How many calories is too low?

Some might say a little low at 1320. What did your MFP fitness profile setup give you?

Here is a fun calories needed to lose weight calculator going around this week. Maybe it will help.
http://www.weightloss-calculator.net

Best of luck with your goals.

You're tall, and you're young, so you could probably eat a little more. Of course, if you're happy with what you're eating now and not getting hungry, then it's probably ok.

I'm 5'6 and 36, and working out 6 times a week usually for an hour, plus walking lots (school run, taking my kids out etc) and I aim for 1520 calories and I'm losing.

Owie, I am the same height. Since I'm so bad and unruly, I try to eat as little as possible when I have the will for it, despite what everyone says. But in the past I've felt really drained after a week or so of eating only 1000-1200 a day. So it's important to make it something you could endure long term without rage quitting.

I'm guessing you told MFP that you wanted to lose 2 lbs per week to get that number. Set MFP to lose1 lb per week to get a more realistic calorie goal.

I'm guessing you told MFP that you wanted to lose 2 lbs per week to get that number. Set MFP to lose1 lb per week to get a more realistic calorie goal.

This. It doesn't sound like you have much to lose, so you should have a lower deficit. And you WILL lose as long as you're under your TDEE!

Owie, I am the same height. Since I'm so bad and unruly, I try to eat as little as possible when I have the will for it, despite what everyone says. But in the past I've felt really drained after a week or so of eating only 1000-1200 a day. So it's important to make it something you could endure long term without rage quitting.

OP: whatever you do IGNORE this.

I weigh 185 pounds and I am a 5'10" 18 year old girl. I on average take in about 1320 calories a day. Do you think this is a good amount for weight loss or should I take in more or less? I am very new to calorie counting so I am still figuring out my ideal levels.
I also exercise 4 times a week for 40 minutes.

That's probably a bit low for your height and weight, and with your exercise level. Is that net or gross?

Check this out: http://fitnessfrog.com

A popular way to calculate calorie goals is to use TDEE-%, most people do 20% as it's the least strenuous. This would give you a goal of 1630 per day at a 400 calorie daily deficit, which is .8 pounds a week (obviously hard to see unless you look at the trend over months at that rate). If you want to go a bit faster, simply don't eat back any of your exercise cals. Eat at 1630 and exercise as you are, 40 minutes 4x a week. That should bump you up over a pound a week.

Keep in mind, you ARE going to lose mass at that intake. It may not be as fast as you like, but it will be at a healthy rate.

Another thing to remember is that your body is 55% water, and the weight you see on the scale is HEAVILY influenced by that. A difference in your sodium intake, drinking alcohol, dehydration, your period--all of these affect your water weight and can very, very easy cover your fat loss on the scale. And since water still takes up volume, even measuring tape may not show you the loss. But if you keep going anyway, you'll see that over months it does add up. Just don't give up because you weigh in low one day, then it pops back up for a week or two after that. It happens. You WILL lose weight if you keep going.

Is 1320 too low? Maybe for sustainability. If you feel fine, aren't grouchy, and you're eating plenty of very healthy foods, and you have energy, more power to you and keep it up. But if you don't, do try adding in 100-300 calories.

Some might say a little low at 1320. What did your MFP fitness profile setup give you?

Here is a fun calories needed to lose weight calculator going around this week. Maybe it will help.
http://www.weightloss-calculator.net

Best of luck with your goals.

That was a great little thing to play around with! Thanks for the site!

Some might say a little low at 1320. What did your MFP fitness profile setup give you?

Here is a fun calories needed to lose weight calculator going around this week. Maybe it will help.
http://www.weightloss-calculator.net

Best of luck with your goals.

That was a great little thing to play around with! Thanks for the site!

Be a bit CAREFUL with this site. I just put my numbers in and it gave me a COMPLETELY different BMI than most sites. Probably because of the "frame size" bit. And gave me a 40 pound goal range (not shocking) with a frighteningly LOW low weight and a very LOW high weight.

I compared my BMI to other calculators that put me at 21.9. This one says 24.14. because I put small frame.

Yeah, that's not so good. If I put small frame, at 5'6" it says I can weight 109lbs. NO. In no reality should I weigh 109 at 5'6".


(I'm not discussing the pros and cons of BMI...just pointing out that there may be a glitch with the math calculations on THIS linked website)

I weigh 185 pounds and I am a 5'10" 18 year old girl. I on average take in about 1320 calories a day.

You might be low, but you should be losing weight if you stick to that every day over time. If you are not losing weight then you are eating more than you think, taking too much off for exercise, or calculating wrong somewhere.

All the best.

Don't eat lower than what it says your BMR is :-) I'm a similar height to you but weigh less now (as I lost 22 pounds) but I was your weight (or close) 176 pounds, 5'8, but my BMR is 1550 and I eat 1600. And obviously well, I've lost. 22 pounds doing it that way. There's no need to eat so low :-)

Do you know if it's okay for your net to be lower than your BMR as long as your intake is higher? (Sorry for all the questions I am very new to this)

Yes your net can be lower but I always try to net around 1400 at least. The minimum it should be is 1200, hope this helps!
Also I eat back 75% of my exercise calories, and I recommend you eat back at least half of yours especially if you burn a lot

That seems a little counter intuitive to eat back what you loose. What is the reason for doing that?

Think of it this way... you need 1400 calories in order to lose your goal amount of weight/week. If you exercise you will now have a larger deficit and lose faster than intended (faster is usually not better as a higher % of your loss will come from lean muscle instead of fat)
Eating 1400 and burning say 300 from exercise is the same as eating just 1100 calories with no exercise (which is not enough) So if you eat the 1700 (1400+300) it would be the same as 1400 with no exercise as 1400 = 1700-300