I'm on a 1280 calorie diet, and...

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starsuper12
starsuper12 Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Myfitnesspal calculated 1280 calories daily for me, and I want to make sure that I am not hurting my metabolism by only eating about that amount. With more excercise, I know that I can eat more depending. I also find this difficult to maintain - a 1280 calorie count daily - and usually go up to about 1400 to 1500 calories a day and the weekends are more difficult of course. So I decided to up my workouts, doing five days a week of cardio and about 2 to 3 days a week of strength/weights which I was also informed by a friend that I will need to eat more if I am working out more. As I have been doing more workouts, I have been seeing myself toned more, and a bit slimmer but the scale doesn't change very much at all. I also noticed that when I eat more, it seemed to slow my progress so I started slimming down the calories again.
I am just nervous that I may undershoot my calories and that I may wreck havoc on my metabolism. I also noticed a lot of other members seem to do very well on a 1400 to 1500 calories a day diet. But, I should also add that I am not working at the moment, so I can't say that my life is incredibly busy during the days right now. Any advice would be appreciated?

Replies

  • Shanel0916
    Shanel0916 Posts: 586 Member
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    How many lbs do you have it set to lose?
  • starsuper12
    starsuper12 Posts: 10 Member
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    My Ultimate Goal is 38 lbs, but 25 lbs is good too.
  • 3bambi3
    3bambi3 Posts: 1,650 Member
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    My Ultimate Goal is 38 lbs, but 25 lbs is good too.

    I think he meant how many pounds per week do you have your MFP profile set to lose. Since you're that close to your goal, you might want to recalculate using 1lb or .5lb loss per week. This will give you more calories to work with.

    Also, If you want to just eat the same amount per day, you can figure out your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and take a cut from that.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • fitnesspirateninja
    fitnesspirateninja Posts: 667 Member
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    I think everyone is different and you have to do what works for you. That being said, I can't function well on 1200 calories a day. Even when I wasn't very active I had MFP set on "Lightly Active."
  • sarahg148
    sarahg148 Posts: 701 Member
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    Hey! I could NEVER live on 1200 cal/day...forget it...I'd be bingeing left and right! I also get in workouts and sports about 4-6 days/wk and would be MISERABLE if I couldn't eat at least 1600 cal/day. I have MFP set to lose 1 lb/wk and have my activity set at light. I also don't have a crazy busy day because my job is sporadic with the hours I work. So I'll try to eat around 1600 cal/day. I will eat back some of my exercise calories if I need them. I've been eating out of boredom later at night...so trying save calories for that time so I don't go over my limit. I think it's working. I also try to not really weigh in except for 2-3x/month. I'd rather get on the scale once/month and know I'm sticking to my program and see a definite loss vs weighing everyday and becoming discouraged because the scale may not be going down as I THINK it should be. Just play around with you can do to see progress and realize that what you have to do to lose the weight will be what you'll have to do AFTER you lose the weight...plus a few more calories added into your total for maintenance. :bigsmile:
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
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    I'm at 1300 (sometimes 1400) and eat back all of my exercise calories. Many people could do 1400 plus eating their calories back and still lose at a good rate.
  • starsuper12
    starsuper12 Posts: 10 Member
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    Thank you everyone for your responses - I changed my weekly goals, and I am just going to allow myself those little extras from time to time, we will see what happens!!

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