1,600 calories?

dlopez754 · March 2019

Hey guys! So I am so motivated and determined to loose these 10 extra pounds. I am a female 5’5 and am pretty active. I weigh 140 pounds. The app says I’m allowed to eat 1,600 calories. Does that sound about right? Idk I feel like it sounds like a lot? I mean, i know I eat more than that now, lol, but I need to get back on track!

JCoop9 · March 2019

You should give it a try for a couple of weeks. You can always lower it if you aren't losing any weight.

Lillymoo01 · March 2019

JCoop9 wrote: »

You should give it a try for a couple of weeks. You can always lower it if you aren't losing any weight.

Great suggestion but for a female, you want to give it at least a full menstrual cycle to rule out water retention from changing hormones which can mask weight loss.

amusedmonkey · March 2019

This sounds about right. With only 10 pounds to lose you shouldn't be aiming to lose fast anyway. Give it a try for a few weeks.

NorthCascades · March 2019

Why does that sound like a lot?

jnomadica · March 2019

Our stats are almost exactly the same. I was eating 1600 for most of the past month and dropped 2.5 pounds, which I thought was great since there was a week’s vacation in there where I certainly ate more than that target (though tried hard not to go crazy!). So it seems quite appropriate to me. Good luck!

TavistockToad · March 2019

Sounds about right to me.

Try it for 4- 6 weeks and then tweak as necessary

shadow2soul · March 2019

Sounds fine to me. Try it for a few weeks and see what happens.

I’m 5’4.5” and lose weight eating around 2000 calories (Total not net). Here recently I dropped to averaging 1600, because I couldn’t exercise and my weight loss sped a bit despite me being a couch potato (my trend weight dropped 4.6lbs in 28 days). I was aiming to keep the same rate of loss (0.5lb per week I had prior to stopping exercise), but I missed the mark. I am still seeing an avg loss of a little over 1lb per week and I have started working out again (easing my way back in with 10-30 min workouts).

Edit: Oh and my weight is probably also important here. I started Feb with a trend weight of 136.7lbs and am now seeing a trend of 132.1lbs.

brittlb07 · March 2019

I am 132.0 but started at 146.0 January 1. I’ve been on 1350 calories a day. I am 5’4’’. I know 1600 wasn’t quite aggressive enough for me but I’m also not super active.

Nativestar56 · March 2019

It sounds like a good starting point. Try it for several weeks and re-evaluate. I'm 5'5 and pretty active and I maintain on around 2100. What is your weekly loss set to? I only did 0.5lb a week at 140, it takes longer but I didn't feel deprived, it was sustainable and I was still able to fuel my workouts.

savithny · March 2019

Women have been so warped by the "1200 calories" thing. All the magazines running 1200-calorie plans. All the websites recommending it as "what women need."

I have met MANY women who literally think that 1200 a day is what women need to *maintain*. It's crazy.

If you are as active as you say you are, then 1600 is VERY reasonable to lose on at a reasonable rate.

Maxematics · March 2019

savithny wrote: »

Women have been so warped by the "1200 calories" thing. All the magazines running 1200-calorie plans. All the websites recommending it as "what women need."

I have met MANY women who literally think that 1200 a day is what women need to *maintain*. It's crazy.

If you are as active as you say you are, then 1600 is VERY reasonable to lose on at a reasonable rate.

I'm going to hope that whoever chose to "Woo" your post meant it as a cheer because you're absolutely right. I'm 5'3" and 113 pounds and I maintain on 2000 to 2300 calories per day. I cannot count the amount of times someone has assumed that I exercise for hours upon hours daily just to be able to eat that amount.

I have read countless stories about people who claim they maintain on 1200 calories and that anything more is just "so much food". I always think about how they're most likely not using a food scale and are eating far more than they think. I hate the mentality of the "who can easily eat the lowest amount of calories" game because it's a silly game to play, it's not fun at all, and it leads many women to crash diet and believe they have failed because they feel hungry eating 1200 calories. 1200 calories to lose or maintain is only absolutely necessary for those who are short, old, extremely sedentary, have a rare medical condition, or some combination of those.

MelanieCN77 · March 2019

I'm 5'5 and 135 and at sedentary those are my maintenance cals according to MFP. Just give it a try and see what happens in a month or so.

AnnPT77 · March 2019

At 5'5", sedentary outside of intentional exercise, and 59 years old at the time, I hit 140 pounds (on the way down) on 9/29/2015. My goal at that point was 1500 net calories, and I ate back most/all of my exercise calories, so I was actually eating around 1800 gross calories daily. During the month of October, 2015, I lost 8.2 pounds . . . which is too much to be losing at my (then) size.

Recognizing this, I increased to 1600 calories on 11/2, still eating back the exercise calories, and seriously ate over goal (1000+ calories over goal) several times during November (intentionally: Multiple days around my birthday, US Thanksgiving). Lost another 2.6 pounds in November.

I admit to being a seriously good li'l ol' calorie burner, but I think at your age and activity level, 1600 calories is not "too many", and it could even be too few for best health.

P.S. This is actual data, not false precision. I looked up weight data in Libra, and log data on MFP.

oneillm45 · March 2019

I'm 5'6 and am down about 8 or 9lb since the start of the year on 1600 calories a day. Currently 148 ish.

1,600 calories?

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