An introduction plus question about daily calorie intake!

emmajohns88

Hi everyone,

My name's Emma and after a topsy turvy emotional year last year (and this year) have decided to really do something about my fatness. I honestly did not realise how much weight I'd actually put on. I'm 25 yrs old and (when I started) was 96.6kg at a height of 5'7. I couldn't believe it when I stepped on the scales. It was the first time I'd weighed myself in about 2 years and was a huge wake up call to say the least! Anyway, when I first started MyFitnessPal, it asked me to log in my weight and I put in 85kg as that's what I thought I weighed at the time. WRONG. Anyway, it's given me a calorie allowance of 1260 per day and I'm just wondering if I'm eating too much or too little? I have since adjusted my weight on my profile but the calorie allowance has stayed the same. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to a positive lifestyle change

melaniecheeks

How much did you tell it you wanted to lose?

There's a lower limit of 1200 calories per day, and 1260 is quite close to that. Are you exercising? MFP will increase your allowance when you record exercise, the 1260 is for you to lose weight while doing nothing.

emmajohns88

Thanks for replying. When I first logged into MyFitnessPal I said that I wanted to lose 0.8kg per week and my goal weight is 68kg. I haven't been exercising this week- been struck down with the flu so that explains low cals! Cheers

mumblemagic

Hi!

I'm 5'8, so only a little bit taller than you. My MFP thingy recommends just less than 1500 for steady 1lb (0.5kg) per week loss. Initially I decided to go for 1600 and see how it went, to see if I could manage that limit, then eased it down to 1500 once I realised it was doable. I try to average out over the week, and have been managing roughly 0.5 kg per week since I dropped down to 1500 cal (although admittedly I've not been on that for long).

1200 or so calories will lead to a more rapid weight loss. Some scientific studies have suggested that rapid weight loss at the beginning of a diet will lead to better long term weight loss and long term maintenance. However, there is also a wealth of anecdotal evidence that shows that the 1200 limit is hard to stick to for long periods of time and people can get rebound and pile back on the pounds. I believe there are one or two studies that support this idea.

The 1200 hard minimum is a contentious issue, as the scientific evidence for and against it is patchy. There are lots of varied opinions about this limit on this site (some of which are quite strongly held and therefore hotly debated) .

It's interesting to note that the NHS recommends the 1500 calorie limit, not 1200. If you are interested there are lots of weight loss resources on their website as well as a C25K running plan.

Personally, if you're happy on 1200 ish calories per day, I'd say go for it, otherwise increase it slightly. Even with a sedentary lifestyle, at our height we are probably using around 2000 calories per day without excercise on top, so you can still lose at 1500.

The MFP diet recommends that you eat back your excercise calories, i.e. if you do no exercise you shouldn't eat more than 1500 but if you go for a run and burn 400 calories you can eat up to 1900 calories that day (or average it over the week). I don't always eat all my excercise calories back if I don't feel hungry a) because there's no need to eat unless I am hungry and b) because I like a bit of flexibility so if I go over on one day e.g. for a meal out I have lea-way.

Hope that's helpful.

mumblemagic

P.S. just read on the feed below that there there is also at least one study that show that diets with rapid initial weightloss do not increase the *long term* amount of weightloss, although initial weightloss is obviously greater (otherwise it wouldn't be a rapid weightloss plan!!)

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1116315-science-only-please-the-case-against-1200-kcals

emmajohns88

Hey thanks for that info! I've been doing ok on 1260- most days I'm managing to eat just under. Although today I went a bit over because of Nando's (damn you Nando's!). At least I know even if I do go a bit over I should (in theory) be able to lose

Thanks

mumblemagic

No worries glad I could help.

I actually really like Nando's as a place to eat out because you can have salad and sweet potato instead of chips, and if you do it that way it's not too high calorie!

emmajohns88

Yeah Nando's is great! Plenty of lower calorie options- but it's hard when you're with a group of friends who order monster plates of chips!! Waaaah. Lucky I saved up calories during the week!