what are your calorie goals?

I am curious what your calorie goals are and have you lost wieght?? I am 5'4 146lbs and I cannot seem to lose the wieght! I work out 6 days a week about an hour a day also very active (daycare and server 6-7 days a week). I have tried eatting as little as 1200 and as much as 2000 and nothing seems to change.... My question is how much do you eat and how much have you lost?

Replies

  • chip40
    chip40 Posts: 21 Member
    This whole calorie counting business is new to me. But I figured out this much, when I started counting calories, I struggled to be around 2000-2100. With that count, I basically maintained my weight. Speaking with people, I found out in order for me to lose weight I needed to drop down to 1,500calories a day, which is pretty insane for me. So there had to be a trade off and it is this. I maintained my current calorie count of 2000-2100, but changed up my workouts from being 85%Weightlifting & 15% Cardio to 15% Weightlifting and 85% Cardio and it is working. My physical therapist in simple terms told me this, to lose weight you need to do cardio at a minimum of 75% target heart rate for at least 25 mins, but your body does not start burning fat till after the 25mins, so you need to be on the cardio machine for at least 45mins. Remember this as well, your body adapts to whatever work out you do. So you have to change things up or push yourself at a high level. Every week, I do mixes of stairclimber, elipitcal machine, running, weight training, P90X or swimming just to keep different muscle working. The other thing is change your workout times from the morning or evening. Basics I guess, but it is all about what works for you.
  • Frozen300
    Frozen300 Posts: 223 Member
    1900 cals / started @ 242 back in Aug, now I''m 205. Some days I have less, some days I have more. Go with whatever MFP plans out for you, you'll lose the weight
  • Shua89
    Shua89 Posts: 144 Member
    I am 5'4" and I have mine set to 1200 per day. I walk for an hour about 4-5 times a week but do not eat back my exercise calories. I have lost a little over 10 pounds in just over 20 days.
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,722 Member
    5' 5 1/2 inches.... calorie goal is to net 1300 currently.... losing about a pound a week.....
  • 5' 4 inches, calorie goal is set to 1200 and I lost 1kg (2 pounds) in my first week.
  • 5*7 and eat around 1320 well that is my goal anyways just starting out and stuggle some days other like today i have 70 left as of right now. to loose weight ive heard most ppl have to eat around 1500 a day or less and never less than 1200/ this is your net calories which is total consumed - exercise=net . i try not to eat back the cals i burn but somedays you just have to have that snack or sweet or at least i do. ive lost 4 lbs in 3 weeks and now i have maintained that loss for one week. im going to switch up my exersise soon to see if that will help me loose more.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    5'10" 1300 calories. I've lost a pound a week for 24 weeks. I didn't start out that overweight. I only walk and eat back those calories and am set to sedentary.
  • 5'10" 1300 calories. I've lost a pound a week for 24 weeks. I didn't start out that overweight. I only walk and eat back those calories and am set to sedentary.
    I am not that overwieght either really only about 15 lbs to lose at most but I still want it off!
  • Add713
    Add713 Posts: 53 Member
    6' 0" Without exercise calorie goal is 1640. I bike 20+ mile a day so around 2500 calories is what I normally eat. I also eat 5-6 times a day. I find many small meals work for me. Carido is what really causes me to shed the pounds. Once I hit my weight goal
    I will begin lifting again.
  • hughtwalker
    hughtwalker Posts: 2,213 Member
    MFP says 1500

    Exercise adjustment usually passes me by
  • when i was new to this app, and that was the time when i finally started to get into losing weight, i was 230 pounds, my calorie intake goal was 1450, but because i was so paranoid, i only ate like 800 cals. i lost weight real fast, but once you return to your normal eating habits it'll go back before you can even say eat. so before going back to 1400 cals i started to consume 1000, then 1200 and then normal, at first i gained but then the losing process went back in an instant, now i lost 60 and am still not starving myself *hooray!
  • gwenmf
    gwenmf Posts: 888 Member
    This whole calorie counting business is new to me. But I figured out this much, when I started counting calories, I struggled to be around 2000-2100. With that count, I basically maintained my weight. Speaking with people, I found out in order for me to lose weight I needed to drop down to 1,500calories a day, which is pretty insane for me. So there had to be a trade off and it is this. I maintained my current calorie count of 2000-2100, but changed up my workouts from being 85%Weightlifting & 15% Cardio to 15% Weightlifting and 85% Cardio and it is working. My physical therapist in simple terms told me this, to lose weight you need to do cardio at a minimum of 75% target heart rate for at least 25 mins, but your body does not start burning fat till after the 25mins, so you need to be on the cardio machine for at least 45mins. Remember this as well, your body adapts to whatever work out you do. So you have to change things up or push yourself at a high level. Every week, I do mixes of stairclimber, elipitcal machine, running, weight training, P90X or swimming just to keep different muscle working. The other thing is change your workout times from the morning or evening. Basics I guess, but it is all about what works for you.
    bump
  • I've been on here for three weeks and I've just basically eaten what MFP said to which was 1500 calories and I've lost 3 kgs
  • DoxieLove10612
    DoxieLove10612 Posts: 145 Member
    5'5.5" 147lbs 1365 calories (goal weight BMR) try not to eat exercise calories back but if I'm legitametly hungry I'm not denying myself. I do roughly 1-2 hours on the treadmill (4.2 mph at 6% incline) daily depending how much time I have and lift a little. I've been logging for 15 days (Or rather got serious about this that log ago!) and have lost almost 4 lbs. good luck and add me if you need more support!
  • My calorie goal is 1590 cals a day. I usually have a little less though, like 1000-1400 or so. I do not work out at all :S as I'm busy with school and very lazy and also I hate sport. But I have already lost 44lbs / 20kg anyway. I think you just need to be patient and keep going with the sports and drink a lot of water. Also don't eat too little.
  • My calorie goals for intake is 650 and I try to burn over 1000 a day. ^^"
  • nick1109
    nick1109 Posts: 174 Member
    My calorie goals for intake is 650 and I try to burn over 1000 a day. ^^"

    This seems crazy?!
  • enewsome2
    enewsome2 Posts: 355 Member
    Apparently, I am a huge pig! Lol! I aim for 1850 a day. I am 5'1", you can see my loss and before and after pic on the bottom and side of this post.

