Is 1700 calories a good amount to eat a day?

tusiajay
tusiajay Posts: 6 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys! I'm new to myfitnesspal and I have decided to change my lifestyle for the long run! Right now i weigh 205 and i'm 5'11 and live a pretty sedentary lifestyle (which is going to change!). I would love to lose 30 pounds before July. I used to live a very, very unhealthy lifestyle. No gym, eating out ALL the time *every meal* and had no motivation to lose weight until now. At the moment myfitnesspal calculated that I should be eating 1700 calories a day, and I just wanted to read your guys opinions on it!! Thank you! :)

Replies

  • jmackey1980
    jmackey1980 Posts: 29 Member
    Where did you come up with 1,700? I'm 6'1" and 236lbs at the moment and MFP tells me to eat around 1,600 cals a day to lose 2 lbs a week. If your goal is to lose about 1 lb a week, then you may be around the right number. To lose 30 lbs by July, I think you're perhaps high depending how much exercise you intend to do.
  • tusiajay
    tusiajay Posts: 6 Member
    edited February 2016
    1700 a day is what MFP calculated for me when I first downloaded the app and put in all of my information, and yeah i'm going to try and get back into going to the gym but i'm not going to lie i'm a little intimidated.
  • Jack_NYC
    Jack_NYC Posts: 64 Member
    Hi and welcome to MFP!

    I agree with JMackey1980 that 1,700 sounds rather high. You may want to recheck that.
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    I'm going to disagree with the posters above. I am 25, 5'9" and lose .5-1lb on 1600-1700 a week if I'm actually being accurate. Even set at sedentary, which I am not, I am given 1620 calories a day.

    In the end, try it for a few weeks. If you're not seeing the results MFP predicts, tweak your calories.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    1700 sounds fine to me, I am a lot shorter and older than OP and can lose on not much less than that.

    OP, MFP uses your age, gender, height, weight, and activity level to get your calorie goal, and that's all anyone else can do to take a guess. If you entered your stats correctly, try 1700 for 4 weeks and see what happens.
  • jonathantrush
    jonathantrush Posts: 12 Member
    Everyones body is different i am 6'2 215 now I'm losing fat on 2400 cals a day.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    Sounds about right for a 1 lb/week weight loss to me.
  • hopeandtheabsurd
    hopeandtheabsurd Posts: 265 Member
    It's about 20 weeks until July, so that would put you at 1.5 pounds a week to lose 30 by then, an average 750 calorie per day deficit on your total daily energy used.

    You can google some TDEE calculators, I put your numbers into the calculator at iifym and came up with 2056 without exercise to maintain, so that would put you at 1306 sedentary to lose 1.5 a week (recalculate every 10 pounds because you will need fewer calories as you get lighter). If you ate 1706 calories and did 400 calories of exercise per day it would work out the same way. Losing that quickly might leave you hungry and might not be sustainable as you get closer to your goal weight, but you could try it then and adjust based on your actual results (are you losing too fast/too slow, are you too hungry or feeling weak).
  • Bhlinebee
    Bhlinebee Posts: 71 Member
    I'm 5'3 and eat 1700 calories a day; when I eat 1700 and below I lose 1 pound a week and have for almost a year...when I gain it's bc I get loosy goosey with the calories
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
    I'm 5'9 and I lost the majority of my weight eating 1800 a day. 1700 is fine.
  • luciroo
    luciroo Posts: 31 Member
    1700 should be a good. I am 5'5", 139 lb. 51 year old female and am losing on 1700 calories/day....
  • abhijeetchar
    abhijeetchar Posts: 20 Member
    edited February 2016
    I am 5' 7", was 173 lbs, 25 years old. I was assigned 1610 calories a day for losing 1.1 pound (0.5 kgs) a week.

    I lost 12 pounds (5 kgs) in exactly a month just by maintaining below 1610 cal/days and running 3-4 days a week (3-4 kms per run).

    1700 cal/day would be fine. I suppose you have enough time to do that. Only thing is move your body, do some exercises, burn calories

    And recheck you calories count when you become lighter because 1700 cal/day wont work after you lost 10-15 pounds.

    Cheers n luck

  • chinny88
    chinny88 Posts: 93 Member
    Bhlinebee wrote: »
    I'm 5'3 and eat 1700 calories a day; when I eat 1700 and below I lose 1 pound a week and have for almost a year...when I gain it's bc I get loosy goosey with the calories

    This made me laugh out loud when I'm supposed to be being quiet lol
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    I'm 5'9 and I lost the majority of my weight eating 1800 a day. 1700 is fine.

    Ditto at 5'8

    I don't know where the first couple of posters are getting their info from but if they are 6' males and only eating 1600 there's something wrong there
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    I agree 1700 sounds good.

    I am about your weight and a whopping 7" shorter than you and have been losing 1-1.5 lbs per week on around 1600.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Yes gor 1700. That's about whst I eat. 5'7" and lost 132 in 20 months. My overall lifestyle is sedentary, although I walk 3-4 miles per day and workout 45 min 4-5x per week. Try it for a month and see how it goes. You also can start higher and work you way down to 1700 over 4-6 weeks.
  • jmackey1980
    jmackey1980 Posts: 29 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    I'm 5'9 and I lost the majority of my weight eating 1800 a day. 1700 is fine.

    Ditto at 5'8

    I don't know where the first couple of posters are getting their info from but if they are 6' males and only eating 1600 there's something wrong there

    MFP has me calculated at 1,580 cal/day for a 2lb/week loss (plus exercise) set on lightly active. I'm 6'1" 236 lbs this morning. I've been eating about 1,600 cal since late December (not eating back exercise generally speaking) and I've lost an average of about 2 lbs a week after the first ten I lost in two weeks, down 28.5 overall.

    If I were to switch to maintain, it would have me at 2,880 cal/day which makes sense for a guy my height and weight.

    I didn't say OP wouldn't lose at 1,700 cal a day, but I was questioning how they could lose 2 lb a week till June eating that many. I also didn't pass judgement on if that was a good idea or not.
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