Please Help with Daily Calorie Intake

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vgirl21
vgirl21 Posts: 37
in Health and Weight Loss
I need advice with how many calories I should be consuming a day. My doctor put me on a 1200 calorie a day diet. With 30 minutes of exercise. But I do about an hour of exercise (30 min. Strength Training + 30 min. Cardio).

I am 23 years old
5'2
133 pounds
Goal weight: 115 pounds

I tried increasing my calorie intake to 1300-1500 calories a day but I wasn't losing weight (according to the scale). I know I shouldn't rely on the scale but on a 1200 calorie a day diet I was losing at least 2 pounds per week. Probably because it is ridiculously low. I have faith that I won't gain all of my weight back because I don't eat a lot in general. My comfortable calorie intake would be maybe 1700-1800 without dieting. My doctor said stay with 1200 calories a day. But I want advice. I want to continue losing 2 pounds a week but it would be nice to eat more :) I don't want to just lose 1 pound a week because I am impatient, which generally leads to my downfall. I'll do best if I try to knock this out as soon as possible. When I ate 1300-1500 calories a day, I was still doing an hour to 1 and 1/2 hours of cardio a day. Why wasn't it showing on the scale?

I did an online body composition test and it said I was overweight. I put in my measurements. I hold most of my weight in my stomach. Most of it actually. My thighs too but I generally don't gain much weight there. Everywhere else is fine. I hold a lot of weight in my stomach. My teacher once asked me if I was pregnant, in front of the class. Grrr....

Please help :(

Replies

  • dwh77tx
    dwh77tx Posts: 513 Member
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    Your doctor put you on a diet? why? Your weight falls in the normal range. Why so low? I am 5'3 and 135 lbs and I eat way more than 1200 and I'm only trying to get down to 130.
  • mpapstein82
    mpapstein82 Posts: 13
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    Where is most of your calorie consumption coming from? For example is it a lot of carbs, fat, protein, processed food, ect?
  • Kittyvicious1
    Kittyvicious1 Posts: 190 Member
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    goal weight x how active you are= cal intake per day

    Ex: 133x20=2660 cal a day

    I got the formula fm shape mag.

    http://m.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-lose-weight-0
  • vgirl21
    vgirl21 Posts: 37
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    My BMI is in the normal range. I am at 24, the lowest is 23. But my body is different. My doctor told me that even though I am at a healthy BMI my body carries a lot of extra weight.

    My diet calories come from meats, veggies, oats, multi-grain foods. I try to get a lot of protein and fiber mostly. Everything I eat has fiber in it because I need it to stay full. Not really processed food. The only thing packaged I eat are fiber bars and I do drink Kellog's Protein shakes. A comfortable calorie intake for my diet would probably be 1400 calories. But I tried that and the weight wasn't coming off as easily with the 1200 calorie diet.

    My guess is that I do have a lot of weight on my body and so my metabolism is high. Like how if you're heavier you burn more calories than a skinnier person does. Well I am thinking that with all of the weight on my body, my body still is burning a lot of calories and 1200 calories really helps. But what do you guys think?
  • vgirl21
    vgirl21 Posts: 37
    Options
    goal weight x how active you are= cal intake per day

    Ex: 133x20=2660 cal a day

    I got the formula fm shape mag.

    http://m.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-lose-weight-0

    Thank you!

    It says my ideal body weight is 122 pounds. My recommended weight range is between 109-136 pounds. Well, I'm at 133 but I have a lot of weight in my belly and thighs. Literally, every where else is thin. But i have the belly of a 5-6 month pregnant woman. It's annoying.

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