1200 or 1500??

Ah good to know (could be due to your current weight, I only have about 25-30lbs to lose to get to ideal weight for height).

Maybe start with 1lb a week then until you get your eating habits reforming, then switch it to 2lbs so its not such a shock to your body.

As you have only just started you will also probably notice you drop 5-8lbs in the month quite quick. This is water weight, and is in no way going to continue at that rate. It's not you doing anything wrong, its just how it is. Your weight will also fluctuate around your period and if you have just started exercise you won't drop weight straight away.

The take away message is keep doing what you do; eating, weighing, exercising for a minimum of three months before you can say your body has settled and you can start to watch your weight loss in a more predictable manner.

*wall of text crits you for 1337 damage!*

Good luck!

avilancaster871 wrote: »

Mistraal1981 wrote: »

Let's not lose sight of the fact that OP is a shorty at 5ft1in so actually 1200 isn't scary low. I'm 5'3" and mfp has me on 1390 to lose 0.5lb a week.

OP I bet you find if you reduce the amount you want to lose per week to 1lb you will find MFP still has you at 1200 because it won't go lower than that. This means that your 2lbs per week will not be achieved in a healthy way.

When I change to loose 1lb as u suggested it ups my cals to 1520 a day.....

What goal did you put into Scooby? If you put in 2 lbs/ week in MFP, it would subtract 1000 cals from your estimated NEAT maintenance level, but not go below 1200. When you changed it to 1 lb/week, and it gave you 1520/day - that means MFP thinks your NEAT maintenance is actually 2020 cals. Scooby says 1964, so those are not that far off. However, your calorie goal in the screen shot above from Scooby says 1571, which is your TDEE-20%.

I think the numbers are closer than you think, if you have your goals aligned between both systems.

avilancaster871 wrote: »

VeryKatie wrote: »

Do 1500 and see what happens. If you lose, then yay, stick with it! And be happy with more food.
Eat back only half of the exercise calories though.
At 5'1" you should lose easily on 1500 I think. My 5'0" non-athletic female friend lost on an average of 1500ish a day.

What happens to your goal if you call yourself lightly active at 2lb a week?

Changing to lightly active only puts my calls up by 80 a day? at the moment I eat the whole 1200 plus half by burnt cals and that's a min of 200 a day so that's 1400 in total if I do the min amount of exercise some days I do more and eat more lol x

I think you could try 1500 plus half exercise though (so avg of closer to 1700 including exercise). It doesn't hurt to try it for a week or two and see what happens. Now I would recommend making sure to count "classic" exercise... so not things like cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc. Just things you didn't used to do that you now do like running or gym time or DVDs or whatever it may be.

The only reason I'd say not to try it is if you usually estimate your food amounts instead of weighing them. Since then a lower calorie intake would give you a bit of margin for error. If you're someone who weighs 99% of the food and measures the liquids, then 1500 seems like it would work. To me. It's up to you though How comfortable are you on 1200? At your height, I agree with someone above that 1200 isn't unsafe.

That's weird about the lightly active. I'm guessing MFP is calculating your actual recommended amount as less than 1200 but it will not let it go lower than 1200. So it's adding the lightly active calories to whatever that lower number is.

I've heard a lot of people find MFP's "lightly active" more representative when they classify themselves as "sedentary", even for desk jobs. I know that is the case for me as well.

Another reason I think 1500 would work for you is I think you have a bit more to lose than she did (don't quote me there, I don't actually know her starting weight). So that actually should make it possible for you to eat a bit more than she did and still lose at the same rate (possibly a little quicker even).

I probably rambled too much there.

TLDR: May as well see what eating min 1500 cals would do for a week. And take note of how you feel while doing it. I think it would work well for you based on my sample size of 1.

[quote="Mistraal1981;33847725"

*wall of text crits you for 1337 damage!*

Good luck! [/quote]

+50 Nerd Cred

Hello Im new to all of this.. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer back in april and now am cancer free but have gained alot of weight.. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start? Im execersing and only consuming 1200 although my nutritionist said that counting carbs are more important than counting calories . Thanks

TeganValladares wrote: »

Hello Im new to all of this.. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer back in april and now am cancer free but have gained alot of weight.. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start? Im execersing and only consuming 1200 although my nutritionist said that counting carbs are more important than counting calories . Thanks

I agree with WBB55, you should start your own thread, but if your nutritionist is not a Registered Dietian I would make sure you find one and get a diet tailored to your medical needs rather than gereric advice from someone of suspect credentials. Anyone can call themselves a "nutrtionist" but only a RD can perscribe a diet for medical issues.

If a medical professional told me to eat 1500, I'd go with that over any free website. It's probably not going to be a whole lot different than 1200 + exercise calories anyway.