1500 vs 1200

The idea is that ALL calorie counting calculators are designed to give you a starting point to which you will adjust after a few weeks to acheive your goals. If 1500 doesn't yield weight loss for example, then drop your calories 10% and see how that goes for a couple weeks. Just have to get dialed in on your personal macros through trial and error. Hope this helps

hi, im 5' 2.5" and weigh 174 pounds too! (down from 189 so far...) i tend to aim to net 1200 or lower, always eat at least 1200 that way if i slip up its ok and i dont feel too bad; also i usually have a couple days a week where i eat nearer maintenance cals. if you eat the same everyday i would say 1400, thats probably what mine balances out to over the week. you could try 1500, then reduce to 1400 for a couple weeks, see how it goes. also depends how much exercise you do.

i have found that when ive been completely honest with logging on mfp, mfp has always got it right for me, so i would go with what mfp says. also, once i had lost about 10 pounds it reduced the calories i could eat each day to lose a pound a week, which made sense and is accurate. saying that, if you eat lots of fatty foods, you will probably lose less weight than by eating the same calories healthily.

my first week trying towards 1200 was hard, but ive found that exercising and keeping busy helps! also having healthy snacks makes a difference in terms of calories - swapping biscuits for carrot sticks at lunch/during the day helped. had more energy/less sugar crashing!

hope this helps!

Give this a read. Depending on your lifestyle, weight loss goals, etc - 1500 might not be enough.

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

This will help you figure out your TDEE

Definitely try the 1200, but do a 300 calorie workout to allow you to eat 1500, I weighed 210 and am 6ft and ate 1800 calories but also carried out a 300 calorie workout and am now 175lb, so it does work but you need to make sure you're honest with the portion sizes you eat, its very easy to believe that 1 portion on mfp is the same amount as your portion (which definitely wasn't for me) especially when you cannot be bothered to exercise a particular day.

I aim for 1200 and have been lazy on the exercise. I've been averaging about 2.25 lbs per week.

You are better off starting higher.. Because if you can lose on 1500 why would you want to eat less. Just because your calorie deficit is higher, doesn't mean more weight loss. BTW, as a reference point, every women I have helped is losing at 1700-2000 calories. The bigger difference is, they are minimize or eliminate muscle loss which will be more prevalent at 1200 calories. Muscle is what makes a body tight and lean. You would need to lose less weight if you have more muscle as demonstrated by the thread below. Also, if you aren't weight training (and I mean heavy weights) then you should start. It preserves muscle and cuts fat faster.


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat

1200 is generally too low for most people. You want to pick a number above your BMR (basal metabolic rate) and below your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). 1500 is an awesome place to start. Slow and steady wins the race!

20% of TDEE works. I don't know what your TDEE is so I'm not sure if that number is closer to 1,200 or 1,500...my guess is closer to 1,500. I find that, for most, a 1,200 calory diet is unsastainable...I've seen a lot of miserable MFPers doing the 1,200 calorie thing, and I just think it's completely unnecessary in most cases.

fair chance the 1500 is based on TDEE alone, and the 1200 is from MFP which expects you to add back in exercise. if you do roughly 300 cals worth of exercise a day, then they're equivalent.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

I started on 1200 and was hungry or over , very rarely hit 1200 without being hungry still. I upped it to 1300 but was still having problems Now I'm at 1400 and eat back exercise calories but not all of them ( well not every time). I've been.steadily losing since I upped my calories. It hasn't been a fast loss but 5 lb in 3 weeks ( so just over 1.5 lbs a week) which is more than enough for me. I'd go with the higher number for a few weeks and see how it goes then slowly adjust doww. Good luck

I am 5"2' tall and weigh 125. My TDEE for maintenance is 1750 based on lightly active modifier (TDEE method). I think 1200 is dangerously low for you and 1500 is probably too low as well, but better than 1200 for sure.

You can calculate your BMR and TDEE at fat2fitradio.com and get an estimate as to how many calories you should eat a day to lose weight - but with this method you do not eat back exercise calories (whereas you do with MFP). If you do their calcuations, and enter your goal weight, the chart will tell you how many calories you can eat at your goal weight to maintain that weight - if you eat that way now, you will gradually lose the weight until you get there and you never have to change your calorie intake. Or, some others put their current weight as the goal weight and then deduct 20 - 30% from the suggested calories so you are at a deficit. Both methods work (but like everything else is an estimate - they numbers worked for me as is though).

Best of luck to you!!!

I started on 1200 and lost about 2lbs a week. Bumped myself to 1500 and I have been GAINING. I have no idea wtf is wrong with me.

1500 sounds better than 1200. Very few people actually need to eat that little.