Confused about how many calories

katherined4088

Hi!
I’m a 5’7” 19 year old female on a 25 pound weight loss journey. I have used multiple calculators (configuring in my activity levels) and am trying to be as accurate as possible about how many calories I should be intaking. I continue to be told that right around 1000 calories will help with my 2 pound per week loss goal, but everywhere I look says 1000 calories isn’t safe or sustainable for anyone. I sometimes eat back the calories I ran off, but don’t know how much energy I’m expending with light weight training, so am unsure if my calories are too low still. Please help!! I haven’t been losing much at all lately (it’s been SLOW for me) and I hate the way I look in the mirror and my clothes just don’t fit.

lynn_glenmont

If you only have 25 lbs to lose (i.e., if after losing 25 lbs you will no longer be overweight), you shouldn't be trying to lose 2 lbs a week.

MikePTY

Set your goal for one pound a week, and that will fix that problem. 1000 is not a safe number for anyone, especially your height and age.

harrycharming885

You need to burn more extra calories that help you to lose more weight. By the way, burning 1000 calories in a week is sufficient. continue your workout, you will achieve your goal soon.

Strudders67

Did you do the set-up in MFP? Assuming so, change it to lose 1lb a week then, as you get closer to goal, reduce it further to 0.5lb a week. What Activity level did you choose and is that accurate?

The way MFP works is that, after entering your stats and required weight loss, it tells you how many calories to eat PLUS you track your exercise and eat those calories as well. The light weight training probably wont burn many calories, but it will help tone you up.

However, for health reasons, MFP won't allocate you less than 1200 calories a day but at your height I'll guess you'd be allocated considerably more anyway. 1000 is definitely not enough.

Don't try to be too aggressive with your weight loss. It's worth going back through the last few pages on this forum and reading the responses to questions about 'how many calories', 'am I eating too little' etc etc. Pay more attention to the people with thousands of posts against their name - they've been on here the longest.

WinoGelato

harrycharming885 wrote: »

You need to burn more extra calories that help you to lose more weight. By the way, burning 1000 calories in a week is sufficient. continue your workout, you will achieve your goal soon.

What? I think OP is saying she believes 1000 calories is a good goal for calorie intake for her target, not how much she’s burning in a week through exercise...

Regardless OP - 1000 calories is below the minimum recommended for women and also far too little for your height, current weight and activity level. Set your goal to 1 lb/week for now but in about 5-10 lbs you should change it to 1/2 lb/week. Log everything you eat as accurately as possible ideally using a food scale. When you exercise, log and eat back at least some of those calories. And be patient. It should realistically take you 6-9 months to lose the weight, while preserving lean body mass.