Calories - I am stumped

The good thing is when you exercise you get to eat those extra calories to fuel your body. So if you need to eat more then do some exercise. If you eat your normal 1330 and burn 400 cals from exercise you get to eat 1730, and still lose your 2 lbs/week.

hmmmm....very interesting. Maybe if you find some low calorie foods that are high in fiber such as whole grains, or fruit that is high in fiber, this will help you to feel full longer? Alot of water, and making sure you're fully hydrated also helps.....try these things and see how they work for you! Best of luck! :happy:

Hi,
I would say just try that amount and see. The whole point is to lose the 2 pounds a wk you put in there. If you want more calories, then change the amount of weight you want to lose on the graph and if you exercise, you will probably lose more then what you said. Does that make sense.

honestly, I don't pay too much attention to my calories, only my carbs. I stick around 150 a day. It's hard to do, but not impossible, and I don't eat much meat (no more than 4-6 ounces a day). It's not atkins, it's what a dietician recommended to me. I find that when I watch my carbs, I very rarely mess up on calories. Most of the time I'm under on carbs, and in the supposed "starvation mode" for calories, but the doc said that the starvation mode isn't a big deal if I eat often. Anyway, fiber is so important to your diet, make that a habit! You will feel full!

Also, there are meal bars and shakes that you can use *once* a day to help maintain your calorie goal. I don't recommend a slim-fast diet for a long term adventure, but I find it really helps me keep my calories and carbs in check to replace a meal with a shake. They are decently flavored and portion controlled. Just don't try to make up your calories in your other meals!

My daily calorie goal in 1300, and it sounds impossible, but it's easy once you commit and make it a routine.

In my opinion, losing 2 pounds a week is way too much. It is not healthy to consistently lose that much a week and even if you manage to do so, it'll mostly be water weight. There are 3500 calories per pound, so losing two pounds a week means your over/under is 7000 calories....too much.

MFP takes into account your info, and then the calorie defecit needed to get to 2 pounds. It is not necessarily accurate of what you need to do. I always shoot for losing .5 to 1 pound a week calorie wise and then add in all sorts of exercise during the week to help get there. Remember that 1) Dieting is great, but you're only doing half the battle without exercise and 2) With exercise, comes more calories that you can eat. And at first, with exercise, you may lose 2 or more pounds a week.

Be patient with your weight loss. Too many people try to lose a lot, real fast and they don't see results physically because they aren't burning fat...they are only watching a number on a scale go down.

...again, only my opinion, not professional, but from experience. Good luck on reaching your goal!

Switch it to 1 - 1 1/2 pounds per week if you think it is too low... dont want to feel deprived and give up!

and best thing I do, with only 1200 calories. Is divide up my 1200 evenly across 6 meals a day. I never feel hungry since I get to eat every 2-3 hours. helps boost the metabolism and stay away from the dreaded catabolism ;D

Thats a great idea ,i never thought to divide my meals up like that, Ive been trying to have a happy medium w my calories/exercise also . Im going to give that a try

Switch it to 1 - 1 1/2 pounds per week if you think it is too low... dont want to feel deprived and give up!

and best thing I do, with only 1200 calories. Is divide up my 1200 evenly across 6 meals a day. I never feel hungry since I get to eat every 2-3 hours. helps boost the metabolism and stay away from the dreaded catabolism ;D

Thats a great idea ,i never thought to divide my meals up like that, Ive been trying to have a happy medium w my calories/exercise also . Im going to give that a try

This is a really good idea....I started really planning to a "T" my food for the day...but it never occurred to me to take my amount and divide it up....thanks, definately going to try this!

The way I do it is to just split my total allocated calories into 3 or 4 meals per day, because it's easier to keep on-track when I know how many calories per meal I have. Also, stick close to veggies, fiber, and stay away from sugar if at all possible. Lastly, the tip someone else gave of adding exercise to increase your allowed calories per day is one I use: I just take 15 minutes going up and down the stairs and it "adds" an extra 260 calories to my daily food allowance, without me going over.

I know processed food should be avoided, but I am having luck with the Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice frozen meals. They have come out with a lot of "steamed" varieties that don't taste like cardboard and a quick glance at the ingredients proves its not all preservatives- they actually use a lot of fresh, recognizable ingredients now. If you eat a reasonable breakfast, sub a Lean Cuisine in for lunch, and eat a smaller portion than you usually would for dinner, you will probably not even reach your calorie limit.

