Mariah Carey 1200 Calories

You really should eat your bonus calories. When your body doesn't get enough food it will hold onto every once of food you DO eat, which will evenutally cause you to feel like crap and not reach your goals. You may lose a little weight at first, but in the long run you will gain it right back because its very important to get enough food each day. Trust me, you will see a difference if you eat the calories you are supposed to be eating, everyone on this website is living proof!!

-Danielle

What the heck are bonus calories? Are those above and beyond your regular daily calories?

Probably not, which is why next year she will balloon again :laugh: :laugh:

If anything, try to eat at least half of them. If you don't, you will find within a week or two (maybe 3) that you cannot lose anything....

:laugh: beth you are funny!!!!!!! and right!!!!

hugs!

what are "bonus" calories? because I'm planning on eating only 1000-1200 cals

here is the concept for anyone who is confused.

first, forget the idea of 1200 calories. It's a broad generalization and not supposed to be applied to any one person. If your goal happens to put you at 1200 after you read this, then that's fine, but just know that you should eat as much as you are supposed too, not a set amount.

second. there are rules to this. Not everyone should be at a 2 lb a week calorie deficit. It depends on your body type, size, age, sex, and activity level. If you are obese or extremely obese, it's generally ok to have a 1000 calorie a day (2 lb a week) deficit, but that is total, I.E. after you factor in exercise calories. Just because the site allows you to set your goal at 2 lbs a week, doesn't mean you should.

If you are in a BMI that is less then 30 but greater then 25 then a deficit somewhere between 300 and 800 is usually where you want to be. This isn't always the case, but it is a good guideline. Intuitively, the closer to 30 your BMI is, the greater the deficit.

A note about BMI - bmi is a flawed measurement, but it's generally ok for estimating what "range" you are in. In other words, don't use bmi as your weight loss bible, but it's ok to estimate ABOUT where you are at. One note, very athetic, muscular people, pregnant woman, and adolescents aren't accurately predicted with this tool, so if you are one of those, forget it, go get a body fat test with volume displacement instead.

So if your maintenance calories are around say...2200 (just for argument sake), and you are at a bmi of around 28 or so, then I would recommend about a 700 calorie a day deficit, along with a healthy dose of cardio, and 2 or 3 days a week of light to medium weight training. That should give you an average weight loss of about 1.3 to 1.5 lbs a week. That's PLENTY. It doesn't sound like much, but think about it. That's 50 lbs a year! AND it's slow enough that it gives your body time to adjust and you won't be yoyoing back and forth.

Also note that as you lose weight and gain muscle, you should be adjusting your calories, I'd say about every 10 lbs or so you should go back and revisit where you should be, or you might plateau just because your body needs have changed but your eating habits haven't.

There is a bmi tool in the tools section of this site, you can check your bmi there. and if you need to know your maintenance calories, you can get them here:
http://www.webmd.com/content/tools/1/calc_metabolism.htm

A note about this calculator, it seems to go a little light, so I usually tack on an extra 100 calories or so to it.

Hope this helps.

-banks