Is 1600 calories too much when trying to lose weight for a woman?

pomegranatecloud

I lose eating over 1600 calories per day. I’m 115 lbs and pretty active.

sympha01

I lost weight on 1800 calories a day. That was me, everyone is different.

Your weight loss will depend on 1) how accurately you're logging those 1600 calories -- tons of people on here don't measure their portions, and if you're one of them you could be hitting much more than your target, 2) and what your total calorie burn is (essentially "at rest" calories and exercise calories).

Francl27

Athena98501 wrote: »

gamespriteicon wrote: »

If your hitting 10,000 steps a day. Try going to MyFitnessPal, "Goals" (on the Home Tab), and set the activity level to "Lightly Active". That number is where you should probably work on hitting. Mine says 1,400 but I'm working on any number from 1,200 - 1,600, just depends on the day's meal choices. Defiantly in-taking less then I was before. And working within a range is more motivating and less stressful in my opinion.

I also work to get 11,000 steps 6 days a week. That is defiantly more than the 2,000-5,000 I used to get when I just wore my tracker instead of paying attention to it.

Good luck on the rest of your journey!

This is incorrect. 10,000+ steps is considered active, as in, between (which is above lightly active) somewhat active and highly active. I've also read it's approximately equivalent to walking 5 miles.

With the intake and progress I listed above for myself, and considering myself lightly active, the OP could eat more than I do, and could lose a similar amount.

I walked 13k steps today and got 550 calories extra from MFP. I believe 500 calories would be what MP would add for active, so 10k is still lightly active IMO.

hesterific

It's not about your calories, they're not all created equal. It's what you're eating. Anything that spikes your insulin will tell your body to 1) store fat and 2) not release your stored fat for energy. If you are insulin sensitive it won't matter as much, if you are more insulin resistant it matters MORE THAN ANYTHING. Figure out what's in your diet that spikes your insulin, remove it, replace it with something that doesn't have an insulin response.

spiriteagle99

Could you be double counting your exercise? i.e. including time on the TM or intentional walks in your fitness journal, plus the total steps you do in the day. If you list yourself as active and then add in walks to work etc. and then sync your Garmin with its step counts, you could be double or even triple counting.

I am basically sedentary, but I exercise intentionally for a couple of hours a day - walking and running mostly, plus some biking. My Garmin will give me 15,000 - 20,000 steps. I don't sync that with MFP, because it includes my intentional exercise, which I log separately, as well as steps around the house or the grocery, which is part of my essentially sedentary lifestyle. I like eating back my exercise calories but don't want to assume I'm more active than I actually am.

mmapags

hesterific wrote: »

It's not about your calories, they're not all created equal. It's what you're eating. Anything that spikes your insulin will tell your body to 1) store fat and 2) not release your stored fat for energy. If you are insulin sensitive it won't matter as much, if you are more insulin resistant it matters MORE THAN ANYTHING. Figure out what's in your diet that spikes your insulin, remove it, replace it with something that doesn't have an insulin response.

Everything you ever eat spikes your insulin to some degree or another. Please explain and support with scientific evidence how insulin would cause someone in calorie deficit to store fat.

Also to say calories are not all created equal means what to you? Are all pounds not created equal? How about all miles? A calorie is a measurement of a unit of energy. Each calorie measures the same.