Question: Daily calorie intake for my weight loss

emiara96

Hey all, so I have a question.
I'm currently weighing 171.5 lbs and I'm 5'2. I want to lose 20-30 lbs...
My daily calorie intake on here is 1,380 and I wanted to know is that too much or too little for me? I'm always under my calorie goal though, and I'm not very active. But I wanted to know should I go down to 1200 calories a day or is that fine? Cause I would like to lose a lot of weight and very soon in the most healthiest way possible.

Also when I workout and I burn calories I get a little too excited to see that I have more calories to eat since I exercised but should I be aware of that too? I don't want to end up eating too much lol

DebLaBounty

A good sustainable rate of loss is usually about one pound a week. Even a loss of half of a pound is progress. So follow the MFP for a week or two and see how it goes. I usually try to eat back only about half of my exercise calories.

rybo

Try eating that number, and tracking as accurately and consistently as you can.
Monitor your weight trend & energy levels when working out for about 3-4 weeks. Adjust up or down as needed.

ashliedelgado

Your calorie count is assuming you're not exercising. So if you do, yes you should eat. A lot of us like to eat back a portion of them to leave buffer for inaccuracies in either our calories in logging or calories out estimates. 50% is pretty common. Do you feel good at 1380? How far is always under?

I recommend sticking with the number MFP gave you, eat back 50% of exercise calories, and evaluate in 4-6 weeks. If you're not the type to obsess over numbers, daily weigh ins logged into a trend weight app like Libra or Happy Scale are good for assessing progress.

Lastly, lose the very soon aspect of your expectations and focus on the slow and steady for the healthiest way possible so the weight doesn't come back when you're done. It didn't come on over night, and that's not the way it will come off.

chelllsea124

emiara96 wrote: »

Hey all, so I have a question.
I'm currently weighing 171.5 lbs and I'm 5'2. I want to lose 20-30 lbs...
My daily calorie intake on here is 1,380 and I wanted to know is that too much or too little for me? I'm always under my calorie goal though, and I'm not very active. But I wanted to know should I go down to 1200 calories a day or is that fine? Cause I would like to lose a lot of weight and very soon in the most healthiest way possible.

Also when I workout and I burn calories I get a little too excited to see that I have more calories to eat since I exercised but should I be aware of that too? I don't want to end up eating too much lol

I am 5'2", 171, and sedentary and mine is set at 1200. It's all about your activity.

chelllsea124

And in regards to losing " a lot of weight as quickly as possible", please be patient. Losing weight takes time.

estherdragonbat

With 20 to 30 lbs to lose, you probably shouldn't aim for much more than 1lb a week, tbh. (The general guideline is with 25-50 lbs to lose, 1lb/wk is the max. Under 25, more like 1/2 lb. So you're right on the border). I'm losing on 1380 + eating back around 50% of my exercise calories. So, in practice, I eat about 1600-1800 most days and lose 1.2 to 1.8/wk. But I'm also 5'3" and currently just under 59 lbs from goal.

When you plugged your stats into MFP, what rate of loss/week did you tell it? If it was over 1lb/wk, I'd reassess and go less aggressive. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And obviously, I don't know you specifically, but in general, it's hard to maintain aggressive weightloss longterm. Eventually, most people start to get hungrier and go off the rails.

If you exercise, you're increasing your calorie deficit, but this is a reason to eat more in order to fuel your workouts. MFP does overestimate calories burned, as do fitness machines. Even heartrate monitors aren't perfect. I don't use one, but I think I've read on these forums that the trouble is, it can't tell whether your heart-rate has increased because you're exercising or because you're watching a horror movie marathon or because you're under a lot of stress. Most people eat back 50 to 75% of exercise calories. (As I mentioned, I do 50%).

AliceDark

What rate of loss does 1380 calories get you? 20-30 pounds really isn't that much, so you should target 0.5-1 pounds per week. That rate will slow down as you get closer to your goal, too.

Keep in mind that the goal shouldn't be to eat as few calories as you possibly can, it's to eat as many calories as you can while still losing weight. Also keep in mind that you may need to drop your calories later on to keep losing, because smaller bodies need fewer calories to run.

MFP is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back, so you should feel free to eat them! Some people choose to eat back only 50-75% to account for any overestimation (because ultimately the calorie burns that MFP gives you are only estimates), so you could always start there.

TeaBea

emiara96 wrote: »

Hey all, so I have a question.
I'm currently weighing 171.5 lbs and I'm 5'2. I want to lose 20-30 lbs...
My daily calorie intake on here is 1,380 and I wanted to know is that too much or too little for me? I'm always under my calorie goal though, and I'm not very active. But I wanted to know should I go down to 1200 calories a day or is that fine? Cause I would like to lose a lot of weight and very soon in the most healthiest way possible.

Also when I workout and I burn calories I get a little too excited to see that I have more calories to eat since I exercised but should I be aware of that too? I don't want to end up eating too much lol

1200 is generally for very petite and/or elderly women......you're not VERY petite....and you're not elderly so 1,380 before exercise seems reasonable.

1200 before exercise is as low as you should go (nutritional minimums). I would take advantage of the 1,380 while I had the chance. As you get closer to goal weight loss will slow. You may find 1200 necessary at some point.
But because 1380 gives you some wiggle room (for me) I would be less likely to relapse.

emiara96

Thanks everyone for the awesome responses! They really helped!