As weight goes down, should my calories follow?

kittens2cute
kittens2cute Posts: 68 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I started out 6 weeks ago at 230 lbs and 1700 calories/day. Today I'm at 219 and still at 1700/day. I have 40 lbs to my goal weight. Should that calorie amount adjust as my weight does or is it already accounted for when I set up my goal weight?

Replies

  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    Yes, since as you lose weight, your energy needs go down as well.
  • cgvet37
    cgvet37 Posts: 1,189 Member
    Yes, and no. It depends on your goals, and what you are trying to accomplish.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    As you lose weight your body will burn less calories doing the same activities. Meaning you have a few options:

    a) keep activity and intake the same, meaning your deficit will gradually decrease and weight loss will slow down
    b) increase activity/exercise so that you burn more - which may not be unreasonable if you become more fit and capable of doing more as you lose weight
    c) eat less to keep the original deficit

    In reality some combination of a + b + c is probably the right answer, though the exact balance will vary person to person.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    kittens2cute wrote: »
    I started out 6 weeks ago at 230 lbs and 1700 calories/day. Today I'm at 219 and still at 1700/day. I have 40 lbs to my goal weight. Should that calorie amount adjust as my weight does or is it already accounted for when I set up my goal weight?

    I was on a different health site before which automatically adjusted my calorie needs as my weight changed. MFP doesn't do that but you could go back in to your profile after a while and re-calibrate your numbers by updating your current information.

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