WHY WAS MY CAL GOAL SET TO 1768

SparklyBubblyBabe

WinoGelato wrote: »

SparklyBubblyBabe wrote: »

Man, I'm trying to lose a pound a week and when I started it was 1220 a week, then 1200...now I'm at 1120!

Why are you aiming below the recommended minimum calories for women (1200)? Do you exercise? Do you eat back some of those calories burned through exercise?

As you lose weight, your calorie needs will go down, but as you get closer to goal, you should also aim to slow down your weight loss. How much weight do you still have to lose? Is 1 lb/week the right goal for the amount you have to lose?

Well, I'm 5' 2" and I personally think the recommended 1200 is more for average height women and doesn't work for everyone. I do exercise, but I eat the calories back ( I also don't use MFP's estimate, I use a calculator from shapsense that uses heart rate). I'm 140lbs right now and I want to get down to 110lbs so that's about 30lbs. MFP says to maintain I need 1700, but I've found an online calculator on calculator.net is more accurate. I think I'll be fine. I'm always over on my nutrients and I meet my macros. Once my maintenance gets below 1600 I'll slow down to .75 per week and so on and so forth. And if I find that I feel like I'm dying, I'll readjust.

WinoGelato

SparklyBubblyBabe wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

SparklyBubblyBabe wrote: »

Man, I'm trying to lose a pound a week and when I started it was 1220 a week, then 1200...now I'm at 1120!

Why are you aiming below the recommended minimum calories for women (1200)? Do you exercise? Do you eat back some of those calories burned through exercise?

As you lose weight, your calorie needs will go down, but as you get closer to goal, you should also aim to slow down your weight loss. How much weight do you still have to lose? Is 1 lb/week the right goal for the amount you have to lose?

Well, I'm 5' 2" and I personally think the recommended 1200 is more for average height women and doesn't work for everyone. I do exercise, but I eat the calories back ( I also don't use MFP's estimate, I use a calculator from shapsense that uses heart rate). I'm 140lbs right now and I want to get down to 110lbs so that's about 30lbs. MFP says to maintain I need 1700, but I've found an online calculator on calculator.net is more accurate. I think I'll be fine. I'm always over on my nutrients and I meet my macros. Once my maintenance gets below 1600 I'll slow down to .75 per week and so on and so forth. And if I find that I feel like I'm dying, I'll readjust.

Actually 1200 is the minimum recommended in order to be able to get adequate nutrients on relatively low calories, it isn't just for average height women. Also, for what it's worth, I'm also 5'2. I started at 153 and lost about 35 lbs with my NET MFP goal of 1400-1500, such that I was usually eating b/w 1600-1800 calories while losing. My TDEE according to my FitBit is ~2200, so its definitely possible to be petite and lose weight eating more than the recommended minimum amount.

The suggestion is usually once you have less than 25 lbs to lose to lower your rate of loss to 0.5 lb/week, which you are getting close to now!

SparklyBubblyBabe

WinoGelato wrote: »

Actually 1200 is the minimum recommended in order to be able to get adequate nutrients on relatively low calories, it isn't just for average height women. Also, for what it's worth, I'm also 5'2. I started at 153 and lost about 35 lbs with my NET MFP goal of 1400-1500, such that I was usually eating b/w 1600-1800 calories while losing. My TDEE according to my FitBit is ~2200, so its definitely possible to be petite and lose weight eating more than the recommended minimum amount.

The suggestion is usually once you have less than 25 lbs to lose to lower your rate of loss to 0.5 lb/week, which you are getting close to now!

My Fitbit also puts my TDEE at about 2,000, but I swear I started at 1400 a day (not net I wasn't exercising then) and I was only losing 1-2 lbs a month! Like I said, I just kind of go with what my body is telling me. I did 1100 last summer for a month and I didn't die. And yeah, I plan on dropping to .5 a week when I get to 135lbs. It's gonna take so long to get to 110 from there though

WinoGelato

SparklyBubblyBabe wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Actually 1200 is the minimum recommended in order to be able to get adequate nutrients on relatively low calories, it isn't just for average height women. Also, for what it's worth, I'm also 5'2. I started at 153 and lost about 35 lbs with my NET MFP goal of 1400-1500, such that I was usually eating b/w 1600-1800 calories while losing. My TDEE according to my FitBit is ~2200, so its definitely possible to be petite and lose weight eating more than the recommended minimum amount.

The suggestion is usually once you have less than 25 lbs to lose to lower your rate of loss to 0.5 lb/week, which you are getting close to now!

I Fitbit also puts mt TDEE at about 2,000, but I swear I started at 1400 a day (not net I wasn't exercising then) and I was only losing 1-2 lbs a month! Like I said, I just kind of go with what my body is telling me. I did 1100 last summer for a month and I didn't die. And yeah, I plan on dropping to .5 a week when I get to 135lbs. It's gonna take so long to get to 110 from there though

I find my FitBit to be very accurate but not everyone does. Are you logging accurately using a food scale? If not, that may be the reason you weren't losing more consistently when eating 1400. You may be eating more than you think now as well.

Aiming to "not die" is usually not the best goal when it comes to weight loss, and the negative impacts of cutting calories too low are often slow to show themselves. I prefer to lose at a pace that allows me to fuel my body, enjoy my food, and learn lifelong habits that will help me be successful in maintenance. It took me about a year to lose that 30+ lbs and I've been maintaining it for the last few years.

SparklyBubblyBabe

WinoGelato wrote: »

I find my FitBit to be very accurate but not everyone does. Are you logging accurately using a food scale? If not, that may be the reason you weren't losing more consistently when eating 1400. You may be eating more than you think now as well.

Aiming to "not die" is usually not the best goal when it comes to weight loss, and the negative impacts of cutting calories too low are often slow to show themselves. I prefer to lose at a pace that allows me to fuel my body, enjoy my food, and learn lifelong habits that will help me be successful in maintenance. It took me about a year to lose that 30+ lbs and I've been maintaining it for the last few years.

Oh, I log and weight everything. I even weight food I didn't finish so I can subtract it from how much it weighed before. I weigh lettuce on my sandwich for crying out loud! But yeah, I'm not surprised that my maintenance was only 1700. And I'm not surprised it's 1600 now. It's why I gotta exercise! And yeah I'm being a little facetious when I say "not die", but basically if I felt hungry on that low of calories, I'd eat. There were times I ate over 1200 because I just felt like I needed it.