Diet help Please!!!

ebonyb202

Hey everyone.....soo...the amount of calories to sustain my weight are 2500....I've been eating between 1200 -1300 and I'm wondering if this is too low? Is this gonna stop me from losing weight or damage my metabolism? Ive only been on the diet officially Wednesday and Thursday....(Tuesday I ate 1700 and Friday 2600) and the scale shows I've lost two lbs.

I just wanna get a better idea of the dos and donts of weight loss. Is it okay for me to eat 1200? What about when I start exercising do I have to eat the calories I burned? Ideally I want to get in the treadmill every morning for 30 and every evening....and I'd like to add those calories burned to what I'm already losing by eating less. I'd also Ike to know if a cheat day benefits my metabolism....and if so how much should I eat on that day.

Even if you can't answer my questions please share your experiences with eating e minimum calories I'd like to know...the fact that my tummy is always growling makes me worried....I can take being hungry to lose weight but I can't take being hungry for nothing!


And btw the reason my intake is so low is because I'm trying to lose a noticeable amount of weight by may for whatever reason! Please help

rockerbabyy

i tried eating 1200 calories a day and it killed me, i was grumpy and tired all the time. i eat around 1500+ exercise calories and have been losing just fine when i stick to it. i think if you have more than 75+ pounds to lose, then 2lbs per week is ok (which would put you at 1500 calories a day), but if you have less to lose, you should lower your loss-per-week goal.
anything more than 2 pounds isnt really recommended unless your under the strict supervision of a doctor. if youve been feeling hungry, and your stomach is growling, you should eat more.

ebonyb202

i tried eating 1200 calories a day and it killed me, i was grumpy and tired all the time. i eat around 1500+ exercise calories and have been losing just fine when i stick to it. i think if you have more than 75+ pounds to lose, then 2lbs per week is ok (which would put you at 1500 calories a day), but if you have less to lose, you should lower your loss-per-week goal.
anything more than 2 pounds isnt really recommended unless your under the strict supervision of a doctor. if youve been feeling hungry, and your stomach is growling, you should eat more.

Thanks for your post....I guess I'll step up my calorie intake but I really wanted to lose as much as possible in the next 14 weeks.....I just wanna see results

happy_vegan

2500 is a very large number unless you are male and over 6'. If it is 2500 because you have been sustaining a diet of excess eating then you should look to gradually whiddle away down towards 1200. If you skip from eating 2500 to 1200 you probably will quit because you won't find it reasonable. Take your time..maybe 100 calories down every week or two until you reach 1200.

Unless you are a bmi of 30+ then you will not see much weight loss very quickly unless you get below 2000 at least. I have a bmi of 23 and need to eat 1200 to lose anything.

good luck!

FluttershySweetie

You need to eat at 1200 calories a day to not go into starvation mode.... now saying that, eating back your calories is a good idea as well. I think sticking around the 1500 mark or above would be a good idea.... and yes cheat days arent a bad thing because if you restrain yourself too much, thats when binging comes into play.... as long as you don't have too many cheat days lol

richelle67

Hi! I am not good with all the details about how many calories you should have but will share my story. I have been on here for just over 2 months and am down 29.8 lbs and I stay under 1200 calories a day. The first 2 weeks I lost quite a bit of weight which was great for me because it gave me the confidence I needed to lose weight. I look at this as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. About every 10-12 days I eat whatever I want. Like today I went to have lunch with my sister and had mexican and didn't care what my calories were. I feel that to make this work for the rest of my life, I have to have days like this. I still ate a healthy breakfast and will eat a healthy dinner. Than tomorrow I will watch it close again until there is another "treat" day that I feel I deserve. This to me is the way I feel I can do it the rest of my life. I still have at least 50-59 lbs to go and I know I can do it. The support on here from the friends I have made really help me and reading all the message boards. Feel free to add me as a friend if you need more support. Good luck!

Gidget5

Hey there, I'm a 34yo woman currently size 14 wanting to get to size 10 so lose around 14kg. I aim to eat 1200 calories a day and find for me I find that it is enough. You have to make sure that the calories are wisely spent though...eg drink skim milk to save calories in your coffee, eat low fat cheese to save calories there etc.

The secret to stopping your grumbly tummy is to make sure there is enough protein (google protein foods) and fibre in every meal and that you are drinking plenty of water and that should help your stomach feel full until your next meal. Make sure you eat wholegrains eg...grain bread instead of white...eating wholegrains (low GI foods) release energy slowly and take longer to digest so this will also aid in feeling fuller longer.

