Question about calorie intake

Kiki_StartingOver

Thanks you for answering!

AliceDark

I'm a little confused. It sounds like you gained some weight back, is that right? You didn't do that eating 1400 calories every day, or even averaging 1400 calories. To lose weight, you need a consistent deficit over time. If, for example, you ate 1400 calories for 4 days and 3000 for the other three, including treats and junk food, that's the same as averaging 2085 every day for that week. (I'm just pulling numbers out of the air -- I'm not saying that's exactly what you were doing). In that case, you'd still lose weight eating 1800 every day that week over eating too low sometimes and too high other times.

Follow MFP's recommendation for a month, consistently, then see what happens. You don't need to cut out all treats, but you do need to be consistent. Otherwise, you don't have a good data set and you can't make data-based adjustments later. Just fit your treats into your 1800 calorie days.