Just Started My Journey — Light, Clean Eating & Feminine Diet Inspiration.

Pavel_1984

Hi everyone!

I’m a 41-year-old male, 172 cm, and just started my fitness and nutrition journey with MyFitnessPal about a month ago. I had almost no dieting experience before, but now I’m discovering how fulfilling and transformative it can be.

I started at 78 kg and recently reached 72.4 kg. My goal is around 66 kg — right in the middle of my BMI range — something that feels light, graceful, and more in tune with how I want to feel in my body.

Due to a busy schedule, I can’t work out much, so I’m focusing on staying within ~1200 kcal daily, occasionally even lower on special days (around 900). I’ve gradually embraced what many might consider “feminine” eating habits — almond milk with low-sugar granola, boiled chicken, fresh fruits and berries, and lots of herbal teas.

I’ve also started enjoying aromatherapy and gentle self-care — things that help me feel calm, clear, centered, and present. A little skincare, a bit of face massage — it all feels like part of a bigger shift. In other words, I’m slowly waging a quiet little war on my old habits, moving toward a healthier, fuller, and more beautiful life. 🌸

I’d love to find like-minded folks here — anyone who enjoys clean, gentle, lower-calorie eating, and finds joy in the lighter side of life. Let’s share tips, encouragement, or just celebrate those little victories together!

Thanks so much for the warm community 💖

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome!

Congratulations on your weight loss so far, and kudos for your focus on self-care. That's excellent.

I have to admit, I feel somewhat concerned about your plan going forward, entirely from that same self-care standpoint. Adequate calories are the foundation of health and nutrition, and 1200 is quite low for anyone, and 900 very, very low. At your size/age, even if sedentary, we'd expect a man to burn 1900 or more calories daily. That would potentially mean you'd expect to lose somewhere between 0.6kg and 1kg per week . . . very fast for someone of your size.

For best health and thriving, a common recommendation here is to lose no more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that range unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for nutritional deficiencies or health complications. For you, that would be more like 0.36 to 0.72kg per week right now, preferably close to 0.36kg since you're within the normal/healthy weight range already.

When I was in similar circumstances, I intentionally slowed loss down to about 0.25kg per week, and I'm glad I did. Though I'm smaller (165 cm/now 60kg) and much older (69) than you, plus female, 900-1200 calories would be too low even for me. When I was heavier as I first started weight loss over 10 years ago - and around your current weight when I tried it - 1200 plus all exercise calories proved too low for me, though that would not be true even for everyone in my demographic. But having that experience - getting weak and fatigued suddenly, taking weeks to recover - makes me very sensitive and concerned when others seem to be pursuing very fast loss.

I know this is interfering on my part, maybe inappropriate . . . but maybe you can think of me as a concerned old internet granny who cares about your well-being and health, plus wants you to thrive rather than just "get by". Fast weight loss increases health risks. It can tank energy level, reduce future calorie needs if continued too long. Please pursue and achieve a moderate weight loss rate?

Wishing you good health and long-term weight management success!

Pavel_1984

oh thank you soo much for such a detailed comment and recommendations! 💖🙏 please don’t feel like you are interfering! Quite the opposite, I am very happy to hear your opinion, eventually this is why I am here for, right? 🙂

These are very useful insights, much appreciated! To be honest, I wanted to reach the goal of 66kg and then ti increase the calorie intake, probably to 1500-1600. I excluded the alcohol, red meat and white bread completely, and it was already a big step to cut the calories. For example today morning I had 3 boiled eggs, a slice of wholewheat bread, souteed mushrooms, a bit of salad with red beans, chick peas, carrots, cabbages and quinoa, and reached some 500kcal only, already feeling full, and having some 700kcal remaining for the day.

I also take vitamins including Vitamin D, Vitamin B, Omega and vitamins for hair and nails. Will they be considered a good add-on to sustain?

Would love to hear from you again, and thank you for sharing your experience and advice! 💖🌸

AnnPT77

Once you have at least 4-6 weeks of reasonably careful food and scale-weight logging, use your own history to estimate your calorie needs. (If you were female of relevant age, I'd be saying to use at least one whole menstrual cycle.)

