Calorie limit too low for weight loss?

I've been eating more calories for the last month. I'm not losing quickly, but I'm steadily losing anywhere from .5 to 1 pound per week. For me, this is sustainable weight loss. I'm not hungry. I'm not obsessing about food anymore, and the inches are consistently dropping off. My clothes fit better and I feel better than I have since high school. If you can slow yourself down and not stress about losing A LOT of weight FAST, it is so much better for you both mentally and physically. I'm 5'4"and weigh 181 right now. I would like to get down to 130 and it's going to take me a LONG time to get there at this rate, but I'm okay with it. It took me a long time to get this way....it'll take me a long time to get where I want to be.

I have stalled for about 3 weeks, I was set for 1410 cal per day, I'm 5'5 and 199lb, I upped my calories to 1600 yesterday, so afraid to up them, I have been hungry though and feel like I need to change something, I am also happy to lose .5-1lb a week:) I hope this works:)

we're the same stats so i'm bumping this to see the answers!! i'm eating about 1500 calories right now.

In the last month I've lost about 5 pounds. I do 30 DS, although I finished that today and will be starting Ripped in 30. During 30 DS, I lost a total of 31 inches (7 from my waist alone and 4 from each thigh in addition to losses from my hips, arms, chest, and neck). I do 30 DS 5 days a week with 2 rest days and nothing else, although as a teacher I walk around quite a bit. I also lost 2 pants sizes in the last month, so while my weight loss may not be great, my inches lost and overall feeling about myself has been great!

In the last month I've lost about 5 pounds. I do 30 DS, although I finished that today and will be starting Ripped in 30. During 30 DS, I lost a total of 31 inches (7 from my waist alone and 4 from each thigh in addition to losses from my hips, arms, chest, and neck). I do 30 DS 5 days a week with 2 rest days and nothing else, although as a teacher I walk around quite a bit. I also lost 2 pants sizes in the last month, so while my weight loss may not be great, my inches lost and overall feeling about myself has been great!

Hi it may be that I'm tired but what are 30 DS and Ripped in 30? Your results sound fabulous to me. Thanks and good luck!

your body needs a certain calorie minimum just to function -- this is called your BMR (basal metabolic rate). for the majority of women, it's at least 1100 cals per day. everybody is different so there are different BMRs according to your height, age, current weight.

when you eat too low (below your BMR) and exercise, your body is expending way too many calories than it's getting and while many think this is a good idea to accelerate weight loss, this is in fact detrimental. in fact, your body will think it's starving so anything you eat will automatically get stored as fat. this is the body's natural defense against starvation. it also screws with your metabolism (slows it down) to further protect against starvation. this is why you will stall weight loss or gain weight, esp if the exercise you do is very intense and you're not eating enough to fuel your body.

this happened to me. i went with MFP's calculation of 1200cals/day while i was doing insanity. anyone who is familiar with this program knows how intense it is and you MUST EAT while doing this program. after 4wks of this, i saw a weight gain, esp in my mid-section which surprised me. it was my husband who alerted me that i wasn't eating enough (because i was following the 1200cals MFP gave and constantly complained how starving i was every hour) so when i did my numbers on my own, i realized i was nearly 500cals short of where i should be! so i added those calories back and bam! mid-section gone.

so yes, i truly believe that YOU MUST EAT PROPERLY TO LOSE WEIGHT. the numbers that you get for your caloric targets are for reference purposes so that you don't go over however once you switch to clean eating, many find it difficult to actually hit your target. IMO, i think you should listen to your body. if you are constantly hungry, redo your numbers OUTSIDE of MFP (which his notorious for miscalculating) and see what you get. if you are not hitting your caloric target (coming under) and you're full, then stick with that. there are days when i don't hit my target and i leave it be; there are days - esp when i workout multiple times or extra intense - that i'm hungrier so i eat my full calories.

while the numbers are important, they aren't set in stone. your body will change and as you get fitter, your numbers will change too. your body will tell you if it's had enough or too little so find that balance. don't force it but don't under feed either. also, it's good to redo your numbers every few months or so to figure out if anything has changed.

good luck!

This just happened to me as well

I was at 1200-1400 a day for several months, lost 60 pounds with little exercise.

Now that I have added 6 day/week exercise routine, I have HAD to up my calories.

After calculating my BRR and TDEE, I now had a 2539 calorie limit

subtract the avg 600 cardio calorie burn and I am left about 1900 net calories a day

Going to try this for the next 4-6 weeks and see how it goes. But cutting more calories just wasn't a realistic option

I find that when I'm excercising regularly I don't binge, don't fee that hungry in the evenings, and just generally feel more positive. So I'd suggest adding regular exercise as soon as you can. And choose things you enjoy if you find some, so that you look forward to exercising instead of having to force yourself. (I you discover you like something, you may find yourself doing even more exercise than you'd planned.)

And I'm all for eating more and losing more slowly. You're less likely to give up and more likely to have learned how to eat to maintain if you take the slow but steady route.

Remember, plateaus will happen. But just keep on keepin' on.