How can you figure out how many calories to take in and lose

starrlight23

I was wondering how could I figure out how many calories to take in and lose weight? I have been on a 1200 calorie diet and starving this week and still lost nothing. I was eating around 1500 before that and exercising and only maintaining. I am a sahm so I am not very active. I don't know what else to try.

MissMaryMac33

Redo your goals..... since you don't have 75+ pounds to lose, don't choose to lose 2lbs a week.
You should probably be at 1lb a week. See what that gives you.
Also, consider changing your settings so your protein is higher - like 40%.

Rae6503

I agree. Let MFP figure it out. If you selected 2lbs and it told you 1200, select 1 or 0.5lbs. I'm guessing you didn't give 1500 long enough to know if that really doesn't work. There's pretty much no way 1500 is your maintenance.

Jennyzfit

At the top of the menu go to "check in" and proceed from there. Your intake of calories seem to low for your weight. Also for exercise go to the "exercise" part on the menu and log in your exercise and mfp will find it for you.
As for logging your food MFP will find the calorie amts for you that you logged in and will calculate your balance from there. For the exercising part you might want to try interval training.l Hope this helps.
Best luck to you and your journey.

Karen_145

MFP should tell you as long as you keep updating your current weight. Keep in mind that they expect you to use up your calories gained from exercise. I know some people who have plateaued were not eating their exercise calories. Once they used them up they started losing again. If your calorie intake gets too low your body goes into starvation mode and starts conserving energy.

I'm a SAHM at well and I exercise by walking daily. It gets me 150-250 extra calories a day and gets me out of the house!

Justjoshin

Are you using MFPs recomendations? I see your diary is private, so that's not much help.

Without knowing anything about you, I could venture a guess that you aren't eating enough, but that would be pure speculation.

If you feel like you are starving, you probably aren't eating enough.

Though, you also say your starving THIS WEEK, which would lead me to believe you just switched to 1200 calories a week ago. In which case, you are expecting fast results.

More info? Open Diary?

purplebabe2025

You may be expecting to much too soon, give yourself a break as it hasn't been that long. You'll probably end up losing alot more in a couple of weeks time. Remember to drink plenty of water.

LorinaLynn

You're probably underestimating your activity level, too. I don't know of any stay at home moms who actually sit on the couch all day eating bon bons like Peg Bundy. They're up and down steps, chasing after kids, doing housework... always on the go.

I'm not a mom, but I'm not working outside the home now, and I put myself down as "lightly active." I'm not as active as I was a vet tech and always on my feet, carrying pets or bags of food or cleaning, but don't sit all day like I did when I had an office job.

starrlight23

I opened my diary so that should help all of you. I put it to lose 2lb a week because I need to lose like 10 pounds within a month or so. If I don't i will be freezing cause I can't fit into even 1 pair of jeans and we don't have money to buy any till after christmas. I also went by mfp recommendations on calorie amount

LorinaLynn

Please don't try to put timetables on your weight loss like that.

If you lose five pounds, and it's primarily from fat, it's going to make a bigger difference in your clothing size than if you lost 10 pounds from muscle mass and fat. Be sure to take measurements and progress photos. Sometimes the scale doesn't drop the way we think it will, and the mirror deceives us.

Hit a thrift store or yard sales if you need some cheap in-between sizes clothes.

starrlight23

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