Higher Calories to lose Weight

MFP has a default of 50/30/20. But I find that many carbs to be too high. Plus I'm hungry on that all the time. But you could try the default and see how it works. If you are athletic, then high carb is easier to burn. You have to experiment and individualize for your long term sustainability.

If you go into your diary and scroll to the bottom there's a button for "nutrition" which will lead to your macros breakdown. You can check it as you log food to see how you're doing. It is based on auto generated ratios, but if you want to adjust it manually go into the "goals" menu and you can set your own if you'd like.

psulemon wrote: »

These are general and fats and carbs are highly variable. Increasing calories doesn't exactly help you burn more fat (should actually slow it down) but what happened when I did this, was an increase in daily calories burned from other activities and higher compliance. So I actually lost more weight on 2300 calories than 1800.

Note that she's holding a very young baby in her profile picture. I'm willing to bet the "increase your calories" advice was with respect to making sure she consumes enough calories to be able to breastfeed that baby. (If that's the case, 1750 actually sounds a little low, but maybe she's tiny.)

WRT the original question, you can pretty much eat whatever you want within that calorie budget. Now, I'm not suggesting a diet of junk food. The more nutrient rich your food, the healthier you and baby will be. Almost everyone will agree that lots of veggies is a good thing. To that, make sure you add good protein sources and healthy fats. Some people do well with fruit and whole grains; others prefer a low carb/high fat diet.

How you spread out your calories is also going to be personal choice. I find I want to have somewhere in the 1000-1200 range before dinner with 700-800 left for dinner + an optional evening snack. (I was averaging 1750/day; have now increased to 1800-1900ish.) Are you a "three meals a day" type, a "big dinner" type or a "grazer" who wants six mini-meals throughout the day?