Super new! Would love some advice! :)

Hi Kawacy!

I don't think with 1200 calories you are underfeeding yourself. I think it is a fair amount and not under the 1000-1200 the health authorities advice us to eat when trying to loose weight.
Your friend prob means that with your outgoings yoru overall daily intake is a bit low, but then again 7km walk is in my honest opinion nowhere near 800 kcal. I used to do a 90 min session in the gym working myself to sweat running for this amount of kcal so walking for 35 min gets you nowhere near this. This is however hard to measure though. This is a good thing though in your case, cause otherwise you might experience some hunger.
All I would say is that as long as you loose about half a kg a week, and you don't experience extreme hunger feelings and you don't see black spots or feel like you have no energy, I don't think you are overdoing it.

xx

Hey Kawacy.... now that you've joined MFP, drop in those numbers and see what comes up. You aren't interested in losing a lot of weight overall, so maybe a goal of losing 1 pound a week is a better fit. Walking more than 8.5 miles a day is great!!! I am working on maintaining and I ran last night about 4.4 miles in 50 minutes and my heart rate monitor calculated I burned 635K. Your estimate of 800K for 14km does not sound unreasonable. I also suspect, based on your original post, that you're resting on the weekends -- or at least not walking 14km back & forth to work.

Your friend might be concerned as MFP and members knowledgeable say that it is not healthy in the long run and might cause your body to go into fasting mode if you create a deficit greater than 500 calories on a daily basis. When you enter your calories, eat those exercise calories back.

Congratulations on your progress so far. You're doing great! With a smile on your face tell your caring, well-meaning friend Don't worry, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling!

I generally agree with Roda.

First of all i don' think you should be trying to lose 1kg. 1kg per week is appropriate for someone who is very very overweight. But i can tell you that losing a half a kilo a week is also very easy and time will go fast.

The food you have chosen to eat seems pretty healthy. AT least you are eating lots of vegetables. Keep your food varied so that you don't get bored with it. And don't restrict your fats severely. Fat is useful in several ways. It makes food taste better and it help you feel satiated. While the body can make most of its own fat, essential fatty acids it can't. Tehse are omega 3 and omega 6. Most of us have no trouble getting omega 6 from our diets. Omega 3 is mainly found in oily fish like salmon and sardines.

People seem to always misunderstand how the mfp calculators work. So it came up with 1200 calories but then you are supposed to add the calories you burn through exercise on top of it.

I can't find my calculator so i can't run your numbers through it. You've also rigged it to be low by saying you want to lose 1kg per week. Its just too much as i already said. You will probably not be able to sustain your low weight if you get there too fast. Slow is better.

Weightloss is best achieved primarily through diet management rather than exercise. Do your exercise anyway if its part of your daily life, but don't keep doing more in order to lose more weight or speed it up. Just gradually reduce your calories as your weight goes down. So recalculate from time to time. And don't underestimate your activity.

You are not leading a sedentary life. I can't see your post at the moment so i can't see or remember what you said you were doing in that regard.

Basic foods you need in my view.
5 vegetables of 75g per portion generally per day
2 fruits about 150g per portion
for calcium the easiest way is
1 cup milk
1 cup yoghurt , preferably full cream and unsweetened
about 30g cheese
protein…
calculate your protein amount by multiplying 0.8kg by your weight in kilograms. eg. i weigh 63 kg and i should get 54g of quality protein. That does not mean 54g of meat. It means protein as calculated by mfp. Have fish about twice a week if possible.
Keep your refined sugar intake to 6tsp or less per day from any source.
After this cut your calories from both carbs and fats.
Choose whole food carbs of refined carbs.
And for fats, go for healthy fats like olive oil (cold pressed extra virgin), not too many nuts and seeds, avocado. Butter is ok but choose the others in preference when you can.

For alternative plant based proteins consider tofu, chickpeas, lentils and beans.

Some thing else you may wish to look into is the 5:2 fasting diet. Its not as hard as it sounds and one reason i'm particularly attracted to it is that i think it might be easier to maintain my goal weight when i get there through fasting.

Go to the fast diet website. read the FAQ. it will tell you the basics of what you have to do. There's a forum there too. I've been doing it about 4 weeks now. There are many people there who've been doing it for a year or more.

To lose weight following this protocol, on non-fast days you eat at your TDEE or less. I reduce mine calories by 50 but if your TDEE is higher, you can reduce it by more. ON any diet try to avoid unnecessary hunger by timing your meals right and by eating Low GI and maximum nutrition foods. i.e. more whole foods less refined and processed foods.