Net Calorie Question - Big Time Confused! Please Help!

Katieloula

Okay, so I set my goals today.

I'm 5ft 4, 160 pounds and will be working out 5 times a week at 30 mins each time. I want to lose 2 pounds a week. BUT MFP set my cals at 1200 (I understand this is the minimum the site allows), in combination with exercise it predicts that I will lose 1.3 pounds a week. But I want to aim for 2 pounds.

So my question is; what should be my ACTUAL net cals per day, forgetting about MFP's automatic limits. Should I aim for a net of 1000? I'll be eating back my exercise cals too.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated it...I'm pretty confused on this one!

purpleipod

Why are you wanting 2 pounds a week? It's going to come off slower the smaller you are, and no, you should not be netting 1000 calories. Net at least 1200 if not more.

Katieloula

Does it matter why I want 2 pounds per week? Everyone always says a healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds a week. Well I want 2! Lol. If it's healthy I don't see the problem, so the question is what net calories will get me there...

purpleipod

I wouldn't have asked if it didn't matter. You're a smaller person so it's going to be harder to achieve 2 pounds lost per week..

I can lose 2 pounds a week because I've got a lot of weight to lose.

Katieloula

Well the only real reason is that I'd like to reach the top of that healthy weight loss range. I would like to lose around 16-20 pounds in 8 weeks time.

purpleipod

Setting timed goals for yourself is usually not a great idea. Most people get discouraged if they don't meet them, give up, rinse repeat.

I'd set my numbers up to lose 1 - 1.5 pounds a week if I were you, but whatever you choose to do have fun and good luck with it.

mreardon614

I think if you want to lose the weight in a healthy manner, then staying with at least a 1200 calorie net is the best idea. How your loss starts out really depends on your diet and excercise levels before you changed your lifestyle, and what kind of excercise and diet you eat now. The amount of sugars, fats and carbs, and protein. If you are eating all fat and zero veggies then even though you are cutting back you aren't going to lose as much weight. Start out with a net of 1200 and see how that goes, and then adjust from there.

Ghitaa

The thing is, there's is a reason behind setting the daily goal to no less than 1200 net cal. Under this allowance, your body thinks that you can't find food, and that you are starving. Since our ancestors did not find food in supermarket aisles, they had to hunt for it. And sometimes, it was just hard to find food. Therefore, the body carried on this survival function, and when we consume less than a set amount of calories, it can puts itself on starvation mode, wasting less energy, making it hard to lose weight .

Msdirection

I agree with purple - setting timed goals is just setting yourself up for failure. All that will happen is you will starve yourself for a week or so, binge because your so hungry, feel like crap and put back on anything you have lost, and then some. I'm assuming when you say you want to lose weight, that your don't want to find it again. So go for the weight loss rate that is sustainable i.e. 1pound per week. I doubt you put on 20pounds in 8 weeks, so don't expect to lose it in that and be healthy. There are no 'quick fixes' that provide healthy long terms solutions. If you had a particular date you wanted to lose the weight by, you really needed to start earlier. If you aim for 1 pound a week, even if you don't lose it all by the date you are looking at, you will have lost some, which will make you look better but more importantly, you'll have done it in a healthy way, so you'll FEEL better.

Good luck!

Katieloula

I think if you want to lose the weight in a healthy manner, then staying with at least a 1200 calorie net is the best idea. How your loss starts out really depends on your diet and excercise levels before you changed your lifestyle, and what kind of excercise and diet you eat now. The amount of sugars, fats and carbs, and protein. If you are eating all fat and zero veggies then even though you are cutting back you aren't going to lose as much weight. Start out with a net of 1200 and see how that goes, and then adjust from there.

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

So the weight I lose is partially dependent on the contrast between the lifestyle I am (have been for the past 2 weeks) embarking on and what I used to eat?

I used to eat complete crap, we're talking at least two takeaways a week (curry or pizza), no breakfast, and eating out another twice in that ...at least. No exercise whatsoever.

I'm going back to what I used to be like, but better. Food wise I've been eating a lot of fish, veggies, salad for lunch in work, and proper breakfasts for once in my life. Chicken/egg/salmon/rocket/carrot/cous cous and mixed beans. I've actually persuaded the man of the house to switch to wholemeal bread and wraps, although I'm trying to keep a med-low carb and salt intake.

Not forgetting the 5x a week exercise for 30 mins each time. Because it is such a contrast then, do you think I might reach 2 pounds a week? I have a date in mind but this is for the rest of my life really, that's why I'm having 3 solid meals a day, not cutting out any particular foods, and keeping my workouts to 30 mins instead of something I won't keep up like 1.5hrs each time.

Msdirection

OK, I'll rephrase - to lose 2 pounds per week, you will need to be netting less than 1200. Netting less than 1200 is not healthy. Therefore, a rate of 2 pounds per week is not healthy for you and will not allow you to keep the weight off.

If you want this to be sustainable, and you want to actually KEEP the weight off, let go of the timeline.

silversociety

People talk about the magic number of 1200 calories and not to go under for several reasons, but the main one that stuck out for me is the following. If you're consistently getting less than 1200 calories, your body will not be getting enough nutrients and such and will go into starvation mode. Starvation mode is bad because your body will get the energy it needs from both your muscle as well as your fat so your exercise will be useless. Secondly, your metabolism will slow down drastically, so you'll start to lose weight slower than if you aimed for 1 to 1.5 lbs a week at above 1200 calories. You can read other posts on the topic, but that is the gist.