Am I getting enough calories?

mamaof2girls

Hello All!!

I am new to "my fitness pal" and when I set up my profile, it recommends that I eat 1200 calories per day. However, the BMR calculator says that I need 1531 calories just to live! Which number should I shoot for? I heard that if you don't eat enough calories, it will prevent you from losing more weight and I definitely don't want that! Plus, I am trying for a more healthy diet with 3 small meals and 2 small snacks, but that is very hard to accomplish with only 1200 calories. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Erin

mamaof2girls

Hello All!!

I am new to "my fitness pal" and when I set up my profile, it recommends that I eat 1200 calories per day. However, the BMR calculator says that I need 1531 calories just to live! Which number should I shoot for? I heard that if you don't eat enough calories, it will prevent you from losing more weight and I definitely don't want that! Plus, I am trying for a more healthy diet with 3 small meals and 2 small snacks, but that is very hard to accomplish with only 1200 calories. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Erin

Cassienielsen

What the website wants you to do is to workout and add the workouts under excercise. When you do the calories that you burn will be added to the total calories that you can consume for that day. You should use your best judgement though, no one knows you like yourself.

walnut

Go for enough calories to meet your BMR. Even if you burned the extra 331 calories through exercise to reach a net of 1200, the effect is the same as if you were not exercising and only eating 1200 -- you'd be taking in less than you're burning and thus your metabolism would slow down to try to make up for it. I hope that helps :flowerforyou:

jessneill

The generally held opinion is that you should not eat below your BMR.

mamaof2girls

Thanks for all the help!!:happy: