Feeling a failure

I would be miserable and unable to stick to any plan at 1200 cals. You could easily up it and still lose. The bottom line is if you are eating too little you just won't stay on track so its not sustainable. Think long term, you could eat 1500 cals, work out and still lose.

TavistockToad wrote: »

partyqueen1234 wrote: »

Am 5.4 weight 15.7 stone walk about 4.7 miles a day along either 30 min work put 3 times a week

you don't need to eat so little given your stats.

up your calories and you've got much more chance of sticking to it

^^^^ This

You didn't give us your age, so I plugged in 30 into a TDEE calculator. With your activity level, I can almost guarantee you that 1200 calories is too aggressive. That probably be the number MFP spits out for you if you entered sedentary. If you did that, you absolutely should be eating at least a portion of your exercise back.

You could probably eat 1600+ and still have your 1000 cal deficit for 2 pounds/week.

If I was miserable at 1600, I would certainly consider going up from there.

I believe mindset is an important part of being able to lose weight. If you go a little off the rails, don't beat yourself up. Try and figure out what went wrong and then keep this in mind as you begin a new fresh day. Being positive will really help.

A 1200 calorie goal is not for everyone, but it is possible, especially if you are shorter or not working out a lot, to eat and be satisfied on 1200 calories. I find it depends on what kind of foods you are filling those calories with. If you are eating a lot of heavy calorie carb packaged foods, then yes, it would be hard to be satisfied with only 1200.

I find I am able to eat a balanced diet on 1200 calories by including a lot of vegetables and fruit, plus more limited meat and dairy products. I also plan in an occasional glass of wine and a daily snack of a dark chocolate cookie that I like. Between that and the water, I am pretty satisfied. I plan ahead, so I know what I can have and still make my goal. I also shift some of the food around in the day. For example, my cookie treat might be a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack one day or dessert on another. What makes a big difference for me is that I try to find a variety of low-calorie recipes so I am not always eating the same thing.

If you increase your exercise, you can start with 1200 calories and earn additional ones through your walking or workouts.

We are each different and what works for one of us may not work for someone else. It takes a while to figure out what will work for you. Good luck with your journey!

I think by bar the OP means BMR?

Right, OP. Here's the thing: Your BMR isn't actually the amount of calories you're burning in a day. It's the amount of calories you'd use up in a day if you literally laid in bed the whole day long. Your Basal Metabolic Rate is just that- the absolute baseline of calories that your body needs to keep you breathing in and out, your blood pumping around your body, and your organs doing the things they do. Including, by the way, your brain!

You're actually gonna be using up a bunch more calories than your BMR. There's the BMR as your baseline. Then your walking- that's a little over 100 calories per mile at your weight, so let's call it an extra 450 cals if you're walking 4.5 miles per day. That has us up to 2226 cals/day. Then you've got your gym workouts- what you'll burn there depends on your workout of course, but my estimating rule of thumb is about 100cals per 10 mins of cardio. So if you're doing 30 mins of cardio 4 times a week, that's another 1200 cals/week- let's make that 150 cals extra per day. Throw in an extra few calories which you'll burn up literally walking around the house

So that's a very-rough TDEE (Total Energy Expenditure- all the calories your body burns in a day between activities and just keeping your body going) of around 2500 calories per day. More or less. Ish. But it's a good place to start.

Now. You want to lose 2 pounds a week, right? That's a deficit of about 1000 calories per day. So to lose that, you can eat 1500 cals/day. That's 300 more than the 1200 you had planned for yourself!

And here's the thing: eating those extra 300 calories is good for you, and it'll help you to lose weight in the long run! Why? A couple reasons. First, it's really not recommended to go for a deficit of more than a couple of pounds a week unless you have a serious medical reason to or your starting weight is way higher than yours is. There's a few reasons for that! For one thing, if you use a really aggressive deficit your body will just start eating itself. Not just the fat. The muscles too- and if you don't have those muscles you'll just end up feeling weak with flabby skin and not looking great at all. But also, you're gonna feel awful on the way there. I'm talking exhaustion, moodiness, huge food cravings, sluggish mind (your brain uses a BUNCH of calories to keep you thinking!). You'll end up having less energy to put into those workouts so you won't end up getting the benefit of them. Your concentration will be shot 'cause your body will ramp up those food cravings till you can think of nothing else, and it'll be really difficult to keep control when there is food around you.

None of that is good!

So here's what I'd recommend: ramp your way down. Spend a couple weeks on a 500 cal deficit (eating 2000 calories per day) and see how you do. See what kinds of foods fill you up more for less calories- you'll need to know that when you increase your deficit. Get used to tracking. See how much you lose, so you know if your TDEE estimates were any good. Then ramp your way down. Do a week on a 750 cal deficit (that's 1750 calories/day). See how well you tolerate it. Then, if you're okay to ramp up to the aggressive deficit of 1500? Go for it. Your body will be more used to existing on less and you won't be shocking your system by going from surplus straight to aggressive deficit. And you'll have a few weeks of learning what works for you behind you.

Best of luck!