Hey, there.. my name's Ashley and I'm new to calorie counting. Here's how I see it.. you're supposed to burn more calories than you take in. Correct? I calculated my BMR and it's about 1,600 calories. So, does that mean that if I eat below 1,600 then I should lose weight? Also, if I work out in addition, I should lose more weight? This makes sense to me but I kind of feel like I just made it up, haha.. I just need someone to walk me through the basics here because I've never done this before. I've lost weight in the past but that's when I ate an orange a day, drank gallons of water, and worked out incessantly. Definitely not familiar with healthy weight loss! Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Sometimes when you eat more, you can lose more. You will want to experiment to see how many calories you can eat and lose the most at your ability. I'd start out at 1,600 - if you don't like your losses add/subtract 200 and try that for a few weeks and compare. Also, yes if you work out and burn calories, you will lose more weight.

But to gain a pound you need to eat 3500 calories, right? To lose a pound you need to eat negative 3500 calories total. For you to maintain your weight, you can eat about 2000 calories. To loss weight, you want to eat less then that. So 1600 (-400 calories x 7 days a week = 2800 calories). If you work out and burn 300 calories that would put you at a -700 deficit from 2000 (-700 x 7 = 4900 calories) and you would technically lose a pound. Luckily our bodies don't necessarily work this way. We can lose more, but seeing that you're at 172, 1lb a week is reasonable.

I hope that makes sense. Haha. I can be terrible at explaining things!

But yes. I think you will lose weight more healthy doing calorie counting correctly and not living off just an orange and water! I use to eat just 1200 calories and would lose 1-2lbs. Now (at 1600 average between calorie shifting 1400-1800 cals) I can lose 2-3.5lbs. So eating more does help!

So, what if I consume only 1,000 calories a day?

Welcome, Ashley!

I would definitely NOT go as low as 1000 calories a day. You will not be adequately nourished, and you may be so hungry that the first time someone brings out the doughnuts or cookies, you will not be able to restrain yourself.

If that is your picture on your avatar, you look pretty young. You should have a pretty high metabolism and don't need to go to such drastic lows to lose some weight. Don't try to drop ten pounds in one week. Eat a balanced, healthy diet -- at least three fruits a day, plenty of veggies, five or six ounces of lean protein, a minimum of two to three servings of whole grain, fiber rich foods such as brown rice or oatmeal, and two servings of dairy or equivalent. Also, a little olive oil is a good thing (1 tsp. is considered to be a serving). Good luck and let us know how you are doing!

Thanks to both of you! I really appreciate your advice. Also, I am pretty young.. 19 years old. I've always felt like the chubby girl. My heighest weight was 215 sophomore year, which is when I started my orange diet. Once I reached about 170, I stopped. This past year, I was down to 160 but over the holidays I gained about 10 pounds which I cannot for the life of me seem to drop. It's so frustrating! And I find myself with these urges to dip back into unhealthy habits.. I'm just so impatient. I watch The Biggest Loser every week and am so envious! As far as calorie intake, what would you say is the lowest I can go without hurting myself?

firstly welcome.

you dont have that much to lose, 170 might be your bodies natural weight hence you feeling like you cant shift it.

however, like someone else said, your body has a minimum requirement of around 1200kcal per day that it takes just to get through a normal day. any less than that and you're seriously looking at messing with your metabolism. if you want to do it sensibly, perhap see a dietician if you can? otherwise, 1500 - 1600kcal is probably a good starting point and see where you go from there

I would think that 1600 is a little low for you, mine was 1800 when I was a little lighter than you. Did it tell you 1600 was what you needed to consume to lose at a specific rate or was that the to maintain current weight figure?

Don't go below 1200 is the common advice - you need to make sure that you get the nutrients you need. I would actually have suggested 1500-1600 consumed calories plus exercise if I just looked at your stats.

i PROMISE you that going too low will not help you lose weight. please do not go below 1200 cals including your daily workout. that is, you eat 1700 cals and work off 400 cals= 1300 cals for the day and that would probably be teetering on the too low side. because this is your body and diet and presumably exercise routine, you need to play around with it and adjust accordingly, but again, please do not go too low.
i would really suggest thinking about calorie cycling to keep your body going. look it up as i am not totally adept at speaking to that issue, but quite confident that it works.

http://www.ahealthyme.com/CalNeed.do

Hey Ashley. Welcome.
This website is one of the best weight loss tools I've found so far. And I have a similar history as you, lots of unhealthy starvation dieting in the past, still at a weight I hate (though even higher than you, and a year younger. it's a bummer.)
Right now I'm aiming for 1300-1400c a day. Of course, I'm not the best to talk to right now because I've been off the wagon since v-day but climbing back on today. When I was sticking to that calorie goal I was losing a good chunk of weight each day (2 or 3 pounds) and was rarely hungry.
Just eat the right things, the healthy stuff, and you'll be able to fit a whole lot of food into a small calorie range. Big green salads, lots of fruits, a little dairy. Basically what everyone else has been saying.
Good luck and if you need anybody to talk to, hit me up!

So, if I consume 1,200 calories a day and exercise.. I should lose weight? That sounds too easy!

I think that would put you too low. If you exercise 3 times a week, you should be able to lose weight on 1500 calories. Here's a good place to look up these values:

www.freedieting.com

Jay

It all depends on your lifestyle too. For example, do you do something that requires you to walk around all day? Stand? Or do you usually just sit?

I'm 158 right now and I'm at about 1100 calories a day with 2 hours a day of cardio BUT I got permission from my dietitian and will be monitored by her and my PCP. The general rule would be not to go under 1200 calories a day without a physicians approval.

I did a quick calculation with your weight, height, and age and ended up with 1,289 calories a day. Of course, everyone's body is different so you have to see what works for you. And according to my Dr., minimum exercise is 30 minutes 3 times a week. Hope that helps =)

You figured your BMR wrong. Even if you are completely sedentary (sitting on a couch all day), for your age and height, your BMR is about 2000. You should be able to lose eating 1500 a day, and the more you exercise, the faster you will lose it. You can cut it as low as 1200, but you might lose energy there, and you might actually lose faster sticking around 1500 because you can work out longer.

As others have said, you don't want to go below 1200 or you won't get all the nutrients you need, and you'll start to go into starvation mode and your weight loss will slow down or stop. You will also feel like crap.