Adjusting calories

No you shouldn't decrease your calories.

In addition to the above, how tall are you? How much do you weigh? How much are you trying to lose?

If you're short and close to a healthy weight, your maintenance calories may not be high. In my case, even when I started on MFP, it calculated my maintenance calories as 1450. It deducted 250 cals to give me a deficit. So, I started out losing 0.5lb a week on 1200 cals. After a while, when I re-saved my guided set up, my maintenance calories for my new weight had, not surprisingly, gone down. Deducting 250 cals would have taken me below 1200, so I got given 1200. It just meant that my deficit was smaller, and I lost weight at a slower rate. As I lost more weight, my deficit got smaller and the weight loss slowed further.

Exercise gave me more calories though.

legblonde355 wrote: »

Strudders67 wrote: »

No you shouldn't decrease your calories.

In addition to the above, how tall are you? How much do you weigh? How much are you trying to lose?

If you're short and close to a healthy weight, your maintenance calories may not be high. In my case, even when I started on MFP, it calculated my maintenance calories as 1450. It deducted 250 cals to give me a deficit. So, I started out losing 0.5lb a week on 1200 cals. After a while, when I re-saved my guided set up, my maintenance calories for my new weight had, not surprisingly, gone down. Deducting 250 cals would have taken me below 1200, so I got given 1200. It just meant that my deficit was smaller, and I lost weight at a slower rate. As I lost more weight, my deficit got smaller and the weight loss slowed further.

Exercise gave me more calories though.

I’m 5 5 and want to lose 40 lbs

I'm also 5'5", lost 50+ pounds 6+ years ago, so we're similar. I'm still at a healthy weight since (mid-120s pounds now).

How long have you been at 1200? Do you exercise and eat those exercise calories in addition? How fast have you been losing weight recently, such as how much have you lost in the past month?

With 40 pounds to lose, I'd say you don't want to be shooting to lose much more than maybe about 1 pound a week. A little above that might be OK for another 10-15 pounds, if you don't have lots of other sources of physical/psychological stress in your life. (Calorie deficit is a physical stress. Cumulative stress load across all sources can increase health risks. No one needs that, especially during a pandemic.)

Fast loss can be counterproductive: Not just the health risks (a pretty big deal), but fast loss can sap energy in subtle ways, reduce calorie burn in daily life or via exercise intensity, actually result in slowed weight loss compared to expectations. In addition, fast loss (high stress) can lead to creeping water retention, hiding fat loss progress on the scale.

I admit I'm mysteriously a good li'l ol' calorie burner, but even though I started at age 59 while hypothyroid, 1200 calories was way too low for me (I got weak and fatigued, corrected as soon as I realized, but it took weeks to recover back to normal strength/energy. That was pretty minor: I was lucky nothing worse happened, other than maybe a little hair thinning a few weeks later - that effect tends to be a delayed one.) I lost most of the 50+ pounds eating 1400-1600 calories *plus* all exercise calories, so gross intake usually 1700-2000 calories most days. YMMV, of course.

Your actual weight loss rate, averaged over at least one full menstrual cycle, is your best gauge of whether you're eating at a reasonable level. So, back at that original set of questions: How fast have you been losing for the past month or so?