how do I and what happens if I reset my daily calories because 1200 seems to be too high for me.

By your other post, you have 60lbs to lose. I would be very surprised if 1200cals is a sensible deficit for you.
What y is your current height/weight?

cmriverside wrote: »

I started exactly where you are, 220, 5'7"-5'8" and 54 years old. I also started at 220 pounds and set at 1200 calories. I also posted a thread once about, "Can't hit my 1200 calories," so I'm not judging - but - eat real food. Maybe sprinkle a half scoop of whey (not three shakes,) in your yogurt or porridge/oatmeal once a day and add some fruit and walnuts.

(snip rest of truly excellent advice in this post, for length)

@4freedom32, I started out shorter than you (5'5"), older than you (59) and lighter than you (183). I started out at 1200 calories plus all exercise calories, too. I felt great, energetic, not hungry . . . then suddenly I hit a wall. I was weak and fatigued, and it took multiple weeks to recover back to normal, even though I increased my eating as soon as I realized. I had lost too fast. After, I had some of the same problems Riverside reported above, too. And that all happened when I was eating a generally well-rounded diet of actual food, i.e., getting a bunch of the nutrients that your current eating routine seems to be missing.

Be careful. Please be careful.

Don't try to lose fast.

Eat foods, not mostly supplements. Supplements are to help tide you over if you can't hit reasonable nutrition goals, until you can figure out how to get the nutrition from food. They're not a food substitute, and not "healthier" - very much not healthier.

If you're getting too full on "healthier calories", then eat some less filling "healthy calories" like nuts, seeds, peanut butter, more avocados, olive oil, etc. (Calories aren't really healthy or unhealthy. Overall ways of eating are healthy/unhealthy, individual foods contribute to that. Calories are just energy, nothing more.) Heck, it's even OK to eat a less nutrient-dense treat food now and then, once your nutrition is in place, as long as you can eat that type of treat in moderation.

Try to learn new habits you can follow long enough to lose the amount you want to lose, without causing bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, giving up altogether, or truly serious health consequences. Eating too little, not getting well-rounded nutrition: Those are things that can depress immune system, cause gallbladder problems, trigger loss of hard-to-replace muscle tissue, and more.

The real prize in all of this is finding new habits that can continue almost on autopilot to first reach a healthy weight, then stay there long term, ideally permanently. Riverside has accomplished meaningful loss, and long-term maintenance, I know. So have I (so far, 8 years).

Please give this some thought. Others of us here want to see you succeed, but are concerned. I for sure want you to succeed: Reaching a healthy weight and staying there has been a huge quality of life improvement for me. I want that for everyone, you included.

Best wishes!

4freedom32 wrote: »

1 of 2
Hi Yall!
I don't know how reply to yall that replied to me individually,
(snip for reply length)

On the post you want to reply to, click "quote" underneath that post. That will copy the post into the reply box, with some funny-looking stuff in square brackets surrounding the quoted post. Type your reply before the first square bracket, or after the last one. (You can do fancier stuff, but leave that for later.)

I'm not used to eating like this throughout the day, and my body has always lost weight nutritionally eating higher protein and lower carbs. I'm trying to restart my metabolism because I think it's been pretty much asleep for years.

It's mostly not that our metabolism that goes to sleep, it's that our lifestyle slows down, and we lose muscle mass. I'm saying that not as a blythe and perky 20-something, but as a woman way over 50 (68) who lost weight at 59-60, already menopausal, already severely hypothyroid.

We can increase our daily life activity:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

We can add exercise, with strength-challenging exercise having potential extra benefits. Over-exercising, though, is counterproductive - can make us drag through the day and burn fewer daily life calories. (As we get fitter, we can gradually do more, if we wish.)

We can get adequate protein, which quite a few people later in life don't do, especially women who may head for salads and veggies during weight loss. As we age, it also becomes more important to spread the protein through the day, as we metabolize it less efficiently. You're obviously pursuing protein, though I think it would be better to get it from food, such as ideas here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

I'd suggest trying to think about all of this is terms of things you can actually DO, not about things that are vague (like "slow metabolism") or un-changeable (like menopause).

Riverside's right: Under-eating is more likely to cause so-called "slow metabolism" than cure it. Something called "high calorie flux" is a better bet: Moving more (in non-exhausting, non-fatigue-triggering ways), getting stronger, and eating as much as possible alongside losing weight at a sensibly moderate pace (not as fast as possible).

P.S. LOL back atcha, @cmriverside. Sorry I missed a cue.

4freedom32 wrote: »

I set my daily calorie count to 1200 but I'm having a hard time hitting this on a daily basis. I want to reset it to 1000/daily but 1) i don't know how to, and 2) does this change the numbers for the days I've completed so far? I started on Sept 1st and have lost 6lbs so far.
Thanks for any info/advice!
Rose

bold is mine


@4freedom32 ~ Your first post says you started Sept 1st and your post was on September 7th, so this is 1st week. How is it going now?

A few thoughts.... It is not unusual to have a water weight woosh loss the first week. After that, it might have a different pattern depending on a 30 day hormone cycle - that has a good week or 2 of normal loss and a week or 10 days holding the same or even increasing...

if you use the 'guided set-up' for goals based on your personal information (height, weight, activity level) and then choose a weight loss per week from 1/2 to 2 pounds, MFP will suggest the amount to eat to make that happen...

then, if you actually experiment and try that level for a whole 30 day cycle or 2 or 3 cycles, check the same time each month about day 3 of a new cycle - and see if your actual rate matches the suggested amount to eat.

it takes patience to trust the process and actually do this, but the scale will fluctuation with water weight retention and other things that happen in the body - which are not actually real weight gain unless you are actually over-eating more than your body needs.... At the height and weight you also shared, 1200 calories is probably a crash diet and also difficult to actually do. There are so many enjoyable nourishing foods - can eat so many different things - just not too much - and that is where the food tracker will help you understand how much! Hope you find an eating approach that works well for you both physically and emotionally - it's worth exploring. Cheers

Talking from experience here, if u feel like 1200 calories is too high it means ur eating too little. If u have a calorie deficit of -500 calories it could leat to u losing at least one kg per week (for some bodies at least) and this is unhealthy as it could lead to muscle loss and its difficult to maintain this weight so even if u eat more than required ur weight will go all over the place. I suggest having healthy snacks in the middle (At least apples or eggs cuz like they are both 90 calories). You need to be patient to lose weight