I would like to lose 2lbs a week, advice on calories please :)

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LittleMissFitness92
LittleMissFitness92 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,

So as the title suggests, I would like to lose 2lbs a week for the next four weeks in order to be my loveliest weight for my holiday.

I have calculated that my BMR is around 1600 calories a day.

To lose 2 lbs a week I understand i would have to have a deficit of 7000 calories a week so...

If I ate 1200 calories a day and burnt 400 at the gym everyday for the next 4 weeks, would I be able to do this? Or is this too little? Would I be able to sustain it?

Thank you

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    That would put you at net 800 calories for the day. That's very low and it would be difficult to sustain.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
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    BMR doesn't include all the activity you have each day, so yes, you would be eating way too little if you tried to eat 1200 and burn 400. To get your calorie goal you want to subtract from your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). The stickies at the top will walk you through the process.
  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
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    You are not overweight enough to be striving for 2 pounds a week. Go for 1 pound a week and do some work with weights to look your best for your holiday. Better muscle definition and firmness will go much further than crash dieting.

    And, no, 1200 per day plus intense exercise that you don't eat back is not advisable in the short run or sustainable in the medium or long run.
  • Lasmartchika
    Lasmartchika Posts: 3,440 Member
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    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

    Read this
    community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    Your profile says you only have 8 lbs to lose.

    You will not be successful at trying to lose 2 lbs a week, and it'd probably be hard for you to lose 1 lb a week. Why don't you eat at a small deficit (0.5 lbs/week), get an adequate amount of protein, and start a heavy lifting program?

    If you're trying to lose those 8 lbs in 4 weeks for beach/bikini/whatever, it's not gonna happen (healthily).
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    Yeah, it sounds like it would be that easy doesn't it? but weight loss doesn't work like that exactly. The smaller you are, the more exact you have to be with how much you eat. If you aren't weighing out your portions, all the working out in the world won't help. And on top of that weight loss isn't linear....
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
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    Could you do it? Probably, although you'd have to be incredibly careful to give yourself adequate nutrition with the appropriate macro and micro-nutrients. It would pretty much be protein and vegetables every meal every day with no room for starchy stuff or anything sweet and you'd still probably be under-nourishing your body and making workouts a huge struggle. I can tell you from experience that trying to burn 400 calories (nearly an hour's run or close to 10KM for me) is incredibly rough when you're eating that low. Expect to be exhausted. Expect binges.

    A month isn't a long time and truthfully, you're probably not going to do permanent damage if you try this, but you probably are going to feel like crap.

    My maintenance calories are around 1600 too, so I absolutely understand how tough it is to lose weight, but depriving yourself of essential nutrients isn't a great way to go about it. Better to lose more slowly and feel less awful.
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 646 Member
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    Do the best you can. If you reduce calories to 1200 with exercise you might be Abe to lose 4 to 6 pounds in 4 weeks. There are two things not in your favor. Presumably you are close to a low BMI and you are only dedicated on a temporary basis for an event.

    I hope it goes well for you.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Your BMR is just the calories you burn by merely existing...you don't cut from your BMR...you cut from your TDEE. You also don't have much to lose...given that you don't have the fat stores to go that fast, you're just going to torch your muscle mass...have fun.
  • Domineer
    Domineer Posts: 239 Member
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    This is a very relevant thread for my situation at the moment. I cut 8-9 lbs during the whole month of July 2015. My calorie goal is set at 1600 a day. I often eat 1700-1900 of actual calories and leave an average deficit of 550 cals a day due to exercise. I don't feel hungry. I don't spend much time in the gym. 3 days a week. I track my steps and through that alone i'm burning 500 cals a day at times. My advice to you is to set it at .5lbs/week which will allow you to eat more than what you currently have been eating. You will have room to leave big deficits if you don't feel hungry to eat that many cals and you can stack up your exercise cals pretty quickly.

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