I am on a 1200 calorie diet and here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:
2 pieces of white toast with peanut butter

Snack:
Blue Raspberry Freezer pop

Lunch:
Lean Cuisine Five Cheese Lasagna

Snack:
One large banana

Dinner:
Baby Spinach salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries, asian pear, and wine-marinated flank steak. I made a dressing out of one teaspoon honey, juice from half a lemon, one teaspoon of sake, and one teaspoon of olive oil.

Dessert:
One square of hazelnut chocolate
One shot of Grand Marnier on the rocks

I eat like that every day. You don't have to deny yourself, just sub in a low-calorie lunch, control your portion at dinner, and snack on lots of low-cal fresh fruits and veggies. I wish you the best of luck!

I've been doing around 1200 calories and at first I was hungry a lot. Here's my breakdown

8am: Breakfast ~200 cal
10ish am: mid morning snack ~100 cal
12ish: Lunch ~300 cal
3-4pm: Afternoon snack ~100 cal
6-7pm: Dinner ~400-500 cal

If I have leftover calories I will use those as an evening snack. Some say that dinner should be your smallest and breakfast the largest, but I don't have a ton of time in the morning and don't care for most breakfast food so this works for me.

As for starvation mode, I don't think you need to worry about it unless you are coming in under 1200 calories consistently. For example, I suspect a reason for the huge weigh-ins on The Biggest Loser is because they drastically cut calories.

I would say it is more of a slow and steady wins the race mentality. Reasonably, "they" say that more than 1 lb a week is too fast. I have also tried lots of different plans. The idea of varying what you eat with your level of activity just never really clicked with me until now. But at its core, the principle is simple: 2500 calories = 1 lb. If you want to lose 1 lb in a week, you have to eat 2500 calories less over that week than your body needs to maintain its weigh (ie, Basal Metabolic Rate).

Also, the weight loss does not break down to exactly a pound a week. But I am losing more than 4-5 lbs in a month so far. I am also far exceeding my goal of 1850 calories of exercise per week. I am working out 4 days a week, two strength and two cardio, between 400 and 1100 calories per workout. So even though I get to eat lots of extra calories on a big workout day (up to an extra 1000 calories!) I typically do not eat all of that back. Remember, MFP has already calculated your allowance for losing a pound a week.

I suggested that you reduce your goal because you looked at the calorie allowance and said "Ugh! This will be impossible!" So set a goal that you feel is reasonable and achievable, set yourself up for success. Stay within the allowance every day. Add in some exercise and allow yourself a treat or a meal out when you have earned extra calories. Always keep track, because I think that is the lesson here--how much food should we be eating every day? What foods are really high in calories? Olive oil is something like 140 cal per tablespoon! And I always thought olive oil was healthy.

I have the same thing for breakfast every day-- a protein smoothie. Here is my super-secret recipe:

1.5 cups Silk Regular Soy Milk
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen blueberries (the berries are eyeballed, and the ratio can change)
1/2 banana
1 TBSP natural peanut butter
2 scoops Nature's Life Soy Protein - Super-Green Pro-96

BLEND!

This breakfast has 641 calories, 68 grams of protein, no added sugar, low glycemic index/load. It is delicious, nutritious and most importantly, it keeps me satisfied all morning -- even till a late (2 PM) lunch. No sugar crashes.

If your calorie allowance is too low for a 640 calorie breakfast, reduce the portion size of the smoothie.

I still put sugar in my coffee :-)

Just get started. Work at it everyday. Commit.

You will get there. As far as plateaus, I am only at 13 lbs lost, so I can't really say. I would imagine that if you recalculate your BMR on MFP periodically (that will reduce your allowance of calories), you will not plateau. Remember, less calories in than your body requires to maintain constant weight results in weight loss. It is that simple.

Good luck.

Everyone is different. The most important diet tool knowing how many calories you are eating. So you are on the right track by coming here!

I was also prescribed a low number of calories that made me dizzy, when I only ate that much. I customized my profile (see (myHome...Goals) to raise both my allowed calories (from 1200 to 1600) and raised my fiber goal (should be at least half of your fat grams). I am losing more slowly than I would like (2 pounds in two weeks) but I am tracking my calories and my portion sizes are getting smaller. I am still hungry more often then I would like but I am not dizzy.

I agree with the other poster that splitting up the calories throughout the day really helps fight the hunger.

Good luck.