How many calories to eat? Need Help!!!

rdc1913

I've been on MFP for 42 days and have lost 10 lbs.
I'm 5'5" started at 256 lbs. My goal was set to lose 2lbs a week, so MFP indicated that I should eat 1560 calories/day. I've been doing great with 1560 calories; I'm not hungry or feel like I'm starving. However, after reading so many great discussions on here about not eating enough, taking it slow, and hitting a plateau...Now I'm starting to feel like I should be eating a little bit more because I know that as the weight continue to decrease so will daily calories. I don't want them to get too low once I start to reach goal weight of about 160 lbs. Should I keep everything the same? Should I increase my calories? (I was considering 1760 after playing around with a few weight loss calculators.). If I increase calories, will I affect my progress and gain a little back before I start losing again? Need help and advice. Thanks!

JaydedMiss

iv been at 1200 a day since i was 232 pounds. If your doing good and your losing your weight and are happy with your foods theres zero reason to change anything. If you want to eat more, Do it. Only you know what you want/need

reyoflightphoto

I am down to 145 and still eating 1500 calories. I lose .5 lbs a week. It does get slower as you get smaller. But to know if you are eating a good amount of calories, weigh yourself first thing in the morning before food, wearing the same thing and watch your weight trends. If you are loosing about 2 lbs per week that is a healthy rate. More is too much. You can go slower if you want, of course, but if you are losing more than 2lbs a week starting adding calories. There is no set number. Everyone burns a different amount. What is set is that a 3500 calorie deficit per week will have you losing .5 lbs per week. 7000 will have you losing 1lb a day. and so forth. You can find out what you are losing and you can decide from there. BTW, the first couple of weeks you probably lost water weight which doesn't count towards the healthy 2lbs a week I was talking about. No worries there. It's perfectly normal and healthy to lose 5 to 7 lbs or so at that time. :-)

kelhea

Everyone will hit a plateau at some point, and when they hit that plateau that is when they should start to increase their calorie intake. Keep doing what you're doing and when you notice that your weight doesn't start to budge and you've lost a significant amount of weight you can up the calories. I started at 1200 calories and lost 35 pounds, then hit a plateau, upped my calories up to 1500 and lost some more weight!

StaciMarie1974

You won't have to decrease your daily calories. But as you lose weight and your body burns less calories, your deficit will decrease. Meaning for now you can aim to lose 2 pounds per week. But in a few months that may be only 1.5, and eventually 1 and so forth.

Right now I'm a few pounds above maintenance and with daily activity and running or walking daily I burn about 1900/day. A 2 pound deficit is not possible for me. A 1.5 pound deficit is not possible for me. A 1 pound deficit is barely possible for me.

If you are feeling satisfied, energetic, etc. - keep going as you are. Try to focus on you and block out the noise from others.

rdc1913

Thanks a bunch!! Very helpful advice!!

TimothyFish

As you lose weight you need less, so there is no reason to think that decreasing your calories moderately as you go along will make you any more hungry.