Is my suggested amount of calories too low?
lydiasmartin
Posts: 6 Member
It says to eat 1200 calories a day and I'm not sure if this is bad or not for losing weight?
I'm 5'2 and currently 129lbs.
Do you guys just follow the calories given and seen results? I've been told people just eat and log their calories (despite if it was bad or not, not that I'm aiming to only eat bad stuff. I just dont get a say in what I eat when my mom buys the groceries) anywho.. They tell me they just input their info, log calories and lost like 10lbs in a month by doing so.
But I just want to make sure if 1200 is an okay amount or should I add more? Although I am really wanting to lose weight, especially the stomach fat (thats where all the weight seems to be going)
I'm 5'2 and currently 129lbs.
Do you guys just follow the calories given and seen results? I've been told people just eat and log their calories (despite if it was bad or not, not that I'm aiming to only eat bad stuff. I just dont get a say in what I eat when my mom buys the groceries) anywho.. They tell me they just input their info, log calories and lost like 10lbs in a month by doing so.
But I just want to make sure if 1200 is an okay amount or should I add more? Although I am really wanting to lose weight, especially the stomach fat (thats where all the weight seems to be going)
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Replies
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1200 PLUS exercise calories. Or you can just change it to higher if you want.0
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Yup, for weight loss at your height and weight that is about correct ( IMHO). It is also the lowest MFP will set anyone at as eating below will may compromise ones overall health.
Buy a food scale and weigh and log everything. Use a measuring cup for liquids. If your mum is the cook, talk to her and get her on board.
Your weight loss will probably be quite slow as you are within a normal BMI.
You may find it good to weigh and log what you are eating now, for a couple of weeks, then see what you can cut back on or change.
You may eat what you like so long as what you eat is less than the energy you use in a day.
If it is your stomach area that bothers you the most, a good resistance programme using you whole body would help. You can lift weights or just use your body weight.
Get your calories sorted first though, when you are ready to start exercises come back for specific recommendations. There is plenty of help on here.
Cheers, h.0 -
Can I ask how old you are?0
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middlehaitch wrote: »Yup, for weight loss at your height and weight that is about correct ( IMHO). It is also the lowest MFP will set anyone at as eating below will may compromise ones overall health.
Buy a food scale and weigh and log everything. Use a measuring cup for liquids. If your mum is the cook, talk to her and get her on board.
Your weight loss will probably be quite slow as you are within a normal BMI.
You may find it good to weigh and log what you are eating now, for a couple of weeks, then see what you can cut back on or change.
You may eat what you like so long as what you eat is less than the energy you use in a day.
If it is your stomach area that bothers you the most, a good resistance programme using you whole body would help. You can lift weights or just use your body weight.
Get your calories sorted first though, when you are ready to start exercises come back for specific recommendations. There is plenty of help on here.
Cheers, h.
I am confused, so you agree the amount of calories suggested is too low? So how do I find out the correct amount? I just don't want to add too much calories and end up maintaining my weight or something.
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How much is your weekly weight lose goal set to? Maybe aim to lose less?
But you sound fairly short and don't weigh much so your going to have a lower tdee and bmr so 1200 is probably correct.
I follow mfp numbers and they seem
Accurate for me.0 -
I venture to guess you set an aggressive weight loss target (2lbs per week per chance?). At your age, height, weight you would likely do well with a higher calorie target if you are remotely active.0
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Aim for a .5lb a week loss0
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Lydia, sorry to confuse you. 1200 sounds right for you.
Cheers, h.0 -
Start at 1200, follow it for 2-4 weeks, eat 50-75% of exercise calories back. If you lose about .5 lbs/week then 1200 is correct. Adjust calories based on experience.0
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mantium999 wrote: »I venture to guess you set an aggressive weight loss target (2lbs per week per chance?). At your age, height, weight you would likely do well with a higher calorie target if you are remotely active.
I think I had it at 2lbs, then changed it to 1.5 lbs per week and its still the same. I haven't been active in a while but I plan to once school starts again (plus I'm kind of forced to since I have two gym classes)
If I start working out, I need to add more calories? If so, how much more should I add?
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How much is your weekly weight lose goal set to? Maybe aim to lose less?
But you sound fairly short and don't weigh much so your going to have a lower tdee and bmr so 1200 is probably correct.
I follow mfp numbers and they seem
Accurate for me.
May I ask hows your weight loss per week following the numbers and are you also working out?
Kind of want to understand if I should be adding more calories when I start working out again, but isn't the point to eat less than the calories I burn?
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Yes the point is to to eat less than you burn. But you also need to fuel your exercise.
You can log your exercise on MFP, it is generally an overestimate so eat back 50-75% of what it tells you.
Monitor your loss for a couple of weeks and raise or lower your added exercise calories accordingly.
Cheers, h.0 -
lydiasmartin wrote: »How much is your weekly weight lose goal set to? Maybe aim to lose less?
But you sound fairly short and don't weigh much so your going to have a lower tdee and bmr so 1200 is probably correct.
I follow mfp numbers and they seem
Accurate for me.
May I ask hows your weight loss per week following the numbers and are you also working out?
Kind of want to understand if I should be adding more calories when I start working out again, but isn't the point to eat less than the calories I burn?
1200 is the minimum calories mfp will allocate for women. Can you set mfp to maintence and tell us how many calories it offers you.
Mfp has your deficit built in so if you exercise you increase the deficit more than intended, so eating a bit more brings your deficit back in line. Resulting in hopefully a more stable weightloss.
Log exercise in mfp, it will add calories to your total. Eat say 50% of these back to account for over and under estimations. All these numbers are estimates. Food is normally under estimated while exercise is over estimated.
So yeah you can eat more calories when your more active. Like a reward for exercising.
But for me I had mfp set at 1kg loss per week. I ate close to the number it gave. Some weeks I would lose .3 or even gain but when I look at longer time frames like a month or 3 months it all evens out to very close to the goal loss per week.
I assume my fluctuations had more to do with salt and water weight.
Does that help?0
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