Am I eating enough calories?

coloschick

I am 5'10 and I weigh 239 lbs. I have it in MFP to lose 2 lbs/week and it says to eat 1340 calories per day. I walk 2.25 miles about 3 times a week. I sometimes eat those calories back. I did really well for 9 days, and when I went back to weigh in, I only lost 1.4 lbs. Do you think it is because I am not eating enough? If so, how many calories should I be eating?

I also have been staying in my calories, but not eating the best things. Yesterday was awful. I log everything in, but I am not eating the best things. If I stay in my calories, could it be because I am not eating the correct things?

niftyafterfifty

I read an article that said you can eat less calories, exercise more, or do a combination of both. Start with a conservative deficit of only 20% below your maintenance level. If you have a lot of weight to lose, increase the deficit incrementally, ideally not going above 30% under maintenance. I went online and found an ap for calculating your daily maintenance calories, and figured out what my 20% reduction would be. That caused me to increase my daily calorie consumption from 1200 - 1400 calories. I don't eat back all my exercise calories, but I do try to at least eat 1400 daily. It's working for me. The scale was not reflecting the effort I was putting in, and now, I've lost an additional 2.7 lbs. I also think what you're eating makes a difference. You can lose weight soley based on calories, but if they are not nutritious calories, you won't have the fuel your body needs to exercise efficiently. It will adversely affect your health. I hope this helps. Good luck!

Toddrific

Always assume the exercise calories are more than you actually burned.

Also, losing between 1-2 pounds a week is considered healthy weight loss.