Am I eating enough to lose/ maintain?

ginnycreel6

Hello, I am hoping some of you can help me out regarding calorie deficits as well as how many calories on average I should be eating. I am a 23 year old female who is 5'8 and weighs 126 lbs. I weighed almost 190 about 2 years ago. I lost the weight mainly due to a change in diet and becoming more conscious of calories, carbs, etc. I also stuck to a diet of about 1500 calories or sometimes less a day. I am much more active now and am a CNA as well so I have a fairly active job too. I get lots of cardio in and my fitbit says I walk over 12000 steps a day. I have upped my calories to about 1800ish and eat back some of my exercise calories when I'm really hungry. I feel like I was almost unintentionally starving myself and eating too few calories and recently since I've upped them I have more of an appetite. I am working on toning up now and would only like to lose 2 more pounds. What do think I could get away with eating calorie wise to lose the last 2 lbs then maintain? I feel like 2000 is too high?

Any help is much appreciated,
Ginny

terbusha

Eat as many calories as you can while losing 0.5 lb/week for the last 2 lbs. After that, slowly add back in calories until your weight starts to remain constant. You may very well be eating 2000 cal/day to maintain. It may be more also. It depends on your metabolism.

Allan

LaneB89

TDEE calculator has you at about 1900 calories for maintenance - this factors in a rough estimate of your daily activity. To lose 2 more pounds, you should eat at around 1600-1650 a day for one month and not eat back your exercise calories as they're already being accounted for in the TDEE calculation. 1600-1650 is just an estimate though - your real TDEE may be lower since you've already lost so much weight, so you may have to adjust if you aren't losing 0.5 lbs per week. But to answer your question, yes 1800-2000 is most likely too high for you to lose weight.

ginnycreel6

Thanks so much! I am going to see how it goes with a little trial and error. I am also hoping I will be able to speed up my metabolism. Thanks again.