Calorie Goal

stephinator92

Did anyone else have to play with their calorie intake to see results? Was seeing results when I was sticking to 1800 calories a day (loss of 1.5 lbs per week) and adjusted it to 2000 calories a day (loss of 1 lb a week) and it seems like my progress just isn't going anywhere. When you're this overweight should you theoretically be having quicker results in the beginning? Should I lower my calories significantly more to like 1600?

AnthonyX150X

Depending on how overweight an individual is, they can usually handle a larger deficit. If you weren't having problems losing on 1800 calories, I would go back to that.

kgirlhart

How much do you have to lose? If you felt good and liked your results at 1800 I would go back to that before dropping down to 1600. It isn't a race. Sometimes you just have to be patient. Also if you aren't weighing your food them you should get a digital scale and weigh everything but liquids. That way you will know if you are eating what you think you are.

MissusMoon

Are you weighing your food with a food scale?

Also, have you updated your calorie goals to your current weight?

stephinator92

I'm weighing- I have an ozeri scale. just readjusted my calorie goals. Thanks everyone!

terbusha

Oh yeah, I for sure messed with my calorie intake to get my progress on point. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

psuLemon

From a mathematical standpoint, if you were losing 1.5lbs per week at 1800 calories, adding 200 calories would only decrease your per week loss by .4lbs per week. Keeping in mind, that variations of macronutrients can increased volume of foods can modify glycogen storage capacity and waste in your GI system. But honestly, if you drop back to 1800, that is fine. Your current average TDEE is 2550. So anything under would produce weight loss.

To answer your question, I actually increased my calories as I was more focused on exercise performance than weight loss. I rather slow it down to maximize muscle retention (more muscle = leaner body),resistance training performance and protein requirements to achieve the body I want, rather than aggressively cutting weight and trying to build back up because it's lot harder to build muscle than preserve it.