[WeightForMe]

Hi! I'm 5'0, currently 158lbs and my "Lose it" app on my phone says i should be eating around 1034 calories a day. I've been following this for 2 1/2 months and have lost weight but i'm getting scared reading threads around here that says starting higher will help later when your body adjusts and you need to lower your intake. I don't ever plan on going below 1000cal. A 1000 per day just seems really low to me now.

Im just wondering what others around my height(if any lol) + weight are consuming per day and still losing?

Also on days i'm not that hungry and i've only ate around say 900cal, do i just leave it at that or force myself to get those extra 100 in?

Thanks in Advance!

[Michou]

I am barely 5'1", I monitor calories and avoid refined food. My daily calorie intake is about 1200 combined with cardio and weights 6 time a week. I do not force myself if I am not hungry because for me it is a matter of changing eating habits such as having the obligation to finish all that is in my plate. Before I use to eat hungry or not and that kept me overweight. On the other hand if another day I am very hungry, I might have more calories than plan but keep it healthy such as vegetable or fruits. It balances itself, a day a little less a few day later a little more, if I average the calorie intake for the week it represent 1200 per day.

[bronzeager]

If you are concerned about your calories being too low, you might check the settings on your LoseIt from when you set it up. What did you set your desired weight loss rate at? If you set it to the maximum (I think it's 2lb per week) it will give you a pretty low calorie goal. You can set this to a different rate if you want (like 1lb per week) to have the program reset your calories or just raise your calories per day allotment manually in the settings. And it's also a good time to reassess: if you go back and track your weight over the 2 1/2 months, at what rate are you actually losing? Maybe you would still be OK with losing at a slower rate.

If you look at the Nutrition section under the "My Day", are you happy with the amounts of fat, carbohydrate, and protein you are getting? (If you go too low on the fat and protein it could affect your energy and health.)

Be aware that as you lose and enter your lower weights, the program will automatically recalculate your BMR according to its formula and set you a lower calorie rate. So it may well end up giving you less than 1000, although I don't know if there are safety settings that kick in at some point.

[JenMusic]

I don't use LoseIt, but I'm surprised it allows calories to be set that low.

I'm 5'1 and 1/2, and the majority of my weight loss was at a daily average (spread over a week) of 1400. When I reached 140, I started to slow down a little bit, and am now experimenting with new calorie levels. I find 1250 a day to be manageable but not fun, due to less variety. I honestly don't know how you're happy at 1034 a day.

Even from a nutrition point of view, 1034 seems really low. Are you able to eat a variety of produce? Get enough good fats? Lean protein? Fiber? It's possible, I suppose, but it seems to me that if you don't need to eat that low, there's no reason to do so.

I'm still figuring this out for me, so I'm not an expert! But I think you're right to wonder about continued weight loss and then maintenance. Maybe upping your calories now and accepting a slower rate of loss would be a good - and healthier - decision for you.

[WeightForMe]

Thanks ladies! I appreciate your input. Maybe i will set it at a lower rate. I think i'm going to start focusing on my calories over the course of the week instead of daily because somedays when i'm hungrier than usual i don't want to beat myself up about it.

[rainbowstripe]

Hey, I'm 5'0" exactly as well. I started at 1800 calories a day in July last year and did that for a couple of months then lowered it to 1600 around October.. then sort of decided on 1500 in December. So I'm still doing 1500 a day, but I balance it out over the week, so some days I'll eat 1700 and others only 1300. I guess it also depends on the exercise...I work retail in a small shop so I don't move around all that much at work. I do 1 hour of Zumba on a Tuesday, and at the moment because I'm being kind of slack, I'll make sure I get in at least 30 minutes of something 2 other days a week... so that's only 2 hours of exercise a week - I'm working on getting in more, but right now I'm happy with how I'm going.
I'm still losing at about a pound a week, it was quicker to begin with of course...but I'm still losing now so I'm happy. I won't lower my calories again til I have a definite plateau (3-4 weeks or more).

If you do end up taking your calorie level higher, be aware that in the first couple of weeks you may notice a bit of gain before you start to lose again.

[bronzeager]

Originally Posted by JenMusic

I don't use LoseIt, but I'm surprised it allows calories to be set that low.

I use LoseIt, and I'm kind of surprised by that too. Maybe they allow that setting for someone who is not going to be on the diet long-term. I think going under 1200 might be fine for some people maybe a couple of weeks, but for longer than that I think it might start to take its toll in getting proper nutrients. AFter playing with the settings initially I settled at a setting of 1lb per week (which was about 1600 calories for me when I started) because that was about as many calories as I could stand to cut out of my diet long term. Without strangling someone.

They do have a blog for LoseIt, I'll check on there and see if it says anything about very low calorie settings.