1500 calories...Too Much or Too Little?

BeccaGail222

Hi I am new here, and when I signed up I was given a calorie goal of just slightly over 1,500 calories a day. I am 29, 255lbs, 5'3 looking to lose 100+ pounds and only slightly active with a goal of -2 pounds lost per week.

I thought MFP might stick to the side of cautionary as to not low-ball calorie goals so people don't give up and get discouraged.

Is this too many calories? Any advice would be great! Thanks!!!

janejellyroll

I'm curious as to why you would think it is too many. Do you think the website has given you an inaccurate goal for any specific reason?

BeccaGail222

Yes, I thought they might stick to the side of cautionary as to not low-ball calorie goals so people don't give up and get discouraged.

CMNVA

When you signed up, what was your desired amount of weight loss per week? 1 lb? 2 lbs?

BeccaGail222

2 pounds per week.

janejellyroll

BeccaGail222 wrote: »

Yes, I thought they might stick to the side of cautionary as to not low-ball calorie goals so people don't give up and get discouraged.

Your calorie goal is going to be closely tied to the amount of weight you tell MFP you want to lose per week. If you choose an aggressive goal, you will get a smaller number of calories per week. But the goal is always going to be designed to result in the amount of weight loss you indicate per week.

It's an estimate, of course, like you will find on all websites offering a calorie goal. But it's designed to result in weight loss -- assuming you put in accurate information, it's never going to recommend a goal that is too high to result in weight loss for an average person with your stats.

Edit: An exception would be for smaller people who pick aggressive goals. If I weigh 120 and tell MFP I want to lose 2 pounds a week, there's no safe way for me to create the 1,000 calorie a day deficit I need to make that happen so my goal won't result in the weight loss that I requested. But for larger people and/or more reasonable goals, MFP is always going to give you a goal that is designed to result in the weight loss you are requesting.

Gotrek1

At your height and weight you're probably burning 2000 calories just lying in bed doing nothing so 1500 calories seems correct.

Christine_72

I'm 5"8, 44 and 147lbs, and I'm set at 1500 to lose 0.5lbs a week. I cant go a calorie under this amount without failing eventually...

tmoneyag99

1500 is probably your minimum.

At 255 at your height and weight I'm going to bet you burn about 10 kCal per pound of body weight (very rough estimate) you at around 2055 to loose 2 a week you would want to lower that number by 500 per day.

quiksylver296

I put this on another thread like this...

Calorie range is very individual. How tall you are, how much you weigh, how active you are, and any medical issues must be considered. You cannot compare your calorie range to anyone else's. You have to figure out yours. How? By weighing your food (preferably in grams) and logging everything. Determine if that amount of calories makes you lose, maintain or gain.

With that said, I'm a 41-year-old female, 5'9, 177 pounds. I maintain on ~2200 calories. As long as I eat fewer calories than that, I will lose. I prefer to shoot for about 1960 calories per day, because if I make my deficit too big, I feel hungry. If I feel hungry, I eventually crash and burn and binge.

samanthaswales

I am 42 5'3 and weigh 226lbs. I set MFP to loose 0.5lbs a week and that gives me 1750 calories. I find this achievable to stick to mostly and I have energy to exercise and don't feel deprived. If you read a lot of advice on here indicates slow and steady wins the race. It's not as sex as massive weight losses but healthier.

samanthaswales

I'm 5'4 sorry got that wrong!!

alyssa0061

tmoneyag99 wrote: »

1500 is probably your minimum.

At 255 at your height and weight I'm going to bet you burn about 10 kCal per pound of body weight (very rough estimate) you at around 2055 to loose 2 a week you would want to lower that number by 500 per day.

No, a 500 calorie per day deficit is for 1 pound per week, not 2. For 2 pounds you need a 1,000 calorie per day deficit.

MKEgal

While 2 lb per week is very ambitious, starting out with so much to lose it's quite doable for a while.
When you get down to maybe 60 to go, slow your rate to 1 lb or less.
Also realize that if you're struggling, feeling hungry or like you can't keep doing this, aim a little lower and it will be easier. You'll still be losing (0.5 lb a week is still losing), just more slowly.
And as you lose weight, maybe every 20 lb or so or when you hit a plateau, recalculate your energy needs.

This calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine will show you how many calories you need to maintain any weight, for any combination of height / age / activity level, as well as how many servings of each food group.
https://www.bcm.edu/cnrc-apps/healthyeatingcalculator/eatingCal.cfm

SusanMFindlay

alyssa0061 wrote: »

tmoneyag99 wrote: »

1500 is probably your minimum.

At 255 at your height and weight I'm going to bet you burn about 10 kCal per pound of body weight (very rough estimate) you at around 2055 to loose 2 a week you would want to lower that number by 500 per day.

No, a 500 calorie per day deficit is for 1 pound per week, not 2. For 2 pounds you need a 1,000 calorie per day deficit.

Yeah. I think that poster's math was 10x255=2550 to maintain. Take away 500 to give 2050 for 1 pound/week. Take away another 500 to give 1550 for 2 pounds/week.

For someone who weighs 255 pounds, 1500 calories/day does not sound at all high or "conservative" as long as it is measured accurately.

mlinci

I think an important question is - is 1500 calories a day something you can stick to over a long period of time?
On my personal example - I seem to need to eat about 1,600 calories per day minimum. I've now been eating 1,600-1,800 per day for over a year, and I've lost about 17kg, slowly but surely. I wouldn't last a single day on 1,200 which so many women on this site default to, and I couldn't last more than a week on 1,400-1,500. I found my personal threshold, and that helped me succeed.

TavistockToad

try it for 4-6 weeks, see what the scales do....

trigden1991

TavistockToad wrote: »

try it for 4-6 weeks, see what the scales do....

This. Try it, weigh yourself daily/weekly and track your weight so you can see any trends. If it is about 2lbs a week, you're fine. If it's more, you could potentially add a few more calories in if you feel like you need it.

courtneyfabulous

I wouldn't go any lower than 1500 at your weight. I'm 5' 4" 158 pounds and I'm at 1550. You need to leave room to drop calories lower if you hit a plateau so starting with really low calories is counterproductive. You could probably have 1700 and still lose weight, depending on activity level/exercise. 1500 calories is not high, you're probably just used to hearing about 1200 calorie diets - but 1200 is the absolute minimum calories for an adult female without becoming dangerous and is realistically too low for most.

girlinahat

mlinci wrote: »

I think an important question is - is 1500 calories a day something you can stick to over a long period of time?
On my personal example - I seem to need to eat about 1,600 calories per day minimum. I've now been eating 1,600-1,800 per day for over a year, and I've lost about 17kg, slowly but surely. I wouldn't last a single day on 1,200 which so many women on this site default to, and I couldn't last more than a week on 1,400-1,500. I found my personal threshold, and that helped me succeed.

^^^ this.

I'm around 5' but I don't have much to lose, and 1500 NET is my goal. I can stick to it easily enough, and have enough energy for my workouts. I eat ALL of my exercise calories (measured by my fitbit) and am losing at a happy rate.

You may actually find you need to set your calories slightly HIGHER. But try 1500 for a month or so, and see what moves.

CattOfTheGarage

It sounds OK - it is on the low side but not terrible. Provided that if you do significant exercise, you log it and eat those extra calories. Eating 1500cal total and doing say 300-400cal of exercise on top would lead to a very low net calorie intake which would not be healthy.

Try it for a few weeks, as others are saying. If it is too low for you, don't be afraid to reduce your weight loss goal to 1lb per week. Better to get there slower than to battle with a diet you hate and possibly end up burning out. It's quite individual.

Also bear in mind that if you start at 2lb per week you will need to reduce that at some point - it's fine at your weight, but as you get lighter it will become too fast and not sustainable.

savithny

Is it too high? It's calculated based on what you asked for - 2 pounds a week. The math says you can probably eat that much and lose 2 pounds a week. They're not going to "lowball" the actual math.

What they DO lowball is people's expectations on how much you can or should try to lose per week. People come on and say "I want to lose 50 pounds by next Tuesday! Why can't I set it for 5 or 10 pounds per week?" THAT is where the "lowballing" happens, because the calculations are based on reasonable expectations of how long it takes to lose weight.

Asher_Ethan

I personally can't do anything lower than 1800 or I end up in a binge and ruin the deficit for the week.