what's the minimal calorie intake need to be

[Nimue_2013]

I am trying to lose weight by counting calories and eccersize. I am not supposed to go over 1228 cal a day. However I am not used to eating breakfast and half the time no lunch. I am now doing both with healthy foods. I am finding it hard to reach 1000 cal. What is the minimal I need to be healthy? I am 250 lbs and 5'3. My goal is to lose 50 lbs by end of Feb 2014. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you

[gymdandee]

The Peak 8 routine it will quickly raise your heart rate 8 times for very short bursts, with a cooling down period in between. Ideally you’ll be sprinting or cycling full throttle for 30 seconds with a 90 second cool down in between each outburst.

This is the fastest way to lose fat and build muscle in the body. Peak 8 actually stimulates the growth hormone in the body. I encourage you to visit Dr Mercola’s site to learn more about Peak 8 fitness because I personally feel that it is one of the best ways to exercise, especially considering the speed at which you can lose fat and build muscle.

I highly recommend you read this article and watch the videos on the page. It will give you all the information you need to know about Peak 8 – Flood Your Body With This “Youth Hormone” In Just 20 Minutes

What you eat after Peak 8 training does matter

It’s recommended that you do not eat sugar or carbohydrate for 2 hours after the Peak 8 exercise because these foods can impact the release of the growth hormone in the body.  The link is below
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/11/13/phil-campbell-on-peak-8-exercises.aspx

Figure your heart rate by this formula
220 – your age 36 = 184 that’s your maximum heart rate. You want to get your HR between 65%- 85% of your maximum HR. that would be between 120 and 156.

I suggest buying a heart rate monitor about $30.00

You burn 30 percent more fat from doing cardio after a weights session as opposed to cardio on its own.
Get the OK from your doctor first!!

[JodyDFB]

Good luck with your weight loss efforts, Nimue_2013!

I can only offer solidarity.  I was thin, thin, thin pretty much my whole life until, around age 40, when I started gaining weight out of the blue.  I'll save you all the stories of struggle and turmoil,  I eventually discovered I'd become profoundly insulin resistant...a function of my PCOS. (I don't know why it suddenly became an issue, when I've had PCOS - and thus also been insulin resistant - all my life.)

Other PCOS women told me about a natural insulin sensitizer (cinnamon), and I started losing weight l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y from the day I started taking it.  They even helped me with a starting dosage.  3g/day seems to work for many, incl. me.  (NOTE: Cinnamon appears to have no effect on fasting glucose levels in people who aren't insulin resistant.)

Do. Not. Misunderstand.  The cinnamon is IN ADDITION to careful diet and daily exercise.  It's just that, before I started treating my IR, I continued to gain weight through near-starvation and gruelling daily workout marathons.  It was so devastating.  In any event, once I was treating the actual cause of my weight gain, the pounds flew off.  The 30lbs I'd gained came off in just 2 months.  Now I'm just trying to get more fit, and maybe a wee bit thinner.

So, maybe more help to you might be a typical day for me.(?)  

I'm 47, 5'4" and have a BMI of around 21.  My BMR should be about 1,100 cal/day, but it's likely only about 800. (PCOS is said to reduce BMR by up to 30%, and trial and error suggests that's about right for me.)

I get up early each morning and immediately hit my home gym.  I get bored easily, so I do whatever workout strikes my fancy that day.  (I have workout DVD's for ballet, pilates, yoga, Insanity, Brazil Butt Lift, and general cardio.  Some days I just do the treadmill, crunches, push-ups, weights, stretching thing.)  Nowadays, I'm in the gym for about an hour.  Then I shower and make a green juice for breakfast. (That's collard greens, kale, cilantro, bok choy, tomato, pineapple, papaya, and berries.)  I also have a small amount of seeds.  Some days I have a small bowl of steel cut oats or savoury quinoa.

I have a physically-demanding life, these days, so I have physical labour to do throughout the day.  

Snacks might be a piece of wholegrain bread with some blackstrap molasses, with a small glass of grapefruit juice, or a Tbsp or two of spicy hummus and a couple of mini, 2" wholegrain pitas.  Celery sticks are something I allow myself to eat as much as I want, whenever I want.

Lunch might be a quick, simple, clear soup of veg. stock, chopped fennel & green onion plus bok choy, or a coconut soup with cauliflower, lime, and cilantro.  I love lentil soups, too.  Or maybe it's a cup of edamame.  Preferably something light and simple.  Maybe a simple sandwich with some kale & tomato, or almond butter (not both, though, eeeewwww). :)

I like to eat an apple with a couple of nuts as an anytime snack.  I'm not a big fan of salads, but usually eat a small salad in the afternoon, most days....just enough to get some more greens into me.

If I have the energy in the afternoon, I will workout a second time, but in a way that won't make me sweat too much (so I don't have to shower again).  I have a ballet DVD, for instance, that is a good, all-over workout but doesn't leave me drenched.

Dinner could be anything, but is often a vegetable pasta or rice dish.

I mostly drink water.  Sometimes I have chocolate almond milk or green tea.  On rare occasions I have coffee or black tea.  If I'm eating a non-heme source of iron, I'll usually accompany it with some grapefruit juice.

Overall, I eat very little (compared to my husband, and when I was younger), so I try to make everything count, nutritionally.  I can't really "afford" needless calories, and don't want nutritionally-empty, processed foods, anyway.  With a BMR of only around 800, I can only consume more than that if I'm sure to burn it off through activity.  And that's just to maintain.  (It's been 2 years since I lost that weight.)

While I exercise pretty rigorously every day, I always felt like I needed to find workouts I liked well enough to keep doing them basically forever.  What has hit home to me most is that my body HAS changed, and just losing the weight didn't make my body go back to my naturally-thin, former self who didn't have to exercise or watch what she ate.  Now, I HAVE TO exercise and be physically active every day AS WELL AS cut back DRAMATICALLY on the amount of calories I consume, just so I don't gain weight.  And I have to keep taking my cinnamon supplements.  (I stopped for a few weeks, and re-gained 10lbs, despite no change in diet or lifestyle.  I re-started the cinnamon, worked out extra hard, and re-lost the 10lbs in 2 weeks...thankfully.)

I hope something in there helps you in some way.

Best of luck to you!  You can do it!!  Find what works for you!

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi!
First determine the number of calories you need to consume per day. You have to first calculate your basal metabolic rate depending on your lifestyle. There are many BMR calculators available on line. While they are not 100% accurate, they give you a rough idea regarding the number of calories required to maintain your basal metabolic functions. Eating more calories than this can cause weight gain. If you want to lose weight then you need to consume lesser calories than required for the basal metabolic functions. Also, since you can’t cut down calories drastically, you need to exercise to burn some calories. So if the net calorie consumption is less than need for basal metabolic function and burning of calories is reasonably good, you will start losing weight. You can get many charts online which show you how many calories you burn with a particular exercise. You can use this as rough guideline to help you with an exercise regimen that does not tire you out. These online sites also help you choose from a wide array of food items to build up your calorie need. You have to make a conscious effort to eat 3-4 small well planned meals spread throughout the day. This helps you burn calories better.
Hope this helps. Take care!

The medical advice given should not be considered a substitute for medical care provided by a doctor who can examine you. The advice may not be completely correct for you as the doctor cannot examine you and does not know your complete medical history. Hence this reply to your post should only be considered as a guiding line and you must consult your doctor at the earliest for your medical problem.