Advice on calorie level requirements
 

Hello ladies,

I've been reading your posts for the past few weeks and find them very informative and uplifting. I've lost about 100 pounds on my own by eating better and moving more. These last 50 pounds however are the most difficult. I've heard that calorie counting might help me with these last 50 pounds. I was hoping that if I gave you a little information, someone could help me with the amount of calories I should be eating in order to help with the weight loss.

I'm 5.3 and weigh 200 pounds (down from 300). I walk 30 to 40 minutes 3 times a week. I'm a single mom and therefore spend most of my evening cooking, making lunches, homework, giving baths, doing laundry....any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for the help....keep it up ladies, you are all great inspirations.

Angie

I am 5'5 and I weigh 220 lbs. I walk 5-7 days a week for 50 minutes at a time. I aim to eat between 1800-2000 cals a day, but this varies. Usually I just try to keep my weekly average around 1900 cals. So far I seem to be losing weight!

Hope this helped.

Congratulations on your success so far. You mentioned that you had already improved the quality of the food that you eat so this advice may or may not help. Calorie counting for me is only one piece of the puzzle. I guess I should describe my diet as food journaling where calorie counting is only one of the outcomes. The other outcomes is the montioring of nutrients. I find as time goes on I continue to improve how I eat by taking on new goals all the time.

My plan is not to be a 100% clean eater but I consistently try to find ways that I can improve. I have already won the battle with staying in calories, then Fat/Carb/Protein %, then fiber and finally sodium. My most recent challenge is to find alternatives to HFCS.

So yes I would strongly suggest you try logging your food and tracking everything in more detail. It will probably become clearer where you have room for improvement.

Lori

Congrats on losing 100 pounds!

The best way to figure out your calorie requirements are to track what you are eating and find out the rate you are losing at... then tweak from there! So, if you track for a couple of weeks and realize that you are maintaining, you can drop from there to lose!

Heather is right - it is so individual! That being said, I started at 1600-1800 calories per day when I began this journey at 215 lbs. I exercised about 6 hours per week. This allowed me to lose about 2-2.5 lbs. per week. I am now down to about 1400 cals per day, and losing about 1.5 lbs per week. I just tweaked as I went along as needed.

:wel3fc:

As usual, I agree with Heather. Try tracking what you are doing now and tweeking from there.

Thank you for all the great guidance...much appreciated.

the calculator for weight loss i use say 1750 calories to loose weight i would try to stick between 1750 and 1850 :) hope this helps

From a weight loss book and a prevention magazine.. You multiply 15 by your desire goal weight..with exercise 4 days or more to determined your calories.. Good luck with your last 50 Lbs!:)