What are your calories set at and exercise per day and how do you stay under your goals

1200 INCLUDES your deficit before exercise. It's your goal to eat AT 1200.....not to eat under. 1200 is a default minimum based on nutritional guidelines. 1200 is one size fits all. If you are extremely sedentary, elderly, or very petite it should be okay.

"Clean" eating has many definitions. It's not necessary for weight loss. Should we eat better during weight loss? Yes, we should make improvements. But, we don't need to be perfect. Not being perfect with our food choices helps us learn about portions for all foods....not just "diet" foods.

My goal is 1400 including exercise. I don't exercise a ton (about the same as I expect to continue for a lifetime). Exercise is a lifestyle change for me also. My goal is 1400 because my job is rather sedentary.....and I'm old. It's not 1400 because I am trying to lose quickly. Quick weight loss often means a higher % of lean muscle loss, I can't afford that at my age. Besides, gaining the muscle back is eating at a surplus & really hard work.

First off, what do you have your weight loss goal set to? 2 pounds a week is my guess? If you have 15-20 pounds to lose, change it to 1 pound MAX. That should increase your daily calories.

Next, the # that MFP tells you to eat includes your deficit already. You don't need to cut lower than that.

I pretty much eat what I want, but factor in calories and my nutritional needs. Personally I'm aiming for about 1400-1500 per day right now. Last night's dinner was spaghetti squash with sauce and parmesan cheese, shrimp sauteed in a little olive oil and seasonings, and asparagus. ~280 calories and very filling. Having leftovers/repeat for lunch today.

catmomfat wrote: »

MFP assigned in 1200 per day. I'm trying to keep a good deficit of at least 100 per day, but for me, who is not a super clean, cook three meals a day, only eat healthy foods person, I'm having to spend about1.5 to 2 hours per day working out to stay at or near 1100. I'm trying to loose 15 pounds, probably ultimately 20. Before starting this I worked out about an hour 4 times a week, but realized after charting calories I was eating AT LEAST 2000 a day and often close to 3000 on days where meals out, office parties involving cake, or beer/chips and queso were involved, which has resulted in a twelve pound weight gain over the last ten or so years. I know that's not much, but realizing I can no longer zip my College shorts means I need to get a handle on it.

So after this long story, what do you eat or do to stay under your goals? I don't eat Meat or Eggs. I don't like bread. Seriously. I love cheese, Olives, Nuts, Beans, Setian, Tofu, vegetarian foods with cheese, all veggies, all fruits, any thing super hot and spicy and chips and crackers.

If you were eating more than 2000 calories/day (and often close to 3000 calories/day) before and only gaining 1 pound per year, dropping to 1200 is beyond overkill.

Those numbers mean you were maintaining your weight on at least 2000 calories/day. The gains can pretty clearly be attributed to the "almost 3000 calories days" since it would only take 4 of them per year to justify gaining 1 pound/year if you maintained on 2000 calories/day.

So... if you can maintain your weight on 2000 calories/day (minimum) and you don't have a lot of weight to lose, you want a maximum deficit of 500 calories/day - which corresponds to losing 1 pound/week. At a healthy (or very slightly higher than healthy) weight, that's as fast as your body can lose fat without digging into muscle mass.

So... you should be aiming for at least 1500 calories/day. From what you've said, I'd personally start you at a more conservative 1750 calories/day (which corresponds to half a pound loss per week if you were maintaining on 2000; that was likely an underestimate - so 1750 is likely a bigger deficit than that).

Now... The math I did was based on total calories burned so it already factors in your exercise calories since I was using your eating history to do it. If you're actually eating 1750 calories/day *total*, you're probably eating at the right level for healthy weight loss for you. Unless you're losing weight faster than 1 pound/week. If you are, raise the calories until you slow down to that level.

Others have already noted that your calorie goal is a target not a maximum; a few days slightly over and a few days slightly under would be considered normal.

To answer your second question, I aim for about 2200 calories/day to lose just under 1 pound/week. (I should probably really adjust that down to 2100 - but my activity level will go back up in the summer, so then I'd just have to raise it again anyway.) I eat pretty much anything I want - but I try to make healthy choices as much as possible. Breakfast is usually either almond butter on toast or eggs on toast. Weekday lunches are usually a sandwich with lots of veggies. Dinner can be anything - pasta with sauce, meat/veg/starch, frittata with kale chips, pizza with salad, sausage/perogies/veg, you name it. I try and make sure it's fairly balanced and has vegetables (and comes in below 600 calories most of the time). For snacks, I like fruit, vegetables, wasa crackers with cream cheese, homemade muffins, Greek yogurt, cheese and crackers, lunch meat, chocolate, all kinds of things.

For the record, I'm 50 lbs overweight. About 5'4" ish 190 lbs.

I average 1450 calories a day (weigh everything with a food scale and paying attention the cals on packaged food, which I only eat when I absolutely HAVE to), but some days I eat as low as 800 calories and some days I eat as high as 2300 calories. In all, over time, I average 1450 a day.

I drink 3 liters of water a day (at least)

Even though I work in front of a computer (sedentary work), I do 5 10-minute walks every day (my phone and computer alert me when its walk time), I also do 30 minutes of cardio every day and weight lifting (mostly with dumb bells and body weight exercises) 3x a week.
I also do core exercises daily, and my core strength has progressed A LOT.

I've been doing this for 4 months consistently and I have not lost any weight, so my trainer is asking me to keep with my plan since I am getting stronger but to see a doctor ASAP to rule any unknown issues out.