Hey Ladies,

Just wondering, how do you all consume your calories when you're trying to lose weight? I did this over the summer and ended up losing 20 lbs super fast, but now that i've started up again, i dont feel i am eating the same and the scale is staying in the same spot.


Any words of advice?
They would be greatly appreciated.

i eat low call ALL DAY.

how many calories are you eating?

what are you eating?

have you lost enough weight to reduce calories?

I know i've read elsewhere that you work out- maybe you're not eating enough?

trial and error

I scatter mine throughout the day. I'm not a big meal eater so I end up nibbling throughout the day. 100-300 calories here or there, until I eat about 1500-1600 a day. Breaking your meals into smaller ones and eating more frequently keeps your metabolism from slowing down

If you started excerising, you may have lost weight but your retaining water to help repair those muscles. Or you could not be eating enough and your body has gone into starvation mode, and if it has your body will hold on to those calories like no tomorrow :P...

So I guess what i'm saying is Make sure your eating the right amount, don't worry so much about the scale when your just starting up again, and it'll start to come off Good luck

I nibble too. 150 for breakfast, 150 snack, 300 lunch...spreading it out keeps me from getting super hungry which always causes me to eat junk. :P

I eat when I feel hungry mostly, my body is pretty much on its own little schedule. I usually eat breakfast 15-30mins after I wake up, then I eat again at 12-1pm, then usually a tiny snack around 4pm and dinner around 5:30 or so. I very rarely drink my calories, I stick to water and tea instead. Those extra 160 calories I saved from that juice or pop usually go to a healthy desert of baked apples with cinnamon and peanut butter or greek yogurt with a tiny bit of maple syrup in it.

If your just starting it could take some trial and error before you find what works for you and your body best. I wouldn't worry about the schedule not moving its not uncommon for your body to take a couple weeks to respond to your new eating plan Just stay on track and I am sure those pounds will start dropping off.

well i'm eating around 1300 calories a day.

is that too little?

It was reduced from 1400 a day when i lost the 20 pounds.

I am a snacker..i eat low calorie little snacks and tiny meals all day long and quit eating around 7pm

Maybe its because im hitting the gym at night? instead of in the morning?

That's not enough calories for someone who's exercising in my opinion! I lost the most weight when I was working out religiously and eating around 1800 of healthy food. If you're a snacker eat 5 times a day, calculate your calories for each meal (so 500 for breakfast, 200 snack, 500 lunch, 200 snack, 600 dinner). There are loads of calculators online about how much you burn naturally and how much you should be eating based on how much you exercise. The about.com calorie counter is good for it, but there are other formulas too.

If you're not eating enough your body will hoard what it can to function properly, so it's actually healthier to eat more!

I would say for your current weight and activity, you are eating too little. Up your calories...but also make sure you are getting enough water and a daily vitamin. I am a full believer that if you aren't getting your daily vitamin intake, that your body holds onto everything you eat to nourish itself. Take a daily vitamin, or work really hard to vary your veg and fruit intake to get all your stuff (which is next to impossible to do just by eating...esp on a limited calorie diet).

To answer your original question: I eat 4 small meals each day. Around 400 calorie breakfast, a 200 calorie snack, 400 calorie lunch and 400-600 calorie dinner...taking me to 1400-1600/day. I work out pretty heavy 2 days a week (teaching 3 hours of Zumba...) so on those days I burn over 1000 calories. Then one other day a week, I teach one Zumba class, burning about 500 calories....so I each an extra 100-150 calorie snack on those days to fuel my workout.

I generally stuck to 1200 but I'm shorter than you and weigh less. I was exercising throughout though. I didn't feel hungry or deprived.

Now I'm eating more because I'm maintaining, but it's pretty much the same.

My meal break up was generally like this:

Breakfast - 200 cals

Lunch - 300-350 cals

Dinner - 700ish cals

During maintenance I'm just doing this with more calories and I actually have snacks now.

I spread them throughout the day, with no set plan. But I agree with others, if you're pretty active, up them a little and play around with it until you get it right!

ok, so today i spread out my calories and consumed 1400 instead of 1200, and intensified my workout at the gym. hopefully this was the change i needed to start seeing results again.

Good luck!

stop stop stop! your body is in starvation.


i'm in the low 180s, and i eat about 1700 a day and lose, in fact, i was eating 1200-1300 and i was at a HUGE plateau, then upped calories, and the weight dropped so fast, i went from 188 to 182 without even seeing half of the numbers in the middle!!


eat as many calories as you can while youre still over 200 lbs IMHO, because the less you weigh, the less calories you need to eat, so if your body gets "trained" to eat 1300kcals at 220-some-odd-lbs, what are you going to eat at 180? 3 carrots and a diet coke? that's not enough for proper nutrition!!

I eat about 1400 calories a day
I'm shorter, weight less and am too lazy/busy to workout I'm losing very slowly but still losing. I think you def. need to up a bit.

I'm kind of a easy going intermittent faster
I eat:

"Brunch" around 12 500 calories
Snack at 3pm 200 calories
Dinner at 8 700 calories