eating under mfp recommendations

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imogeneee
imogeneee Posts: 10
in Food and Nutrition
MFP goals calculator set my intake to 1200 a day, but this only gives me a weightloss of half a pound (0.2kg) a week, which is much slower than what I'd like

My BMR is under 1200; it is 1178 and + sedentary/light activity i only need 1470 calories a day.

I thought most weightloss advice was to have a deficit of around 500 calories a day in order to lose a pound a week?

Will I die/fail to lose weight if i set my calorie count to 900-1000 a day instead of 1200?

Ps. I don't have much left to lose. I started at 51.5kg and am now at 47.1kg after a month and a bit, with 44 as my goal (it's still in the 'healthy' weight range)

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  • mistyb47711
    mistyb47711 Posts: 861 Member
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    my experience is not to eat less then 1000 a day. If you eat less then what it tells you to you should take more weight off quicker. Remember that if you dont lose you may of lost inches and not pounds. Hope this helps.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
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    If you don't have much left to lose, you should just come to terms with losing it slowly and not try to starve it off.

    Eating that low will have a negative effect on your metabolism, most likely.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    If you don't have much to lose you'll lose it slower than someone who has more to lose. When you have a lower percentage of body fat it's harder to get your body to burn the fat. Your body will use either muscle or fat for energy if you are at a calorie deficit. It will use whichever of the two is closest to the area of your body that needs the energy because it's more efficient. So, you need to eat a little more to ensure that your body doesn't just burn muscle, since your goal should be to burn excess body fat, not just to lose weight.

    So, you will have to accept the fact that you will burn fat slower because that's just how it works. Also, since you only have about 3kg left to lose, you might think about ending the weight loss and toning your muscles instead. There's no need to push yourself toward a specific number if you're already at a healthy body fat percentage.
  • mistyb47711
    mistyb47711 Posts: 861 Member
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    I googled it and here is what I got........................

    If you want to lose fat, a useful guideline for lowering your calorie intake is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For people with only a small amount of weight to lose, 1000 calories will be too much of a deficit. As a guide to minimum calorie intake, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men. Even these calorie levels are quite low.

    An alternative way of calculating a safe minimum calorie-intake level is by reference to your body weight or current body weight. Reducing calories by 15-20% below your daily calorie maintenance needs is a useful start. You may increase this depending on your weight loss goals
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    What you'd like and what is safe, healthy and maintainable aren't necessarily the same things. It's not a race, and if you treat it like one, it will backfire.

    Because you are so close to goal, you should NOT have a weekly loss goal higher than 1/2 lb. When you are close to goal weight, your body will be fighting harder to hold on to fat - and beating it into submission isn't the best way to make it comply.

    Here are some good threads about metabolism and why it's necessary to fuel the body - and accept the fact that those last few pounds will not be fast ones. :flowerforyou:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories
  • imogeneee
    imogeneee Posts: 10
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    thanks everyone!

    Those links are especially helpful :)

    It says that 1200 is not the be all guide, very small people can go under and vice versa.

    So i think I will try and bump my calorie intake up to around 1100 :) as i don't really want to kill off my metabolism just yet.

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