For example...have an egg on 7 grain toast for breakfast...if you find you're still hungry perhaps you might need to eat 2 eggs on the toast. Another protein food you could have here is baked beans....you could also consider avocado on toast as healthy fats can also satisfy your hunger. In 2-3 hours you may well be hungry...have some yoghurt and fruit as a snack...the yoghurt has protein in it. Or else, crackers and low fat cheese...cheese has protein in it. For lunch you could eat a lean meat and salad wrap. Or else sometimes I stir fry some chicken or beef and keep it in a container in the fridge and then heat it up and toss it through a garden salad to add protein to it. Add a small and measured serving of pine nuts or almond flakes to a salad to add some healthy fats/protein to your meal to help you feel full...chick peas or legumes such as four bean mix will also add protein to your salad to help you feel fuller. For an afternoon snack, you could have a small measured serving of almonds but only if you didn't add nuts to your lunchtime salad because although nuts are healthy and filling and a good source of good fat, they are calorie rich and eating them for lunch and afternoon tea will blow out your daily calorie intake. If you had them in your lunch salad then perhaps have crackers and cheese for arvo tea...or a piece of fruit or some yoghurt. For dinner lean meat and vegies/salad combinations.
If you want to be my friend on myfitnesspal, go into the friends section and add me gidget5 ljbrady@tpg.com.au - this way you can see my food diary each day. I think it helps to see other people's food diaries as it gives you fresh ideas of meals and snacks to eat. And also we can learn from their mistakes...eg I once ate a wendy's hotdog when out only to come home and find it was 800 cal just for that hotdog - YIKES! Won't be doing that again. My food diary isn't perfect...especially seeing as though I aim for only 1200 cal a day. Most days I'm within my limits, some days I'm not but even if I'm outside of it by 300 calories I know it's not the end of the world so long as those days are less than the days I'm within my limit. I've only been on here for 2 weeks and have lost 2.3kg already so I'm very pleased Best of luck in achieving your goal

Gidget5

Hi! I am not good with all the details about how many calories you should have but will share my story. I have been on here for just over 2 months and am down 29.8 lbs and I stay under 1200 calories a day. The first 2 weeks I lost quite a bit of weight which was great for me because it gave me the confidence I needed to lose weight. I look at this as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. About every 10-12 days I eat whatever I want. Like today I went to have lunch with my sister and had mexican and didn't care what my calories were. I feel that to make this work for the rest of my life, I have to have days like this. I still ate a healthy breakfast and will eat a healthy dinner. Than tomorrow I will watch it close again until there is another "treat" day that I feel I deserve. This to me is the way I feel I can do it the rest of my life. I still have at least 50-59 lbs to go and I know I can do it. The support on here from the friends I have made really help me and reading all the message boards. Feel free to add me as a friend if you need more support. Good luck!

Firstly congratulations to you ^^^ what a great accomplishment and yes, to all that you said This is the key...not to have a binge day...but look at your calendar and if you have a special occasion coming up know that you can eat what you like at that occasion and then pull the reigns back in the following day. I did a 12 week challenge and ate clean 6 days a week and then had a treat day...the treat day didn't mean eating 3000calories of junk in a day it meant instead of eating 1200 cal a day I might've eaten 1800 cal a day and yes it does give the metabolism a bump when you do that but only if you're not absolutely bingeing on a whole pile of rubbish. I lost around 15kg in 12 weeks sticking to this. I've just signed up to the Michelle Bridges 12WBT and apparently she has a menu plan for us to eat 1200 calories a day and burn 500 calories in exercise a day. If you watch my diary it will reflect this...we're in the preseason now so I'm still being a bit relaxed in my eating but come 13th February when we kick off, I'll be a bit more disciplined in my eating. I'm not sure if we need to eat part of the 500 calories back - I guess I'll find all that out as we get closer to the kick off.

IvoryParchment

Look at how you feel. If you feel like crap, you're not going to stick with it. If all you're focused on is reaching a particular weight as fast as possible, you're going to regain once you "go off your diet."

If you feel good at 1200 and can picture yourself eating that way the rest of your life, then maybe it's right for you. More likely you're feeling like you're denying yourself everything. Better to be less aggressive in that case. You've got your whole life to do this right, and the moment you start eating right and exercising, your body is reaping benefits, even if you haven't lost the weight yet.

If you plug in your goal weight and calculate how many calories it takes just to maintain that weight, how many does it recommend for the various activity levels?

ebonyb202

Look at how you feel. If you feel like crap, you're not going to stick with it. If all you're focused on is reaching a particular weight as fast as possible, you're going to regain once you "go off your diet."

If you feel good at 1200 and can picture yourself eating that way the rest of your life, then maybe it's right for you. More likely you're feeling like you're denying yourself everything. Better to be less aggressive in that case. You've got your whole life to do this right, and the moment you start eating right and exercising, your body is reaping benefits, even if you haven't lost the weight yet.

If you plug in your goal weight and calculate how many calories it takes just to maintain that weight, how many does it recommend for the various activity levels?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions....@ my gaol weight I'd have to eat 1900