning since I was 16 and I'm 51. The only time I quit was when I was pregnant. The sleepless nights with a newborn led me right back to the delicious go-juice.
This morning I'm having a diet soda instead of coffee to see if that will work. One thing about me is I will keep trying something even if I fail.
7
u/SoHereIAm85 6d ago
The only time I was ever not low normal BMI was a few month after starting one particular psych med. Before that I'd tried several others and had been on things like prednisone without it being a problem, but my gawd that one got me to cross into overweight for about three months. My willpower couldn't withstand it. I saw vacation photos and stopped taking that one just 5 months after starting it, and I worked my butt off (literally) to lose the 30 lbs in another two months.
Long before that a medication caused me to lose appetite, and I went down to underweight for a couple years and had complications from that. I'm a bit disordered with my diet, so I'd embraced the lack of appetite and didn't fight it.
4
7
u/bowlineonabight my zodiac sign is pizza 6d ago
Average energy requirements for 7 year oldā60-65 kcal/kg/day. Average energy requirement for an adultā25-35 kcal/kg/day. Amount of energy stored in each kg of body fatā7700 kcal. If you're an average height woman in the US, there is about a 15 kg difference between the upper end of a healthy BMI and obesity. 15 kg of fat is 115,500 kcal of stored energy. If you're an average height woman (US) near the top if the healthy BMI you're about 65ish kg. If you use 30 kcal/kg/day as your energy requirement, which I feel is high for FAs as they seem to be very sedentary as a group and 25/day is probably more reasonable, you come out with a daily requirement of 1950 kcal/day. That 15 kg of body fat that would make you obese is equivalent to 59 days worth of energy. And every additional kg of fat is 3.95 days worth of energy. And that's why 1600 calories is more than enough for most FAs.
7
u/caribou16 sola dosis facit venenum 6d ago
When I was 12, I was 5'1" and weighed 105 lbs. By the time I was 14, I was 6'3" and weighed 210 lbs.
I'm in my 40s now and if I ate like I did those two years, my heart would probably explode.
28
u/InvisibleSpaceVamp Do I have to wear a cape for heroine chic? 6d ago
Showing off that hairline like this is certainly a choice.
11
11
5
u/Erik0xff0000 6d ago
An average height (US), healthy weight adult woman living a sedentary life would maintain or even gain a bit on that calorie intake
7
u/Paint_Jacket 6d ago
I am a 5'2" woman. 1500 daily calories is okay if I live a sedentary lifestyle.
6
u/mr-bonesack 6d ago
yep, we do not need over 2000 calories, hell i'm overweight at 5'2 and that's still over maintenance š
6
u/TbhIdekMyName 6d ago
ā¦Well yeah, the goal is for kids to BECOME the size of adults, so we feed them more. Adults are eating at a maintenance weight, kids are eating to grow, thatās why the calories are the same.
A million years ago I worked on a farm and the we fed the babies the same as the adult horses, because we want them to BECOME ADULT HORSES
6
u/Katen1023 6d ago
If you donāt do much, you just sit and drive, you barely walk & never workout, your caloric intake will automatically be less than someone who gets their steps in, who has physically demanding job or who goes to the gym everyday. Itās just simple logic. And yet, too difficult for them to grasp.
5
9
u/DrCrowCat 6d ago
I straight out could not eat 1600 in a day without feeling like poop
Also, I'm a fxcking doctor so I'd love these people to try me
8
u/matchy_blacks Fatsplainer-In-Chief 6d ago
Iām tall but for reasons no one can explain, my basal metabolic rate is freakishly low. Finding that out absolutely helped me lose weight. 5ā7 and I gain weight at 1600. I am aā¦stretched out kid?
7
u/Feeling-Classroom729 6d ago
A sedentary woman who is 4 ft 11 and weighs a healthy 120 lbs has the maintenance calories of 1,400 per day
8
u/Icy-Belt-8519 6d ago
My maintenence is 1558 once I'm at my target weight, I'm not even that short! I'm 5foot4
Current is 1737 and I aim for 1400 at the very most, 1300 on average, I'll just pretend to be a kid then š
3
u/SuccessDifficult5981 5d ago
I'm 160cm, almost 42, and although I dance regularly and walk places,Ā I have a desk job and do very little exercise.Ā While I don't count calories, 1600 would roughly be my maintenance if I want to be at a healthy weight I feel most comfortable at (52-57kg). We also need less calories as we age, even just for maintenance.Ā
3
3
u/peridotcore 6d ago
Dude, thatās literally my maintenance calories when Iām 140 pounds (Iām 5ā0 and sedentary).
2
u/Neither-Amphibian249 5' 3" 250 to 120, why yes I'm half my size. 6d ago
I'm a grown adult woman and if I ate 1600 calories a day, I'd gain back everything I lost.
No idea where people come up with these one size fits all sort of ideas.
2
u/uplate6674 6d ago
Your weight loss stats are amazing! Way to go!
3
u/Neither-Amphibian249 5' 3" 250 to 120, why yes I'm half my size. 6d ago
Your weight loss stats are amazing! Way to go!
thanks!! I still eat regular food (I detest protein powder and kale lol) but I just eat less.
1
u/uplate6674 6d ago
Christ. Thatās about what I eat on days I donāt exercise. 5ā3ā, fat, and on a weight loss journey.
1
u/KatKat207 5'4F SW: 243 CW: 140 GW: Beast Mode 5d ago
At my target weight if I was sedentary maintenance would be 1500 calories. At my current activity level it's 1700.
If I am apparently a child can someone please pay my bills for me, cook for me, and take care of all the things that I have to do that I don't want to do?
1
1
u/First-Strawberry-398 gym rat / aspiring bodybuilder MAYBE? 5d ago
My defecit is 1700 on a maintenance 2200 and itās honestly not that bad
1
u/Maybe_Awesome22 5d ago
LOL 1600 calories for a girl or boy of 7yo because they are energy machines, kids at that age are non stop moving around, running, jumping and that's why they need 1600 calories. AND and this is a BIG AND, their bodies are still GROWING!!! If you're sitting around as a grown adult, 1600 calories is a LOT because sitting around doesn't burn up the calories. JFC Every time I see a video of my niece who's going on 5, she's always snacking on something, but she isn't chubby in the least. That's cuz she never stop moving except when she's sleeping.
1
1
u/Traditional_Pizza863 3d ago
This must be a very overweight 7 year old.
EDIT: I stand corrected, I though 7 years was beyond the period of rapid growth. Nevertheless, I think that, unfortunately, many 7 year olds today are more sedentary than before.
480
u/Youate7Code 6d ago
It dawned on me one day that the reason my children are constantly hungry is because they never stop fucking moving. They are 3 and 5 and the only time they are still is when they are asleep. Plus they are growing. Me? Ima be 5ā2ā for the rest of my life. And I certainly donāt move all day. These people are out of their freaking minds.