Women who need to lose 50+ how many calories do you eat?

Remember as you lose weight you will need to lower your calories to continue losing so automatically starting at the absolute minimum (1200) isn't going to be the best plan in the long run. Also it makes absolutely no difference what other people eat. You need to base your calories on YOU - not random people in the universe. Put YOUR information into MFP with a 1lb a week loss goal and see what calories it gives you. Eat that amount plus your exercise calories.

I'm starting off (again) at 1200 calories which is what MFP allows me with a sedentary setting. Most of the time I'm pretty sedentary.....over 60, retired, not much exercise and I like seeing quick results in the beginning which motivates me. It is a bit hard to stick to 1200 cals, so I use the award system. If I want to eat a little dessert or extra calories I make myself do some exercise or some other activity like cleaning house, grocery shopping, or yard work, (activities above and beyond sedentary) and eat the extra calories I earn for that. Last time I did this I averaged about 1400 or 1500 calories a day with the "earned ones" which is just about right for me. My net stays about 1200 cals, but I basically eat all I want if I'm motivated to work for it. Previously I lost 20 lbs. in two months and another 10 over the next 2 months which worked for me, but then hit a plateau and quit logging, then quit exercising. Over the next 2 years I put it all back on so here I go again.

Beautiful__Ending wrote: »

Thanks everyone. Like I said, I am not exercising right now..I live a pretty sedentary life, that's why I'm a little confused on how many calories to consume..I don't want to be eating too much since I'm not exercising right now, if that makes sense.

The calories you get from MFP presume no exercise. You are supposed to eat exercise calories back.

That said, make time to be active. While it is not necessary for weight loss, you'll be healthier if you do.

Everyone is going to give you a different answer. Try what works for you. I like to stay between 1200 and 1500 calories. My body tends to release the fat faster at this lower calorie consumption. I think if I'm at 2000 calories, my body will retain current weight. Any more than that, I'm gaining. Everyone's BMR (basal metabolic rate - the metabolic rate when your body is in a resting phase ) is different. So what one needs to have a deficit that leads to fat loss may be different than the next person. But to give you a number, try 1500. That's a little more than the low of end of 1200 but not so much as 2000. You can survive well on 1500 calories and not feel deprived. Log everything. Give it a few weeks to see how the 1500 affects your body. If you need more, bump it to 1800. If less, go down to 1300. Your body will respond accordingly. If it needs more or less, it'll tell you.

I stick to around 1600 per day and have a steady 2-3 pound loss per week. I have hypothyroidism and walk a mile a day with hopes to increase my activity now that my knee pain has lessened. But I agree with others that the mfp calculator is a good place to start and you can adjust your goals through some trial and error. I started off at 1200 and wasn't losing so I found it helpful to raise my intake.

I'm 5'4'' and 212 lbs. Ive lost about 40 lbs within the last year eating about 1300-1450 on a keto/low carb diet. These last couple of months I've been eating about 1300-1400 kcals on a vegetarian diet and am close to having lost another 10lbs. There are days I just would like to eat more (e.i 1700kcals) but I try to exercise on those days too. My goal is 120-130lbs

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

ryenday wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

I started off the year needing to lose about 75 lbs. I started out netting (i.e. after exercise) about 2200 calories a day, reducing every couple of weeks or so, and am now around 1800 calories a day. I've lost about 30 pounds so far. To be fair, my metabolism is on the higher end of these things, but I doubt that accounts for all that much difference.

ETA: I think 1200 is bonkers and unnecessary and mostly just an excuse to mask sloppy portion control. I think most people who believe they're eating 1200 calories aren't, and the rest are so miserable I wouldn't bet on them sticking it out. But that's just me. I can be opinionated sometimes.

Just have to say, MFP & on-line calculators estimate I will lose 1 lb a week at 1200. So “bonkers and unnecessary“ is insulting imo. And “an excuse for sloppy portion control” is worse. But you are right about unsustainable, tho, unfortunately. I did 1200 ish (+ an extra protein shake on exercise days) for 6 months and couldn’t take it anymore. I had to bump it up to 1450 this month and probably another before I can face 1200 again. But I don’t lose any weight on 1450 and only lost about 1/3 pound per week on 1200. And no, my portion control isn’t sloppy and yes, I do weigh out everything even the 5 grams of butter or 1 tsp of oil, or 1 oz of nuts, and no I didn’t wreck my metabolism with fad diets, and yes my thyroid is fine according to blood work - and if one does the math, my rate of loss is within 20% margin of error for the expert estimates ...

Sorry to hijack your thread OP, I won’t say anything more on this topic but those types of baseless claims don’t deserve to go unchallenged.

Meh, it's cool. I was being a bit snarky there. I most certainly did not mean to make any statement about you personally, as I don't know you or your life, and there are always exceptions and outliers. My observation could be true for 99.9% of people and still not for you, who knows. There just seems to be a ton of sloppy measuring going on around here, which isn't a moral judgment at all, it's just an observation. When I said "excuse" I meant that a lot of people who think they can only lose weight on "1200 calories" are actually eating more than that and not realizing it. Excuse sounds much more intentional than I meant, so it was a poor choice of words.

Thanks, I’m touchy about this I know. It just totally sucks to have to practically starve myself to lose weight - but so many people here keep telling me that it’s not true- and they don’t know what they are talking about. You totally nailed it tho, I could no longer survive on 1200 and had to stop dieting for a while and move to maintenance. 1200 for extended period of time is not sustainable imo.

I've lost 60 pounds of a 90-100 pound goal. When I first started losing I was dropping 2-3 pounds a week eating 2000 calories a day. After a bit of that and the loss slowing, I lowered my calories to 1900 and stayed there until I was losing less than a pound a week. Then I dropped down to 1700 a week.

Trust me when I say that I am not particularly active (my highest activity days is a brisk walk for 2 hours a day or hiking up a hill for 20 minutes a day). I was really minimally active at first. You do not usually have to automatically drop to 1200 calories in order to succeed at losing when you have 50+ pounds to lose.

I'm trying to lose 30-40 pounds. I'm at 22 lost right now. I eat 1200. But I'm also a stay at home mom, lightly active.