Take the average loss per week over that whole time period. Convert that into very approximate calories by assuming that for each kg you've lost per week on average, there was an 1100 calorie average daily deficit. Use arithmetic for any fractional kilos, for example half a kilo loss per week would be 550 calories daily. (For people who use pounds rather than kilos, it's 500 calories per day being approximately a pound a week.)

Determine your average daily calorie intake over the whole time period. If it varied lots from day to day, add each day and divide by the number of days. Alternatively, use the average weekly gross calories in the MFP phone/tablet app, multiply that by 7 for each week to get the total calories for each week, add up the weeks. Then divide by the number of days in the whole time period.

Next, add the estimated calories per day of eating (previous paragraph) to the estimated calories of fat lost (paragraph before last). That's your estimated current weight-maintenance calories.

To lose a quarter kilo per week, subtract 275 calories per day from the estimated current weight-maintenance calories. Follow that for another 4-6 weeks to confirm.

Personally, I chose not to cut out any food while losing that I wasn't willing to cut out permanently in order to stay at a healthy weight, or do any added exercise that I wasn't willing to continue long term, either. Most people find keeping weight in the healthy range more challenging than losing weight in the first place, so I put a priority on learning and practicing habits I could use permanently to achieve that. When I reached goal weight, all I needed to do was add back a few calories to my routine, and continue on with life as I'd been doing. I'm not saying you need to do that, but that's worked out well for me (for 9+ years in maintenance so far).

As far as supplements, I have no advice. What I'd suggest is making sure you log accurate entries from the MFP database, then notice any nutrients for which you're persistently low, and either revise habits to improve that, or supplement. Talking to your doctor and asking for nutrition-related blood tests is another option. For nutrients MFP doesn't track - or doesn't track well - what I did was take a couple of typical days, and use a more complete nutrition source to get a general idea of how I was doing. (Example source: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ .)

For myself, I supplement things my medical team has suggested I supplement, or things where I have reason to believe I may be short. That will vary individually. Also, I'd point out that some nutrients are risky to significantly over-consume, so blindly mega-supplementing those may not be a great idea.

One note: All of the above process is A Lot. Don't stress about it. Improving nutrition and eating habits can be a gradual process. As long as we're not already diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency or diet-relevant health condition, and we're not losing weight aggressively fast (thus shorting nearly all nutrition), we can take our time at gradually improving.

Making improvements via changing the habits we use on repeat: That's IMO a good plan, as opposed trying to micro-manage each day individual. Pretty good nutrition on average over a small number of days is fine. It doesn't need to be exactly perfect every single day. Perfection-seeking can be a slippery slope toward a dysfunctional relationship with food, and it's just not necessary.

Best wishes!

Pavel_1984

oh I see your point now, thank you so much! If I have lost some 6kg in approx. 3 weeks consuming 1200 kcal daily, which is a deficiency of approx 800 kcal daily or 5,600 kcal weekly, this means that 5,600 kcal deficiency leads to 2 kg fat loss in a week, which is too fast. So if I make that deficiency half - 2,800 kcal weekly, I will lose 1 kg.

Interestingly, to be honest, today I had calories in the range of 1,000, no meat at all, fish instead, and feel myself quite healthy and full. 🙄 have I normalized this light eating for myself already? At the beginning of the weight loss journey I thought I would faint with such a low level of calorie intake, but now it feels very sufficient! 🙄🤔 I might wish to take a handful of nuts, or some fruits, but not more than that. 🥜🌰🍒🍓🍎🍉🍑🍊

AnnPT77

For many people, whole foods are more filling and beneficial in other ways, sure.

When I was first losing weight - eating too little - I felt great, not hungry . . . until suddenly I didn't. That was when weakness and fatigue kicked in, with maybe some other negative effects like a bit of hair thinning a little further along, since that's usually a delayed effect. Some people even lose more than minimal lean tissue, such as muscle, from losing unnecessarily fast, and that's never good.

I'm not saying what will happen with you, because I don't have a crystal ball. But my experience makes me think that how one feels in the moment may not be a clear sign of whether good feelings will continue or not. It's your call what you want to do going forward. My advice is just my opinions, based on my experience and reading, but I'm not any kind of credentialed expert.

Best wishes!

Pavel_1984

much appreciated, thank you for all time you spent on me and on your valuable advice!! I will definitely take that into account!!! 💖🌸🙏