Should I be eating less than 1,200 calories?

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  • kimbtaylor1
    kimbtaylor1 Posts: 210 Member
    I started off at 11 and a half stone (161 pounds) and when I first started dieting 2 weeks ago I was eating less than 1000 calories in the first week. I did lose a few pounds from that and I now weight about 11 stone 2 pounds. Since then I joined myfitness, was told that I was eating too little, and upped my calories each day to 1,200. But in the week since I started doing that I haven't lost a single pound? It just seems odd to me when I am eating way better than I used too and really keeping track of how many calories I'm eating, yet the scales aren't even going down a pound. Nor does my waist seem any smaller. So should I go back to that first week of eating a lot less, or what is the best option?

    Most days I am actually eating more than 1,200 calories because I am now trying to eat a bit extra when I exercise, but I don't think that I'm really overestimating the amount of calories I've burned or anything, so it is ending up at around 1,200 or 1,300 most days, yet I already seem to be stuck on losing any more weight which I didn't expect this early on? I'm fine with slow and steady progress and just losing a pound a week, it's the fact that I seem to have achieved absolutely nothing in the past week that is really disheartening for me when I have made huge changes to my diet and am really trying with exercise as well

    From what I understand 1200 should be the minimum. Once you stay below that for too long your body will adjust (some call it starvation mode, I'll just say adjust) and stop burning so many calories. In other words your metablism will slow down so you will have enough energy stored for your major fuctions. It may seem backwards, but once you metablism is back to where it should be and you add exercise to give it an extra boost the weight will come of.
  • gerbies
    gerbies Posts: 444 Member
    I plugged your information in a fairly reliable calculator on-line and for a 35 year-old female who is 5'5" and 156 lbs, your basal metabolic rate, BMR, is 1468. This is the number of calories your body needs to function if you were in a coma or laid in bed all day. Your total daily energy expenditure, TDEE, is just over 2000 (based on doing 1-3 hours of light exercise per week); this is the amount of calories your body needs to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. You should be eating between your BMR and TDEE to lose weight safely. Therefore, targeting 1500-1600 calories per day would give you a loss of about a pound per week. I would also suggest upping your exercise to help with increasing your losses. If you exercised 3-5 hours of moderate activity per week, your TDEE would go to 2275.
  • annegrose
    annegrose Posts: 8 Member
    You don't say how old you are, but I am a 56 year old post menopausal woman and I have to stick rigidly to a 1000 cal a day diet to lose any weight. I walk every day and ride once or twice a week but if I eat any more calories than 1000 I don't lose a thing. I have been dieting very seriously for 3 months and have lost 10lbs.

    I find using this programme very useful as it really helps me to monitor the calories I am eating. Since starting this programme I have got my cholesterol under control as I can monitor the fat I am eating and lost weight. Double whammyy :)
  • upscalelifedownscalebutt
    upscalelifedownscalebutt Posts: 90 Member
    Eat what you need to, and follow your hunger cues. Honestly I eat between 300-2300 kcals/day based on what I am doing that day, if I feel like eating, and what is going on health wise. My weight loss has it's ups and downs day to day and I am okay with that.

    I weigh everything on the scale, and diligently track everything in a notebook. Go by weight not volume if you want to be more accurate.

    My diet is mostly plant based, and I usually choose foods that are low gluten. That leads to a diet that is naturally pretty low cal. But sometimes I just want a steak and avocado sandwich, homemade pasta with lemon and butter, or bacon with my Brussels sprouts so I eat it, and my calories for the day goes up.

    I never feel deprived, and after 3 months I have lost almost 30 lbs so it works for me.
  • Frelling_Tralk
    Frelling_Tralk Posts: 56 Member
    I plugged your information in a fairly reliable calculator on-line and for a 35 year-old female who is 5'5" and 156 lbs, your basal metabolic rate, BMR, is 1468. This is the number of calories your body needs to function if you were in a coma or laid in bed all day. Your total daily energy expenditure, TDEE, is just over 2000 (based on doing 1-3 hours of light exercise per week); this is the amount of calories your body needs to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. You should be eating between your BMR and TDEE to lose weight safely. Therefore, targeting 1500-1600 calories per day would give you a loss of about a pound per week. I would also suggest upping your exercise to help with increasing your losses. If you exercised 3-5 hours of moderate activity per week, your TDEE would go to 2275.

    Thanks! I've been trying to eat up to 1,500 today actually. It sounds silly but I'm finding it hard to increase as I've started eating healthier food from the diet chef company for mealtimes, and their dinners and soups don't add to all that many calories, so it seems like I have to eat a lot of extra snacks to get up to 1,500-1,600
  • dittmarml
    dittmarml Posts: 351 Member
    I plugged your information in a fairly reliable calculator on-line and for a 35 year-old female who is 5'5" and 156 lbs, your basal metabolic rate, BMR, is 1468. This is the number of calories your body needs to function if you were in a coma or laid in bed all day. Your total daily energy expenditure, TDEE, is just over 2000 (based on doing 1-3 hours of light exercise per week); this is the amount of calories your body needs to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. You should be eating between your BMR and TDEE to lose weight safely. Therefore, targeting 1500-1600 calories per day would give you a loss of about a pound per week. I would also suggest upping your exercise to help with increasing your losses. If you exercised 3-5 hours of moderate activity per week, your TDEE would go to 2275.

    Thanks! I've been trying to eat up to 1,500 today actually. It sounds silly but I'm finding it hard to increase as I've started eating healthier food from the diet chef company for mealtimes, and their dinners and soups don't add to all that many calories, so it seems like I have to eat a lot of extra snacks to get up to 1,500-1,600

    I concur with this calculation and target -

    To bump up your intake, try a handful of almonds, peanut butter, avocados (make guacamole, just watch the salt), a slice of cheese.

    Good luck!

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