What classifies as "too few calories" for weight loss?

Momjogger

Plain Greek yogurt with 3 packages of Stevia in the raw and some frozen berries is a good alternative if you dont ' want sugar. I would try body pump for strength training twice a week and spinning or Zumba for cardio, and eat 1500 on the days you exercise. You will look and feel GREAT even if you don't lost as much as you want.

mcarter99

Yeh but that's you. OP needs to determine what works best for her.

While that's true, dropping calories should not be the FIRST resort to figuring out what is right, in my opinion. First make an attempt to follow the guidelines and recommendations of the site, THEN experiment with that experiential data as a baseline.

And given the American tendency to equate suffering = good when it comes to weight loss, my usual bias when people ask is to eat a little more. Not a lot, just a little. Because most people are too impatient, push themselves too hard, and end up stalling because they aren't feeding themselves enough.

I've been on that treadmill for 30 years. It's familiar territory to me.

Really? What I see is most people don't push hard and think they're pushing hard and think they end up stalling because their scale hasn't moved in a week. And they keep reading that other people supposedly aren't eating enough so they think they're not.

LorinaLynn

While that's true, dropping calories should not be the FIRST resort to figuring out what is right, in my opinion. First make an attempt to follow the guidelines and recommendations of the site, THEN experiment with that experiential data as a baseline.

And given the American tendency to equate suffering = good when it comes to weight loss, my usual bias when people ask is to eat a little more. Not a lot, just a little. Because most people are too impatient, push themselves too hard, and end up stalling because they aren't feeding themselves enough.

I've been on that treadmill for 30 years. It's familiar territory to me.

Really? What I see is most people don't push hard and think they're pushing hard and think they end up stalling because their scale hasn't moved in a week. And they keep reading that other people supposedly aren't eating enough so they think they're not.

I think both are true. People cut calories to extreme levels, get frustrated when they don't see Biggest Loser type results, and quit.

I tried the low cal routine. It was frustrating and slow. Aiming for a moderate loss (one pound a week until I got within 10 pounds of my goal, then a half pound a week), weight loss was so effortless, it was ridiculous. I won't say it was "easy," because I was still busting my butt with exercise, but I wasn't starving myself and I wasn't EXPECTING to lose 2-5 pounds a week.

Too many people think weight loss means eating small servings of boring foods. All it takes is eating a little bit less than it would take to maintain your weight. Gaining weight for most of us meant eating a little bit more than it takes to maintain our weight. Most of us put on weight slowly. Twenty pounds over the course of a year is less than a half pound a week. It's eating only about 200 extra calories a day. The eating habits of someone who gained 20 pounds in a year aren't THAT bad... they don't need to do a total lifestyle overhaul. A few small changes is all it takes... either eating a little less or exercising a little more, or a combination of the two.