Women who eat more than 1800 calories a day !!!!

I eat 2000-2300 most days. I am 28, almost 5'10", and around 195lbs. Fat2fit says I should eat 1800 and change at a sedentary level - well, according to my FitBit, I average almost 9,000 steps per day. In fact, this week I got bumped from the lightly active level to the active level. About a month ago, I increased from 1830 to 2000 on MFP, and have gone over that quite a few times before I got my FitBit and started getting the calorie adjustment from it. According to it, I was eating just right. And it shows, because I have lost over 5lbs in 3 weeks! Before I had lost 7lbs in 7 weeks, but had stalled out for a couple of weeks.

I do not pay much attention to my net once I get to about 2300 cals of food, if I am still under my net. My activity is all from walking/working, so I don't feel the need to eat, say, 2900 calories to meet a net of 2000. If I ate 2400 and have only net 1500, I leave it at that because I'm not doing any high intensity workouts, or lifting. I will start to work exercise in once my schedule allows.

Thank you ladies so much! I thought it was just me who felt tired/ angry only eating 1200 calories a day. I am going to up my calories to a "normal" level now. Maybe my loss will be slower, but in the very least it wont feel like I want to sleep all the time.

Yes, you will be amazed at the energy you have.

Just as a caution to you (and anyone else who is upping their calories due to reading this thread).......

1) you might want to up them gradually - like 150-200/day for a week or so, then take it up again until you get where you want to be

2) do NOT freak out if the scale does crazy things. When I upped my calories the first week in January I had small but steady losses for about 3 weeks straight, then stalled out, then GAINED for a couple weeks, then went back to losing. This is especially true if you are lifting weights - those sore muscles retain water like no other! Give your body time to adjust to being fed.

3) do not freak out if you suddenly feel like you are a starving monster. I had a few days on increased calories where I was like "Oh, I'm so full, how can I ever eat this much food?" that quickly turned into "OMG I'm sooooooo hungry, 2000 calories is not enough, I need to eat eat eat eat eat!" Best I can tell is that you are "waking" your metabolism up and the result is hunger! Don't be afraid of it....but do use your new, increased calorie allowance to even up your meals. I used to eat under 200 calories for breakfast and I always felt like I could eat my arm by lunchtime. When I initially upped my calories I only took breakfast up by about 50 calories or so and was still so very hungry at noon. Now I happily eat 400-500 calories for breakfast and I feel satisfied and ready to kill it at my morning workout session!

Minimum of 1700 calories a day, and when I exercise, I eat them ALL back. Sometimes I also borrow other people's calories because I don't have enough and I'm still hungry. I've lost 20lbs.

I eat around 2000 calories a day :-) friend me if you would like some support! :flowerforyou:

You have lovely abs! Mine are still a work in progress....I hope they look like yours someday!

I eat 1800-2000 a day. I'm 5'8", 168lbs, goal weight is in the 155lb range. When I first set up MFP, I had it at 1lb per week loss. That only gave me 1550 calories. I couldn't do it; was always hungry/tired. Switched to 0.5lb a week and the bump in calories (official net is 1740) has made a huge difference.

Bump!!! I really need to hear all these success stories. I'm upping my calories as of right now!! Thanks everyone for sharing! Feel free to friend me, I can always use this motivation!

I eat around 900 net per day because I read on here a while ago that short people shouldn't eat a lot as we don't burn as much. (I'm 4'11"). MFP has 1150 cals a day at 0.8lb a week weightloss for me. It was hard to stick to at first but i'm slowly adjusting. However I don't want to adjust to such a low figure if I could and should be eating more

I work out around 3-4 times a week burning 300 cals if the gym machines are to be believed.

That's completely not true. I have a friend on here who is your height and eats 1800 a day to LOSE and she is only 100lb.

I'm 5'6", 145lbs after losing 35, and still looking to lose another 5-10. I have my calories set at 1740 for maintenance (as if I were sedentary, which I am often not but it's hard to track running after children and carrying a 20+ pound baby). I then add 300 more calories for nursing, eat all my exercise calories, go over my limit about twice a week, and eat way too much chocolate. As long as I stay away from a lot of sodium, I still consistantly, but slowly, lose weight. Go figure but it works for me.

Minimum of 1700 calories a day, and when I exercise, I eat them ALL back. Sometimes I also borrow other people's calories because I don't have enough and I'm still hungry. I've lost 20lbs.

hahaha, I love the "borrow other people's calories" statement !!

hahaha that made me laugh

This thread is amazing! I was eating around 1400 cals a day, and lately I've been feeling so sluggish and haven't had much energy to work out. After reading this last night I upped my cals to 1600 and ate my exercise calories back from exercise and I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and have more energy than ever! I also woke up feeling like a hungry beast! I am going to slowly up my calories to 1800 or so. I hit my goal weight last autumn, but managed to gain 2 lbs back, but it could be muscle. I'm 5'5", 22 and weigh 111-112lbs. I'd love for women who are eating high calories to add me! My diary is open.