How many calories to eat?

yadhia

Hi, I had a breaking point this weekend when my go to dress didn't fit. You always hear about people having that day where they decided enough was enought and mine came on Saturday. I went on You Tube and saw great sucess stories and decided that I will be one of those people that will be sucessful. My question is that I entered all my stats on my profile and it says I should eat 1200 calories which I think it is too low. Please note that my excercise consists of walking for about an hour at 3 mph or doing a workout video. I know that I need more if I'm running or working out really hard but I'm not. Can somebody please tell me if 1200 is a resonable calorie intake? I'm 5'2 and I believe I weigh between 175-180 lbs but I'm not sure because I refuse to get on the scale. I'm going to measure my success by how my clothes fits and how I feel. I know that people measure success based on the numbers on the scale but I get physically/emotionally sick when I weigh myself.

This is the first time I'm actually excited about my weight loss journey. I have tried for the past 15 years to lose weight but I think this will be it for me. I do have a great incentive.......trip to Vegas with my hubby if I can get into a size 8 jeans!!!! I don't gambel but I thought it would be a fun city to go to since there are is so much more to do than just gambling.

thank you in advance for your feedback.....please add me as your friend because I don't have any LOL

ShanaJo87

Think about this... 3,500 calories = 1lb of fat

http://www.personal-nutrition-guide.com/caloric-intake.html

This site states that you should reduce your calorie in take by 250 calories... plus with exercise you take away more.
This is to lose 1lb per week

Me on the other hand, I want to lose 10lbs a month (about 2.5lbs a week)
I have a 1,400 calorie diet. I burn about 600 with working out.
I have been doing this for about 2 weeks and I have lost 1lb. Start off slow and work your way into it.

As for the scale thing, I don't weigh myself alot... I weighed myself when i started and a few days ago. I'm not weighing again until after Halloween, and after that it won't be until Christmas. (i am losing 25lbs for Christmas) After Christmas, it will be going month to month so I do not get discouraged.

This is the 1st time that I am excited as well. I think it is because I now have MFP. I tell everyone I know it is like facebook for weight loss, if people can be addicted to facebook, then they can get addicted to MFP and weight loss!

asyouseefit

You have to keep in mind that with MFP, you have to eat your exercise back. It's the way the site is designed. So if you're walkinh an hour a day or doing a workout DVD, you have those extra cals to eat.

When I began on MFP, I was pretty sure 1200 cals was too low. I ate 1400 cals (+ exercise cals) during the 2 first weeks and still lost weight. Now I'm on 1200 and still losing. I will soon revert back to 1400 cals as I'm nearing my goal weight.

If youhave an allowance of 1200, chances are you put your wished weight loss at 2 lbs per week. You can change it to 1lb per week to get more cals/day!

claire_xox

I'm between 5"2 and 5"3 and weigh about 110..... I'll eat between 700 - 1200 cals maintaining my weight and I don't exercise much, so based on me and no real expertise 'ld guess 1200 is too low for you!

BettyBudski

Just to give you a concept of roughly how much you can look forward to losing to reach your goal....I weigh roughly 140 and I'm 5'2...I wear a size 8....so its going to be around a 30 to 40 lb loss for you, awesome!!! Its very hard to stay at 1200 calories if you are active, I would suggest starting at 1400 to get started then lower it to 1300 then to 1200 once you have developed some good, healthy eating habits. You won't feel so hungry at the start this way, it may help prevent excess snacking or binging.

ShanaJo87

Just to give you a concept of roughly how much you can look forward to losing to reach your goal....I weigh roughly 140 and I'm 5'2...I wear a size 8....so its going to be around a 30 to 40 lb loss for you, awesome!!! Its very hard to stay at 1200 calories if you are active, I would suggest starting at 1400 to get started then lower it to 1300 then to 1200 once you have developed some good, healthy eating habits. You won't feel so hungry at the start this way, it may help prevent excess snacking or binging.

That is exactly what i am doing. I am starting at 1400 and will lower it once i really get the hang of it then when i start nearing my goal probably put it back up slowly but not too high