Women weighing about 220lbs - How many calories are you aiming for?

I lost 80 lbs and I never ate less than 1650, and I was 213 lbs when I started. You don't have to starve yourself to lose weight, and losing slower is better in the long run than giving up because you're hungry all the time or feel too deprived.

Yeah, I'm shooting for 1700 or so.

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

littlecrunchy190 wrote: »

Correct, and it sets other macros as well but those are not what I am using either!

I have always found that following the calorie goals produced the about the predicted results (weight maintenance, gain, loss). It sounds like this may not be true for people posting to this thread. Is that the case?

When I weigh my food on a digital food scale, eat the calories MFP gives me, eat some (but not all) of my exercise calories, I lose as expected over the course of a month.

Tweaking macros is really just for satiety, though, not weight loss.

At 220, I had my activity level set to sedentary, and was at 1400 for 2lbs/week. I added exercise manually and ate half of what MFP estimated my burn was. So really I was probably eating 16-1700 on active days.

I'm 45, 5'6" and started at around 254lbs - I've been doing 1200 calories/day with occasional cheat days for 3 months and am down just over 30lbs - I'm now at 219lbs. It's coming off slower, maybe 1.5lbs/week. I use my elliptical almost daily (I try to do a 1/2 hr) and aim for 7000 steps/day which also pulls from the elliptical). I don't eat my exercise calories unless I'm having a hungry day. I went to a nutritionist for a while and she was good with the 1200 calories. I have also eliminated almost all beverages outside of one cup of coffee, the rest is all water with lemon - this took a few days to get used to, but now I crave the water and can't stand the thought of soda or iced tea which I used to drink.

I have only been at it for about two weeks. I'm 5 foot 2. I went with the calculator for 2 pounds a week it said 1220. I walk about a mile a day so that subtracts 129 for me. For the first time in a long time, I'm losing. Already 11 poiunds. I actually had gastric sleeve surgery about 10 years ago but had chronic back pain for several years. Gained weight back. The one thing that is different this time is I am really paying attention to the protein. At least 60 grams a day. Sometimes I substitute a 30 gram protein drink. Premier from Costco. If you can do 1400 and lose more power to you. I couldn't lose much with that calorie intake. I am 64 years old so metabolism sucks. Good luck

I'm 14 stone 186lb I think and I'm on 1600 a day but with lots of gym trip during the week to give me extras and I'm losing 2lb a week

amtyrell wrote: »

I started at 218 lbs and eating around 1800 calories in February and now I am at 197lbs and eating around 1600 calories a day more on exercise days.
1400 would be very low and very very aggressive. You should enter your stats into mpg and pick 1lb or 1.5 lbs a week and see what they come up with. Following their calculations I have been doing great over 20lbs down.

Not necessarily. I think it really does vary a lot between individuals. I'm 5'6" and started at 217lbs, and was given a goal of 1500 cals for a 1lb per week loss. I was losing okay on that amount. Soon after I started, I got a fitness tracker which told me (after getting a few weeks of data) that I was burning on average around 1900 per day and not 2000. So I adjusted my goal down to 1400. I am very sedentary, averaging less than 3000 steps most days, and do very little deliberate exercise. Obviously someone who was more active would be able to eat more!

Although my weight loss hasn't been consistent and there have been "whooshes and stalls", it averaged out at a little less than 1lb per week for the whole of last year. I take regular diet breaks and my calories are automatically adjusted downwards every time I reset my weight (smaller bodies need less calories), and by January I was down to 1260 per day. I began to find it hard to feel satisfied with that amount, and I was around 20lbs from my goal, so I changed my settings to lose 0.5lbs per week and got a few more calories back! I wouldn't have been able to deal with a 1200 calorie day when I started this, but my appetite adjusted as I went along. It was only recently that I found it harder to stick to my goal.

OP, depending on how tall you are and how much you want to lose, I'd say set up your profile to lose 1lb a week and see how it goes. You can change your macros if you want to, as well, if you're not happy with the defaults. Choose the activity level that fits your day to day life, and add in any extra exercise you do. Re-evaluate after a few weeks to see what kind of loss you're getting and how you feel on the amount of food you can fit into your day... adjust as needed until you get something that works for you.

Good luck!

I started at 1690 and 216 in Jan. I only set out to lose 1 lb a week. I'm down to 198 and 1560 now, I think. Still set to only lose 1 lb a week. I didn't want to set myself up for failure, so I chose to go easy. I admire those who can do the 2lb a week and lose without crashing/burning.

I'm a little bit lighter, but I eat about 1400-1500 calories plus exercise calories, so all in all I find myself dieting on 1700-2300 calories to lose steadily, but I tend to take maintenance breaks often and end up at a higher number. I also have occasional days where I'm not within calories, days that are much higher or much lower but average to a net of 1400-1500 overall.