For those that weigh 200 or less right now
 

How many calories do you take in a day, and lose consistently? With that amount of calories, how much are you exercising to see that loss? Do you zig zag or stay constant with your calories? I am just curious to what all the rest of you are doing. Thanks!

I limit my calories to 1500 average for a week (Sunday through Saturday). I take one day off every week where I eat what I want and do not add that to the average. I exercise at 75%-80% of my THR for 30 minutes Monday through Friday and immediately follow that by a 30 minute 3.0mph walk for active recovery and fat loss. On Saturday I take a 60-90 minute walk. I also do weight training 3x a week for 30 minutes. It is important to note that my main goal is heart health, that is why there is so much cardio. I hope that helps.

Cheryl! I just wanted to say congratulations! You'll very soon be a 100 something!

As you lose weight, and weigh less, you will need to exercise more, and eat less to keep losing weight.

When I started out at 211 pounds after my son-I started at 1800 calories a day, and exercised about 20 minutes a day. I was able to lose the first 10-15 pounds this way.

Once I hit the 190's my losses started to plateau (I was smaller, therefore my body used less calories per day)-so I dropped down to 1700 calories a day, and increased my exercise to 30 minutes a day to keep things going.

Once I hit around the 180's...I dropped down to around 1600 calories a day, and increased my exercise INTENSITY-meaning, not so much "how long" I exercised...but "how hard". Heavier weights, walking the same amount of TIME-but covering more distance because the speed of walking is slightly faster...

In the 160's-I was averaging about 1400-1500 calories a day, and exercising on average of 1 hour a day. About once or twice a week my exercise was closer to 2 hours-because I was dancing with a professional troupe-and we had rehearsals/performances that covered that amount of time.

My advice is to start out at the highest calorie level that you can while losing 1-2 pounds per week. Stick with that, until you NEED to drop. If you start out at a level that is lower than what you actually need to be doing-then what happens is you end up near to goal-but you have nowhere to "drop" your calorie level to. Also, only drop a level when you NEED to. If you are still losing 1/2-1 pound per week-it is not yet time to drop. Only drop when your weight actually plateaus for a few weeks.

Good luck,

Aphil

i usually stay at about 1200 cals a day. i have heard that that is too little, but it seems to be working for me. i am not starving and i am happy with it, i've lost about 8 pounds so far eating only 1200.
gabrielbeth

1200 is fine for your curretn weight range (130's and 140's). It is usually too little, though, for someone who is further away from their weight goal.

I am currently eating about 1800 calories/day on average and exercising over 30 min/day (varying intensity), and losing about 1 pound/week.

When I started at 280 counting calories, I was eating around 2000 calories but not exercising as often or as hard. I lost about 1 1/2 - 2 pounds/week for a while.

Everyone is different, but I think Aphil's advice is VERY sound for general principles you can really use!

Aphil, what is your view on this....I am averaging about 1300-1500 cals for my current weight of 137, BUT, I run 5 times per week, sometimes burning as much as 600 calories (I wear a heart rate monitor) on the days where I also do pilates ab work and about 10 min of free weights... my best friend says that I should be "eating" those extra 600 calories, otherwise my body will og into a starvation mode. What do y'all think?

I'm eating between 1300-1700 (1500 is my avg) daily. Sometimes I go over..maybe even way over and sometimes I hit 1200, but mostly I stay within range. I'm losing slower now but still about 1lb a week.

I don't feel that you need to add back in the entire 600 calories every day-because all of us who work out are burning calories-it just varies depending on what we are doing and for how long. Rather than adding 600 calories to your daily diet (which I would not do), since you work out/run pretty heavily 5 days a week-maybe just add 200 calories a day-but only on your running days-not every day. If you are in the 1300-1500 range, then maybe try to stay nearer to 1300 on your off days...but at 1500 on your running days-and be sure that you are taking in enough protein. :)