What should my goals actually be?

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Caroline393
Caroline393 Posts: 71 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been on MFP for a couple of months now and was doing well until I was away on vacation for two weeks. Now that I'm back, I'm feeling kind of burnt out and have lost some of my motivation. I'm also questioning what my calorie goal should be, because I've seen a lot of people saying that 1200 is too low, etc. I'm a 21 year old female, 5'3" tall, my start weight was 153, I lost 7 lbs but gained some back on vacation, so I'm currently at 150. My goal weight is 120 lbs. I set my goal to lose 2 lbs per week, which everyone seems to say is too aggressive, but in reality I haven't been losing 2lbs per week (except for once). It's been more like 0.5-1 lb a week. So my fear is that if I loosen up and give myself more calories per day, I won't lose anything at all. However, I want this to be sustainable and not to damage my already horrendously slow metabolism (although people have told me that's a myth too), so what would be the right combination of sustainability, progress, and healthiness?

Replies

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited July 2016
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    You're not losing 2 pounds per week because its not possible based on your body size. The 2 pound goal gets you the baseline of 1200 because MFP won't go lower.

    Your BMR is about 1400/day. So depending on how active you are in your job/hobbies/routines your body uses about 1700-1800 calories of energy per day. If you feel satisfied/energetic on 1200 then keep to it - but allow yourself wiggle room if you have days where you think you need more. Exercise of course burns additional, but nothing drastic. A 1 hour run might burn 250-300 extra calories at your size for example.

    Your key to success will be a combination of patience, accuracy and honesty. Accuracy in your logging is important because you have a smallish deficit to work with. But as you found before, you can do this. Just have to stick with it.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited July 2016
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    Is it possible that the 1200 calories really is only a small deficit based on your TDEE.. I am 5'4" and 1200 calories is the bare min MFP gives me to loose around 6 ounces max a week...
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,654 Member
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    Try eating 80-85% of what you burn and not having a pre conception about how much you will lose. Track your weight using a trending weight over time program. Engage in healthy exercise when you can. Enjoy.
  • dopeysmelly
    dopeysmelly Posts: 1,390 Member
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    If you feel satisfied with the calorie/macro targets you have, and you're still losing (at whatever rate), then I reckon you should feel pretty good about yourself! Just worry about the longer term weight trend not the actual rate you lose weight.

    The vacation weight will go as soon as you go back to old habits, so don't worry about it.
  • Cortneyrenee04
    Cortneyrenee04 Posts: 1,117 Member
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    You'll lose with more calories, just at a slower (more sustainable!) rate. We all want something as fast as possible, but it best to be slow and steady for long term results.

    How do you feel on 1200? Are you weighing your foods?

    I'm happiest sticking to fruits and veggies because I can eat so much, volume wise, and never really feel hungry.
  • Caroline393
    Caroline393 Posts: 71 Member
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    I recently bought a food scale, but I feel like I've been pretty accurate with my logging. And I go to the gym about 3-4 times a week. 1200 is a challenge but I can do it when I'm the one making and planning all my meals. It's when I'm out with family or friends (like on vacation) that things tend to go awry. Eating low cal and logging everything is very difficult when you're eating out for every meal and don't have the best access to nutrition info :P But I'll keep doing what I've been doing since I was making progress
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
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    Caroline393 wrote: »
    I've been on MFP for a couple of months now and was doing well until I was away on vacation for two weeks. Now that I'm back, I'm feeling kind of burnt out and have lost some of my motivation. I'm also questioning what my calorie goal should be, because I've seen a lot of people saying that 1200 is too low, etc. I'm a 21 year old female, 5'3" tall, my start weight was 153, I lost 7 lbs but gained some back on vacation, so I'm currently at 150. My goal weight is 120 lbs. I set my goal to lose 2 lbs per week, which everyone seems to say is too aggressive, but in reality I haven't been losing 2lbs per week (except for once). It's been more like 0.5-1 lb a week. So my fear is that if I loosen up and give myself more calories per day, I won't lose anything at all. However, I want this to be sustainable and not to damage my already horrendously slow metabolism (although people have told me that's a myth too), so what would be the right combination of sustainability, progress, and healthiness?

    If you chose sedentary for activity level, then the Overall energy intake it predicted for you is around 1822 calories. Lose two pounds would be 1000 off of that, however, MFP is hard coded to stop at 1200 calories no matter what. If you adjust your goal to 1 lb a week it will likely just up your calories by a 100 so not a big difference either way.
  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    edited July 2016
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    You could just eat at your BMR, this ensures any activity you do during the day will put you in a deficit but not too steep (unless you're extremely active)

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