How many calories should I be eating?

Myndi73

Hi everyone! I am so confused as to how many calories I should be eating on a daily basis. I hear something different from everyone / site. I am currently eating 1200/day and thats with no excercise. Is that sufficient or do I need to raise it in order to lose weight? Thanks for any advice you can give. Much Appreciated!!

Myndi~

I am 5'7"
150 lbs.
Looking to get down to 135

Myndi73

Anyone?

beckyyoungers

That's probably fine for your height/weight, but I would recommend adding exercise, especially strength training, which will allow you to eat a little bit more. That way you will be protecting your muscle mass so that you are losing fat instead of muscle.

busyPK

1200 calories should be your bare minimum so try and get as close to that as possible. Since you only have 15lbs to drop I would set your weekly weight loss goal to .5 or 1lb/wk and MFP will provide the number of calories you should consume.

I would also add in a few days of exercise per week, even walking! Any calories you burn you get to eat back so then that day you can have a little extra snack or something.

Myndi73

Ok, thank you so much. I just wasn't sure if the 1200 was sufficient. I am going to start working out again next week. I completely stopped everything (exercising/counting calories) over the holidays. TIme to get back to it! Thanks again!