Should I up my calories?

PussyKat

So I've been sticking to a net calorie intake of 1200 a day, as reccomended by MFP for me to lose 1.8lb per week...however, after dropping a few pounds, my weight loss seems to have ground to a halt. Is this just a plateau that I need to break, or is this because 1200 is too low? I've heard a lot of people on here say that 1200 is an 'extreme number' and most people seem to have more than this.

I'm an 18 year old female, 5"4, 171lb, trying to lose about 35 - 40lb. Thanks. :flowerforyou:

PussyKat

So I've been sticking to a net calorie intake of 1200 a day, as reccomended by MFP for me to lose 1.8lb per week...however, after dropping a few pounds, my weight loss seems to have ground to a halt. Is this just a plateau that I need to break, or is this because 1200 is too low? I've heard a lot of people on here say that 1200 is an 'extreme number' and most people seem to have more than this.

I'm an 18 year old female, 5"4, 171lb, trying to lose about 35 - 40lb. Thanks. :flowerforyou:

Anna_Banana

You could try that. Maybe for a little while switch your goal to 1 pound a week. Sometimes your body just needs something different. You could also try uping your exercising.

tasha428

1200 hundred calories seems awfully low. It is more healthy to lose one pound a week. I know you probably want to see results fast, but being realistic will get you much further and give you the ability to keep the weight off. Good luck just the same......

LandBsdotingchauffeur

Go to the tools section and calculate your BMR. Your BMR is the lowest amount of calories for your height and weight that you should be taking in. Mine is 1445. I had the same problem and was plateaued for 8 weeks losing and gaining the same 3 pounds and MFP had me at 1230 calories/day. I increased it to 1500 and now I'm losing again. I would up your calories 1-200 above what your BMR is.
JMO :flowerforyou:

shanwow16

I also found it to be an issue only consuming 1200 per day - I was feeling light headed and shaky. I did what Anna suggested and changed my settings to 1 lb/wk and I feel much better. I haven't really noticed a difference in weight loss (less or more)- still losing at the same pace, but feel more energized!

Renae_Nae

I was having a really hard time and up'd my lifestyle to lightly active and lowered my goal from 2 pounds a week to 1 pound per week and I started dropping within a couple days! As long as I stay under my mantaince calories...I'll play around when I stop losing and that's helped out a lot!

TamTastic

I've never gone as low as 1200 cals a day. Even now, on my non-workout days, I eat 1400. On days I do workout and burn a lot, I eat even more, like around 1800-1900 cals. And as you can tell from my ticker, I have been successful!! :laugh:

The point is, you will be surprised at how much you can eat and still lose! You have to find that happy medium for YOUR body. Weight-loss is only scientific to a point (BMR, BMI, etc)......but how your body responds to something will be different than someone else. So it can often take a trial and error process to figure out what will work for YOU.

Try eating at least 1400-1500 a day when you don't workout and when you do work out, try eating at least half of those back! Your metabolism will reward you for helping it find that "constant burn". And that is done by eating enough but not too much!

Lauren882

I had the same thing happen. I bumped my calories about a week and half ago from 1200 to 1400 and not only have dropped 2lbs but just feel less stressed about it.