Is 1,230 calories enough?

i_like_snow

I put in my weight/goal weight, exercise 5 days a week (Doing the 30 Day Shred) and MFP is suggesting 1,230 calories a day.

I am 5'2" and currently weigh 138lbs. My goal is 120lbs.

I keep reading over and over not to starve yourself - not enough calories will = no weight loss, ect.

So....I'm wondering if 1,230 calories a day is enough. If I add in my exercise cal's it boosts it to about 1,400/day.

AllTehBeers

With your short stature and small amount of weight to lose, 1400 might seem reasonable. Though, if you haven't, you could probably set your weight loss to .5 a pound per week and get a bit more to work with.

kr1stadee

What is your pounds-per-week set to? 0.5-1.0 is a good bet. The less you have to lose, the slower it will be. Or you can find your TDEE and subtract from it!

CharRicho

What is your pounds-per-week set to? 0.5-1.0 is a good bet. The less you have to lose, the slower it will be. Or you can find your TDEE and subtract from it!

This.

To answer your question, yes you might be able to lose the weight on 1230 calories a day but it is not maintainable. So when you get there, and then start eating normally, you'll likely gain it all back. Better to do it SLOWLY with reasonable goals and changes you can maintain long term, and then you're more likely to keep the weight off.

This is especially true when your starting weight is already within a normal weight range because your body will keep trying to reset itself to that weight if you have lost the weight too quickly.

i_like_snow

My pounds per week is set to lose 1lbs per week.

What is TDEE???

wahmx3

What is your pounds-per-week set to? 0.5-1.0 is a good bet. The less you have to lose, the slower it will be. Or you can find your TDEE and subtract from it!

This.

To answer your question, yes you might be able to lose the weight on 1230 calories a day but it is not maintainable. So when you get there, and then start eating normally, you'll likely gain it all back. Better to do it SLOWLY with reasonable goals and changes you can maintain long term, and then you're more likely to keep the weight off.




This is especially true when your starting weight is already within a normal weight range because your body will keep trying to reset itself to that weight if you have lost the weight too quickly.

I agree with this.... your TDEE is total daily energy expenditure, it is usually said to eat 20% below this but not less than your BMR.