How much

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  • This is hard to answer, because it really depends on your current weight, height, age, health, and activity level. They used to recommend 1200 calories per day to lose weight at a safe level, but many doctors are now recommending 1500. Other people lose better at 2000 calories. Your best bet is to pick a mid range, try it for a few weeks, then adjust as necessary. It's important not to go too low, because this can alter your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight, and much more difficult to keep it off.

    I personally always did best if I consumed between 1600 and 2000 calories, spread out between 3 meals and 2 snacks. I also added exercise to my routine. Without it, the weight loss was extremely slow, even with fewer calories.

    You have to experiment to find what works best for you, because you are unique
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  • Eating under 100 calories a day???! Yes, that's very unhealthy no matter WHAT weight or height you are. If you eat too few calories, your body will think you are experiencing a food shortage and it will slow your metabolism and losing weight will actually be more difficult. At under 100 calories a day, you are quite literally starving yourself. Do this for too long and you will not be around for very much longer. This goes beyond dieting and into the territory of eating disorders.

    Unless you meant to say under 1000 calories a day (and forgot that last zero)? Which is still pretty unhealthy. You should aim for a minimum of 1200 a day, and probably more than that as Suzanne already mentioned.
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  • Occassionally a doctor will put someone on a supervised diet of less than 1000 calories a day, but that is a SUPERVISED diet...

    Just as an aside... I remember the first time going to a dietician when I was 15. She didn't even want me counting anything (I was 225lbs at the time and 5'5"). She wanted me to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and have a couple of snacks, eat more whole grains, drink more milk and cut down on processed foods and move more.. Thinking back now, her advice was spot on. I wished I had followed it better... Oh yes, why I went on this tangent.. The dietician basically just wanted me to eat enough so I could still grow and to get into good lifetime habits (she basically wanted me to eat 2000 cals a day), ALL the while, on of my teen mags (I think YM) was telling girls if they wanted to lose weight to eat 1200 calories a day (which is only recommended for adults and that is debatable) and to avoid avacodos because they were full of fat (this was about 1993)... Just a tangent.

    Cheers!

    Ali