I'm getting confused. I looked at a calorie calculator.

Basically for me,
27 F 5'11, 286 it's telling me that I need to be eating 2288 cal/ day.


RESULTS - GUIDELINE ONLY
Maintenance:
2557 Calories/day
Fat Loss:
2288 Calories/day
Extreme Fat Loss:
2288 Calories/day

I'm not doing that. I'm at 1,200 to 1,350. I started this on June 24th so I guess a month. I've lost 19 pounds. I feel great, not hungry. I've taken bread, rice, and sugar out of my diet.

I keep hearing about "starvation mode" is that what my body is doing? I mean before I ate whatever I wanted but I still wasn't eating 2,500 every day. Do I really need to eat at least 2,000 cal/ day?

How do you know what works for your body? I'm so confused.

Thanks for your help, I need it!

The main concern, I believe, about going too low on your calories are malnutrition (i.e. not getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs). If it is working for you, just make sure you are taking a vitamin!

If your maintenance calories are truly 2557 calories (these calculators are merely estimates), then "extreme" fat loss would put you at around 1500 calories. Subtracting 500 calories per day should equal out to 1lb loss per week, 1000 calories 2 lbs per week (based on 3500 calories making up a lb.)

I think one of the main things is to not lose weight so quickly that you lose muscle. From what I understand, a good rate of loss is 1% of your body weight per week. So, right now you can lose close to 3 lbs per week, but once you get closer to goal that number should go down. Of course, losing slower is fine too.

My thought on eating close to 1200 calories from the beginning is that later you'll have nowhere to go. As you get closer to goal you may need to drop your calories more, but for nutrition reasons you shouldn't go below 1200. My suggestion would be to up your calories to 1500 and then add in some exercise 3-4 times a week.

Congratulations on the 19 lb loss! That is awesome!

And make sure it is ISO or NSF certified if you take a multivitamin. Water soluble vitamins leave your body via urine nearly as fast as you can take them in. ISO and NSF certified calculate their contents so at least you get some benefit and intake even if they are still removed from your system rapidly. Synthetics aren't good. At least with ISO and NSF certification they say you will get about 55-65% of what they say on the label.

Fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K) you don't have to worry about. Your body will store those, but for the water soluble, make sure the certification is on there.

No you aren't in starvation mode at over 1200 calories but you are putting yourself in a corner. You tend to have to lower your calorie intake as your weight drops and you are going to have nowhere to lower it to if you are starting at 1200/1350 calories. I find the calculators don't work for me they are a guideline so 2200 calories might be way to high. 1800 might be more in the right ball park. Weight Watchers would have you eating at least 1700 calories plus activity points and then you would drop 100 calories every 20 pounds or so or when your weight loss slows

First you have to understand that 1200 is the absolute minimum that ANYONE should eat w/out being under a doctor's supervision. Anyone, meaning even the 5'1 105 pound woman, shouldn't be eating under 1200.

So with that knowledge: There are two problems with eating that few calories.

At your weight ... 280s ... you NEED more than that to sustain your body. You may lose weight rapidly, but when you reduce calories that drastically you're not just losing fat, you're losing lean muscle mass as well. The rate of burn will not be healthy. There's also a fairly strong likelihood that you're going to stall very quickly because you're shocking your body with a sudden, drastic decrease in calories.

The other problem with starting at 1200 or 1300 is that if you do hit a plateau, you have nowhere to go. If you're already at 1200 calories, and your loss stalls, you can't drop calories any lower cause you've already started at the bottom.

I know everyone wants to lose quickly ... and thinks if they cut back to the bare minimum they'll do so. But it's better to make gradual changes that are sustainable over the long term.

At your height and weight, I'd at least bump your calories up to 1800. Actually I'd start at 2000, but that's me. If you feel really nervous about the 2000 number, drop just below it.

Honestly, I'm 5'4", 165, and losing well on 1500 cals a day (when I'm good about sticking to it).

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I think one of the concerns of losing too much too fast is that it will not stay off. 1-2 lbs per week is considered a good rate of weight loss.
Also, if you're already starting out fairly low and you hit a plateau, then you don't have much room to go down any further.
"They" say you shouldn't go below 1200, but I've been guilty of that.
The problem is that is not sustainable over the long haul. You'll eventually start eating more calories and you'll get the dreaded "creep" till you've gained your weight back.
I'm not saying you're doing it wrong. It seems to be working for you. But you may hit a plateau and then you'll really be frustrated.

Best wishes

Looks like several of us were posting at the same time

I was thinking of going up to 1500 cal and also start working out. I haven't worked out at all yet. If I worked out three times a week, do you think that 1,500 would be enough or go up to 1800?

Okay, I'll give you my current levels (as of this morning I'm 284, but I don't update until Sundays). Although because of our height differences I'm carrying more fat overall. You likely can't go from 1200 calories to what I'm eating right away, but you should be able to slowly increase your current levels. If you decide to increase your calories, do it slowly.

On days I do no exercise I eat 2150 calories (+/- 25)

I exercise 5 days a week. Two of them are walking (enough to raise my heart rate, but not always overly strenuous stuff) for an hour. Three days I lift weights. This is a 15 min warm-up, and not 5 and 10 lb weights. It's pretty tough stuff (for me). Those days I workout perhaps 90 mins total. I sometimes finish with intervals on the treadmill, but only about half the time.

On exercise days I eat 2400 cals (+/- 25 cals)

Now, I don't lose 19 pounds in a month, more like 8. This month it's closer to 10 pounds so far. And here's the kicker - I took a planned diet break. For one week I did no regular exercise and ate at least 3000 calories a day. And you know something, I gained about a pound.... and I've lost faster than I have in the past.

Some people can get away with cutting calories very low. I am not one of those people. I put myself in the hospital the last time I tried. I was eating about 1500 cals a day less, and working out harder, and the weight loss slowed drastically. My solution was to work harder, and eat less. My body couldn't take it and a simple infection became a pleural infection (very nasty). You are about 15 years younger than I am so your experience will likely be quite different.

I hate giving people advice about how much to eat because we're all so different. What works for me may not work for you. Although I suspect where my maintenance level is 3000 cals a day yours might even be higher. If your daily routine includes little to no movement, try increasing to at least 1500. When you add exercise in, do add more calories. I understand you feel great about the loss, and emotionally that will give you a boost, but how are your physical energy levels? When I'm too low cal, too high exercise, I usually have no energy for other things. Another indicator for women is their monthly periods. If they stop coming, go futher apart, or are generally lighter, this can be a sign that your body is suffering.

Added - oh, and I eat a 30%+ protein diet, which does help with the hunger levels as well. There are days I'm not that hungry and have to make a point to eat.

Adding exercise (slowly and gradually) is an excellent idea. When you lose lots of weight, you are destined to lose some muscle mass, but to minimize that muscle loss you can use those muscles more often!!! The more muscle you have, the faster those calories burn.

I do take great vitamins everyday. I physically feel better than I did before. I ate a lot of carbs and sugar. Now that I'm not eating them as much I have way more energy than I did. I never ate raw veggies and now I crave them. That's why I didn't think it was a big deal that I was eating 1,200 cal. but I kept seeing posts that it's not good to eat that low.

I'll gradually increase to 1500 and see what happens. I might add more since I'm going to start exercising. I feel like I'm on a plateau b/c the first week I lost 15 and it's taken me 3 weeks to lose 4 more.

I've been listening to my body more than ever and I "feel" like my body is happy. I'm eating stuff it likes not junk.

If you have trouble eating more calories because you're not hungry, you can get there easily by adding healthy fats like nuts and olive oil, if you're not already eating them.