Not sure what my goals should be?

moriaht
moriaht Posts: 251 Member
edited September 29 in Health and Weight Loss
I was just reading about how your goals should be very different depending on how much weight you need to lose. Although I already knew this it got me thinking maybe mine are really off! I'm only on 1200 calories a day and it has been really easy so far.
I'm 5'8 and 166 lbs right now and my goal is set to 1.5 lbs a week. Is that way too much? Or am I able to even set it to 2 lbs?

Replies

  • upinthecosmos
    upinthecosmos Posts: 149 Member
    They say it's safest to lose 1-2 pounds a week so you can move it up to 2. You will usually lose more in the beginning but it's said that if you are losing an average of 1-2 a week then it's more likely to be kept off. I usually shoot high for the first goal... I think I went with 3-4 and then after that I drop it down to 1-2. 1200-1500 is usually the calorie range you want to be in, unless you exercise a lot... then you need to eat a little more to compensate for that. Sounds weird but it keeps that metabolism burning.
  • glowingz
    glowingz Posts: 63 Member
    I'm confused about this too. It seems that no matter how I set my goals it makes no difference, MFP wants me to eat 1200 calories/day, whether I want to lose 1 or 2 pounds/week. Does that mean it's just unreasonable at my weight to lose 2 pounds/week? I'm 5'2" and 160 pounds.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    With about 30 lbs to go you should not expect to lose more than 1 lb/week, I would change your goal to that. Once you get to your last 10-15 that goal should be adjusted to 0.5 lbs/week

    the 1.5 lbs is a good number if you have over 50 lb to go, and 2 lbs if you have 75+ to lose.
  • Zeromilediet
    Zeromilediet Posts: 787 Member
    Sure you can change it to whatever you want; MFP sets a healthy and achievable goal but you can set it to 2 lbs if you like. On the other hand, be sure to read the posts of people hitting a plateau and lamenting nothing is moving--you could end up frustrating yourself with an unrealistic goal.
  • aneumany
    aneumany Posts: 165 Member
    are u losing weight?... if u drop it down to 2lbs lost a week, its not going to change ur daily alloted calories, bc u cant go below 1200.. so if ur doing good at the 1200 mark, or where ever ur at now, id say stay there till u plateu or lose more weight.., if its not broken dont fix it lol
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I'm confused about this too. It seems that no matter how I set my goals it makes no difference, MFP wants me to eat 1200 calories/day, whether I want to lose 1 or 2 pounds/week. Does that mean it's just unreasonable at my weight to lose 2 pounds/week? I'm 5'2" and 160 pounds.

    Yes, MFP wont allow you to go lower than 1200 so 2 lbs/week is not a healthy goal for you based on your stats.
  • AI1108
    AI1108 Posts: 488 Member
    I'm confused about this too. It seems that no matter how I set my goals it makes no difference, MFP wants me to eat 1200 calories/day, whether I want to lose 1 or 2 pounds/week. Does that mean it's just unreasonable at my weight to lose 2 pounds/week? I'm 5'2" and 160 pounds.

    Yes, MFP wont allow you to go lower than 1200 so 2 lbs/week is not a healthy goal for you based on your stats.

    Yeah you shouldnt be going below 1200 calories no matter how much you want to lose because your body will just go into starvation mode and it'll throw off your metabolism. You may even start gaining because your body will not know what to do but hold on to every calorie you put into your body.
  • glowingz
    glowingz Posts: 63 Member
    Yes, MFP wont allow you to go lower than 1200 so 2 lbs/week is not a healthy goal for you based on your stats.

    Thanks. I imagined that was the case. I'm okay with 1 pound/week. :-)
    That puts me in the healthy range by January.
  • Benji49
    Benji49 Posts: 419 Member
    I was just reading about how your goals should be very different depending on how much weight you need to lose. Although I already knew this it got me thinking maybe mine are really off! I'm only on 1200 calories a day and it has been really easy so far.
    I'm 5'8 and 166 lbs right now and my goal is set to 1.5 lbs a week. Is that way too much? Or am I able to even set it to 2 lbs?

    Been wondering about how this all works myself. So I finally went back and did step one! I'm one of those leap in and learn by doing types - in this case a little reading ahead might be the answer. I read the explanations for how this is all supposed to work that are posted in the search engine. The one that I think is going to help me this week to figure things out is one called "THE answers to THE questions" posted by vivakay on 02/21/08.

    Go to the community message boards, under general diet and weight loss. Type "THE answers to THE questions" in Search and it should come up.
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