Advice on how many cals i should be eating

choosingsara

Ok so I'm a little confused. i'm female, 36 yrs, 64.5 in. tall, as of today weigh 165.6. My scaled calculates my body fat at 31.7. Per fit to fat my bmr ranges from 1479-1509 depending on which formula you use. I work a desk job so my tdee would be 1729. MFP has my calores for 1lb a week loss (which I would like to keep if possible) at 1280 but that is below my bmr. My average net calories for this past week has been 1334 which I have lost 5 pounds, it's my first week.. My question is , is this too low of calories?? As badly as I want to lose I dont' want it to be unhealthy. I've felt okay especially since i've learned to get a lot of protein in there. Thoughts??

choosingsara

bumping this to get some advice

JO4IT

bumping because I had a similar question

onyxgirl17

The 5 lbs isn't a complete fat loss. Some of it is water weight which always comes off the first week you restrict your calories. You need to stick with a plan for 4-6 weeks before you see true results.

That being said, eating under your BMR is not a good thing. You should eat ~1500 calories a day for 4-6 weeks and see how much weight you've lost over that period of time. It's good that you are keeping your protein high! Good luck. If you like you can add me, I'm pretty active and log every day. I eat close to my BMR which is ~1400.

choosingsara

Okay thank you. I editted my settings to a calorie goal of 1479. We'll see how it goes!

choosingsara

So now that i've increased my calories my weight loss is slowed. Any advice?

Greenrun99

So now that i've increased my calories my weight loss is slowed. Any advice?

So you work a desk job and do no exercise outside of that, no cardio, no gym? Your weight loss is going to slow down after your initial loss (water weight, other factors), plus its not a constant loss.. you may lose 1 week, not the next, and don't weight yourself daily that is just going to have you pulling your hair out.. need to give it a good month + to see anything positive.

If you do any sort of exercise after work (gym, cardio, power walking) then you are underestimating your activity level and probably need to adjust your numbers in the future.

AmyRhubarb

So now that i've increased my calories my weight loss is slowed. Any advice?

It's only been three days....gotta give it time - weight fluctuates daily with water retention, hormone fluctuations, etc.

loriepaulin

I found a great calculator tool online. Try it Tells you the daily calories with your input from age, weight, height, and weight you want to lose in a certain amount of time. I kinda knew what I should be at based on my research and reading and this calculator tool was very close to what I should be at. Hope this helps!

http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/calories-required/

Also slow is good, that's a healthy way to lose the weight. My boyfriend who is studying to be a personal trainer says that if the calories are too low (nothing less then 1200 for a female and 1800 for a male) that a person's body will go into starvation mode and then your body will start feeding off your muscle. Which isn't what we want. If you have muscle, even when you sit all day at a desk job you will keep burning calories. The more muscle you have the more fat you will burn in time. That's why I also believe it's not just cardio, you need to lift weights, and just remember us woman will not get like a man's body, but we will look toned and have definition.