Recommended calories?

tyroneadams

If I eat the recommended calories I will lose 1 pound a week, but if I eat only 1200 I will lose weight faster? Is that it?

Leela30

if you eat too little, you'll body will be starving EVEN IF you don't feel hungry at all.. so yes by eating too little you can actually make losing weight more difficult because your body will hold on to everything you eat since it isn't getting enough food.. I don't know where that fine line is.. it's different for everyone

tyroneadams

Interesting! Faster isn't better.

chickybuns

Remember that's just a rough number. It's hard for a lot of people to eat only 1200, so don't do it if it will sabotage your efforts. My husband for example, recently started MFP. He lost about 20 lbs in 3 weeks, and only had it set at 1/2lb per week deficit. The loss is of course slowing now, but the point, you don't always have to have a huge deficit to lose.

llkilgore

Interesting! Faster isn't better.

Faster this week or next week doesn't necessarily mean you'll reach your goal any faster. It could mean the opposite, and it can mean that you'll have a harder time maintaining once you get there. Remember that the recommended calories will drop as you lose weight and you'll lose less on 1200, which is already very low for an adult male. Where do you go from there?

Gshields42

You should check your BMR (tools, then BMR calculator) and eat at least close to that. If 1200 is too low for your body, you can screw up your metabolism pretty bad.

missfluffyuk

You should check your BMR (tools, then BMR calculator) and eat at least close to that. If 1200 is too low for your body, you can screw up your metabolism pretty bad.

So you're saying that I should eat close to my BMR? MFP put me on 1200, and my BMR is 1557... So should I be eating more?

sunnyskyjb

Great question, I'm wondering this too...

Justjoshin

You should check your BMR (tools, then BMR calculator) and eat at least close to that. If 1200 is too low for your body, you can screw up your metabolism pretty bad.

Unless you really understand this... go by MFPs recomendations or you will confuse yourself

Gshields42

You should check your BMR (tools, then BMR calculator) and eat at least close to that. If 1200 is too low for your body, you can screw up your metabolism pretty bad.

So you're saying that I should eat close to my BMR? MFP put me on 1200, and my BMR is 1557... So should I be eating more?

As Justjoshin said, it is probably best to go with MFP's recommendation if in doubt. You can probably skimp a little from your BMR, but massively shorting your BMR is going to lead to trouble. MFP has a lot of tools that they spent a lot of effort to build, so I would assume that if it told you 1200 there was reasoning behind it. Main thing is not to have people with 2k+ BMR's trying to eat 1k budgets.

missfluffyuk

You should check your BMR (tools, then BMR calculator) and eat at least close to that. If 1200 is too low for your body, you can screw up your metabolism pretty bad.

So you're saying that I should eat close to my BMR? MFP put me on 1200, and my BMR is 1557... So should I be eating more?

As Justjoshin said, it is probably best to go with MFP's recommendation if in doubt. You can probably skimp a little from your BMR, but massively shorting your BMR is going to lead to trouble. MFP has a lot of tools that they spent a lot of effort to build, so I would assume that if it told you 1200 there was reasoning behind it. Main thing is not to have people with 2k+ BMR's trying to eat 1k budgets.

Thank you Another site gave me a recommendation of 1350, so as long as I stay under that I'm happy