Calorie limit

How far over have you been going? What did you set your weight loss target to? I found that 1200 calories/day was way too little for me, and by increasing my target, I was more consistent with hitting it.

niamhdean97 wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

How far over have you been going? What did you set your weight loss target to? I found that 1200 calories/day was way too little for me, and by increasing my target, I was more consistent with hitting it.

About 300-400 😢 my target is 1 pound a week

On the plus side, at 1 lb/week, you are still in a calorie deficit, just a very tiny one (100-200 calories).

@kimny72 Has the next questions I would be asking.

niamhdean97 wrote: »

kimny72 wrote: »

What is your height and weight?
Are you hitting your protein, fat, and fiber goals?
How long have you been trying to eat 1460?
Are you doing much exercise?

Height is 5"10, weight is about 11 stone 10 pounds

I'm not sure I'll have to have a look as I forget to check these

Since Monday

Only walking more as I'm a full time uni student and single mum so hard to find the time but want to increase it

So am I mathing correct, that's 164 lbs? You are already a healthy weight for your height. For some people in that zone, even 1 lb per week is too difficult.

It can take some time for your appetite to adjust to a deficit. Why not change your goal to 0.5 lbs per week and start paying attention to hitting protein, fat, and fiber (these are typically filling for most people)? Then after a couple of weeks of doing that comfortably, if you still want to, increase to 1 lb per week and try again. Or stay at 0.5 lbs, assuming you have the patience to not see the scale move every week that goes along with that.

If you can increase your steps, I found walking bought me some extra cals to eat without increasing my appetite.

Lay down some accurate data in your food log and do some brainstorming about stuff like scheduling more cals at times of day you struggle with hunger, figuring out which macros fill you up, and where you waste cals on foods that don't fill you up. Give it time - you'll figure it out!

My best advice is to not stress over calories and just eat whole natural foods. The foods your great grandma would recognize as food Worrying about calories and the scale is stressful and a waste of time. You stated that it makes you feel down. Throw off those calorie shackles and eat intuitively and healthily. Also go outside and move and enjoy trails, parks, and playing with friends. If it's too cold outside you can always walk in the mall or other stores or if you're lucky enough to have a gym

I think you and I have just started logging our foods at about the same time (high five, my friend!) and with *my* goal of 1630, I don't think I could tolerate 1460. I overshot my goal of 1630 by about 100 calories yesterday, so I would be so hungry at 1460! Oof! I'm still poking at my goal of 1630 to see which recipes I can use to have a good protein and fat content to make me more full (I've found that my recipes tend to be carb-heavy and low protein) and am using this startup time to analyze my food rather than stress out about meeting my calorie goal right away. That might be helpful to you as well. What meals and snacks can we eat that have a good calorie/protein/fat/carb ratio? Do we like how they taste? How do they make us feel? What substitutions can we make in the recipes that make them fit our lifestyle, our wallet, and our dietary needs?

cuteangelkitten wrote: »

My best advice is to not stress over calories and just eat whole natural foods. The foods your great grandma would recognize as food Worrying about calories and the scale is stressful and a waste of time. You stated that it makes you feel down. Throw off those calorie shackles and eat intuitively and healthily. Also go outside and move and enjoy trails, parks, and playing with friends. If it's too cold outside you can always walk in the mall or other stores or if you're lucky enough to have a gym

I understand that you feel passionate about this and I'm glad that this had worked for you. However, this isn't something that works for everyone and it hasn't worked for me. My family has a history of extreme dysfunction around food and I don't have a good sense of "intuition" for what is good for me to eat and when. Are there things I like to eat, things that are "whole" and "natural?" Sure. But in addition to sometimes having massive amounts of calories (one of the home-cooked, whole, natural meals I recently analyzed had over 1,000 calories, and that's without a drink or dessert), I tend to go heavy on the carbs and get hungry again quickly after I eat.

Will what I'm trying now work for me? Who knows. I just started. Time will tell. But what you are proposing didn't work for me so it certainly won't work for everyone. I wish it did because it would be a lot easier.