    I am a huge fan of this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    I am not losing lbs per week or anything, but I'm happy with the slow changes in my body, and happy that I'm not tired and ornery. Make sure you are doing some sort of resistance training (eg: weight lifting, pilates, etc...), and cardio a couple times a week. Best of luck!
  • T1mH
    T1mH Posts: 568 Member
    What does your workout look like? Try switching it up. If your doing all cardio try strength training.

    For all the people that have just started to lose weight and have a lot to lose the first 10 lbs is easy. If your close to your body's healthy weight it's going to be harder lose.

    What anyone else eats for calories doesn't mean anything to you. When you say you've tried eating more and you've tried eating less how long have you tried for? A week isn't long enough to decide if something's working or not.

    What are you eating? Is it healthy whole foods or processed frozen meals? I know it's often hotly debated that calories is all that counts but I'm firmly in the camp that more healthy calories is better than less junk food calories.
  • mellabyte
    mellabyte Posts: 193 Member
    When I first started losing weight, I didn't calorie count - but basically cut out snacking and subtracted about a 1/4 from my food portions, then eventually cut them in half. I maybe started calorie counting a half a year or a year into my weight loss after I started working out regularly, at that point I started by making sure I stayed under 1600.

    Fell off the calorie counting wagon for a while, got back on consistently again in...around February. Started on 1200, then increased to 1300 now. Lost about 20lbs in about 6mo's, which got me really close to my goal... Weight loss slowed down a lot once I was about 10lbs away.

    So now on 1300 cals I'm losing somewhere around .2-.5lbs every week to two weeks. Which I'm fine with, since I know that I'm still moving in the right direction being so close. :)

    (Oh and I'm 5'1" currently 110.5lbs, starting weight was 164. I workout anywhere from 3-5 x's a week depending on my schedule, 2 x's a week of that is Kung Fu where I burn anywhere from 400-600+ cals per session and I try to eat about half my exercise calories back, on some occasions 3/4s. )
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    Remember when you start working out a lot more than you did before your muscles retain alot of water to aid in repair (which evens out after a few weeks) so you may be eating at a defeceit and in fact losing fat but gaining water which either makes the scales stay the same or gain, which can seem very unmotivating at first (tis good to get the tape measure out). When I net over the week about 1600 cals a day I lose between half a pound to a pound a week. I'm 5'5" medium frame, and 137 pounds at the mo I only have 11 pounds to lose so 1 pound a week is the absolute max I am capable personally of losing a week if I'm very good. :)
  • justal313
    justal313 Posts: 1,375 Member
    My goal is 1490. Net. It had been 1200. Now that I'm down to normal weight if set my goal to lose a pound per week, so now it's 1490. I however exercise every day so my total goal on any given day after exercise is 1690-2040.

    Yesterday I put in a very long run because I was going to an all things pumpkin potluck and I know I was probably going to eat some sweets and definately have a beer or two. I had 271 calories left at the end of the day but that should cover any misestimations. My total goal for yesterday was 2235 which seems like a lot of food if I don't gorge myself of beer and crap so I was just happy enough not to strees too much about what I was eating yesterday. I was like one of the 2 people out of almost 25 that didn't bring a sweet, I made curried pumpkin soup.
  • pri0810
    pri0810 Posts: 14 Member
    I've been told by my gym instructor that 1200 calories a day isnt enough and I should know increase to at least 1500 a day... I've dropped clothes size and weight but I still have an issue with my stomach. Im worried if I increase my calorie intake I will gain weight. What should I do?
  • Elle408
    Elle408 Posts: 500 Member
    I started MFP at 1200 (but eating exercise calories, which was just occasional walks, nothing intense) at 160lbs, quickly dropped to 125lbs (goal weight) but was majorly skinny fat and bordering on ill. I'm now NETTING 18-2000cals a day (I don't log anymore but do occasionally to see what my numbers are) and workout six times a week and maintain my weight at about 130-135 but am now not skinny fat!
  • krickeyuu
    krickeyuu Posts: 344 Member
    5'4" 52 y.o. started at 153 lbs eating about 1500 calories a day and eating back most exercise calories. Lost about 2 pounds a month. 21 lbs since January 16th. My goal is 130lbs. I am currently at 132lbs. I calculated 1500 calories because that was the sedentary maintenance TDEE for my goal weight of 130 lbs. I figured by doing that, I would learn how to eat at maintenance for my goal weight.
  • Before I switched to maintenance I was eating 1800-1900 non workout days and sometimes up to 2500 workout days. I was losing .5 to 1lbs a week. Since switching to maintenance I eat 2050 non workout days and have been maintaining for a year.
  • xD It's fine. I live.



    Anathema: She has anorexia.