calorie goals

jessalice66

is it alright for me to be attempting to have way less calories than my goal is? (the goal that MFP gives you). because i'm an extremely small lady and 1200 calories just seems a bit much. thanks!

fitnezrox

You can always customize your calories and nutrient goals. For instance my body works better with fewer carbs, fats, sugars and sodium, therefore I have adjusted the percentages on these to fit my personal goals. Just be careful to not eat too few calories or it slows down your metabolism qutie drastically and you are no longer burning fat, but muscle, and the weight reduction becomes stagnent. Since the body "feels" that you are going into starvation, it slows the metabolism down to conserve energy and utilizes the lesser calories like in proteins and carbs rather than the higher calories in the fat.......It stores the fat (for future use) while conserving that energy. The "average" woman's body (a 150 pound woman at about 5'4") uses approximately 1700 calories just living each day. This does not include exercising. It takes 3500 calories burned to eliminate 1 pound of fat. That can be a caloric deficit and or an exercise deficit, in any combination.

Good luck
Kim