Can I lose on 1,800 calories a day?

KM0692

I am a 5'6 female, 156 lbs. Can I lose on 1,800 calories a day (net), or am I kidding myself? I want to lose a total of 10-12 lbs, and I am not in any hurry. 1/2 lb loss a week would be fine with me.

eta: I exercise 3-5 times a week for about an hour each time, but I also eat back my exercise calories (why I say 1,800 calories "net" above).

Unknown

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cmriverside

Maybe, it's not unreasonable.

You don't have much to lose. It depends on your daily activity/age too.

bbell1985

Well, what does MFP tell you? If you're lightly active or active, you probably can. Try it.

ETA On 1800 calories your logging will probably have to be pretty tight.

SusanMFindlay

KM0692 wrote: »

I am a 5'6 female, 156 lbs. Can I lose on 1,800 calories a day (net), or am I kidding myself? I want to lose a total of 10-12 lbs, and I am not in any hurry. 1/2 lb loss a week would be fine with me.

eta: I exercise 3-5 times a week for about an hour each time, but I also eat back my exercise calories (why I say 1,800 calories "net" above).

Depends on your activity level. I'm 5'4 and 150 pounds, and I lose on 2300 cals/day gross (i.e. after I eat back my activity calories). I'm set to "active" and, at that activity level, I'm supposed to eat about 1700 cals/day to lose 1 pound/week. So, if you're active (outside of your workouts) and only aiming to lose about 0.5 or 1 pound/week then yes. But if you're not getting at least 8,000 steps/day over and above the exercise then it's probably asking too much.

Any time you're on a small deficit, you have to be really careful with the logging - both of food and exercise. If you were aiming to lose 0.5 pounds/week, that would be a 250 cal/day deficit. So, being off by 100 cals/day would almost cut it in half.

jemhh

Hmm. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how much you are eating. The net makes it impossible for us to know if you are eating 1850 or 2850.

slaite1

Are you already logging? Do you know your maintenance? If I exercise regularly (lift 3-4x, "cardio" 3x), I lose on 2100-2300, depending on my overall activity level.

But this loss is done slowly. With impeccable logging. I use TDEE, so I can't speak for the variability of exercise calories. I'm 5'7" and only have about 15 pounds to lose, so 1/2 pound a week is cool with me. Since you don't have much to lose, I would just try it out for a month. See if you lose and adjust accordingly. I always find maintenance first when I'm losing, and go from there. It's awesome bc I get to eat more than Mfp typically says to.

slaite1

jemhh wrote: »

Hmm. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how much you are eating. The net makes it impossible for us to know if you are eating 1850 or 2850.

Yea, also this. I completely respect Mfp methods, but I personally like TDEE for this reason. I find it much easier to manipulate.

aamerine08

I'm 24, 5'6, 260 lbs and I eat about 1820 calories a day. I do strength training 2-3 times a week (I don't eat my calories back on those days). I started on April 1st and have lost 12 lbs, averaging about 2 pounds per week.

Francl27

Probably not. 1800 without eating calories back, yeah. I'm 5'5" and I was working out more than you and lost eating 1700 but I didn't eat my exercise calories back. Obviously though it depends a lot on how active you are when you're not exercising too.

Enter your info here

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Machka9

KM0692 wrote: »

I am a 5'6 female, 156 lbs. Can I lose on 1,800 calories a day (net), or am I kidding myself? I want to lose a total of 10-12 lbs, and I am not in any hurry. 1/2 lb loss a week would be fine with me.

eta: I exercise 3-5 times a week for about an hour each time, but I also eat back my exercise calories (why I say 1,800 calories "net" above).

I am a 5'6" female, a bit lighter than you are ... and I know I cannot lose on 1800 calories a day unless I put in a decent effort with the exercise.

My maintenance level, without exercise, is 1500 calories.

Therefore, if I want to lose on 1800 calories, I need to exercise at least 400 calories worth per day (an hour's bicycle ride, 2 hours of walking) ... and that would be a very slow loss.

jemhh

Machka9 wrote: »

KM0692 wrote: »

I am a 5'6 female, 156 lbs. Can I lose on 1,800 calories a day (net), or am I kidding myself? I want to lose a total of 10-12 lbs, and I am not in any hurry. 1/2 lb loss a week would be fine with me.

eta: I exercise 3-5 times a week for about an hour each time, but I also eat back my exercise calories (why I say 1,800 calories "net" above).

I am a 5'6" female, a bit lighter than you are ... and I know I cannot lose on 1800 calories a day unless I put in a decent effort with the exercise.

My maintenance level, without exercise, is 1500 calories.

Therefore, if I want to lose on 1800 calories, I need to exercise at least 400 calories worth per day (an hour's bicycle ride, 2 hours of walking) ... and that would be a very slow loss.

As a comparison, I'm the same height and maintain at 2300ish at that weight. It can vary so much by individual that it's really hard to answer this question. (I quoted you in particular because I know that you are active.)

slaite1

jemhh wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

KM0692 wrote: »

I am a 5'6 female, 156 lbs. Can I lose on 1,800 calories a day (net), or am I kidding myself? I want to lose a total of 10-12 lbs, and I am not in any hurry. 1/2 lb loss a week would be fine with me.

eta: I exercise 3-5 times a week for about an hour each time, but I also eat back my exercise calories (why I say 1,800 calories "net" above).

I am a 5'6" female, a bit lighter than you are ... and I know I cannot lose on 1800 calories a day unless I put in a decent effort with the exercise.

My maintenance level, without exercise, is 1500 calories.

Therefore, if I want to lose on 1800 calories, I need to exercise at least 400 calories worth per day (an hour's bicycle ride, 2 hours of walking) ... and that would be a very slow loss.

As a comparison, I'm the same height and maintain at 2300ish at that weight. It can vary so much by individual that it's really hard to answer this question. (I quoted you in particular because I know that you are active.)

Agreed. I'm an inch taller and have never eaten less than 1750 calories to lose.

SqueakyBeans88

Why not try it for 4 weeks or so and just see what happens? You'll soon know whether or not you're either slowly gaining, maintaining or slowly losing? Trial and error if you keep a close eye on any changes.

I'm 5ft 3.5" and 153lbs and I know now from months of trial and error that (with no exercise involved as I have an office job) I maintain my weight on 2000 cals, slowly gain on 2100-2200 and moderately lose on 1700-1800 no problem. Any exercise I then do is a bonus, for me personally though I like to strength train and I'm more about "fat loss" than weight loss, my aim is to improve my body composition and shed a bit of body fat.

The main thing is we're all very different so you have to try different things and make tweaks to find what works for you.

KM0692

Thanks everyone. I will give it a go for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Even if I just maintain, I'm alright with that. As I said, I'm not in a big rush to lose.

KylaBlaze

I was alternating HIIT, weight training, and cardio (sometimes a combination of two) most days of the week and eating 1800 calories (did not eat back calories) and continued to lose at that amount for weeks! I'm 5'5", 140lbs.