calories - how much?

nicolerah

Ok.. I'm sure this question has been asked a million times before here, but I really need to get a handle on how much is too much or too little calories to intake. I've read that if I eat below my recommended caloric intake, it could work against me by sending my body into "survival mode"... yet, if I eat more calories than I should, I will gain weight.. My question is... how much should I really eat in order to lose weight?

skinnylizzard

I think the general guideline is no lower than 1200 per day.

GFab

I tried to have 200-400 calories left over at the end of the day, but 1200 sounds about right. If you eat too little you might have issues with constipation also....

nicolerah

so its ok to go under the recommended intake, just not too much under???

CharlieBarleyMom

This whole site is dedicated to eating correctly and eating the proper amount of calories to lose the specified weight that you chose when entering your goals section. MyFitnessPal takes into consideration all of your details so that as long as you didn't lie about anything, you will lose the weight you require in the time frame you require. AND, eat all of your exercise calories that you earn.

I've only been here for a little less than a month, but I feel so much better now that I'm eating correctly.

I used WW 10 years ago... and the same theory applied... eat as much food as expected to lose the amount of weight you want to lose or you don't lose. I was on that program for about 7 months and lost 93 pounds. (10 years later I was just about 10 pounds shy of gaining that all back)

Eat healthy. Don't starve yourself. Don't overdo exercise. Get yourself back in shape before you TAKE OFF!

Good luck.

TropicalKitty

Not to sound callus, but you signed up on here and presumably put in the correct bio info for yourself. MFP calculates the amount you should eat per day, so why is there a question? This site is pretty straightforward.

Now the question of what to eat I can understand.

PS- if you are curious about the random skew from random life occurrances like, too busy to grab lunch or birthday cake, life happens and overall you'll be fine if you just stick to what's said on here the next day.

xraychick77

there is no such thing as starvation mode..techincally when we diet below our BMR we are starving our bodies.

anyways...here it is..you need to calculate your BMR..i use the formula from Wiki. from there i'd go down slowly..dont drastically cut your calories..simply for the reason that our bodies adapt easily to what we do to it. so you'll need some wiggle room when you find yourself stalling in weight loss

nicolerah

Thank you!