[carcar05]

Hey Ya'll, I just signed up on livestrong.com with the daily plate so I could get a better idea of what I should be eating as far as calories goes. Well, as of today I weigh 176, I'm 5'4" and I want to lose about 2 lbs a week. It calculated that to reach that weight loss goal I should consume about 1736 calories per day, but that seems a little high to me! I was predicting about 1200-1500 per day.
Should I give it a go and consume that many calories per day for awhile, or should I go with the lower end of things??
I really don't want to mess this up! I really want to see the results for my hard work! What do you think??

[Ija]

Personally, I don't think it's high. I think a lot of people make the mistake of dropping their calories too much in an effort to lose weight super fast, and consequently end up stuck with a low metabolism at the end. Keep in mind that the more you reduce your calories, the more muscle mass you'll likely lose. My advice would be to try the suggested calorie level for a few weeks and see where you are. If you aren't losing anything, then try reducing it by 100 calories or so and go from there.

FYI, lately I've been eating about 1800 calories and I'm still losing, even though I'm making a serious effort to put on muscle mass.

[carcar05]

That's what I was just thinking- try it for a month and see what my results are. If it looks good- keep going! I've been maintaining this 171-178ish weight for over a year- so it can't hurt to try THIS for a whole month and even if I don't have the results I'd like to see, I'm sure I won't gain. (I HOPE!)

[CountingDown]

Try it. If it doesn't work, adjust. As Meg is so fond of saying, we are all laboratories of ONE. Keep tweaking until you find what is right for you.


You CAN do this!

[Iconised Ghost]

i use livestrong and ive always found it to estimate a bit too high for me. I usually go for around 1200-1500, with occasional days where i go up to 1700 just to give it a boost

[Samantha100]

Use a food scale and weight everything and track with Fitday. Start at 1700/day and see if you get the weight loss you want. If you're not moving then lower your calories to 1600/day and see what happens. You need to calculate everything in the beginning to find the numbers that work for you and your metabolism.

[forestroad]

If you are working out, i don't think that's high. If you stall, you can always cut calories. You can also try a bunch of different sites like fitday or anything a google search will pull up (try searching bmr calculator) so that you can get a couple of different estimates, and then maybe pick something in the middle.

[Shannon in ATL]

What did you put in for your activity level? I always set myself at 'lightly active' and I get 1830 as my calorie level to maintain 121 pounds, I'm half an inch taller than you but most likely about ten years older.