3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community - 500 1000 1200 1500 which is it?

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I would starve to death on 500 calories a day.

1400-1600 works for me.

I would die from 500 a day. That's what I eat for lunch! I try to eat 1500 calories a day. The EASIEST way to know what is right for you is this: You choose a number (let's say 2000). Do it for a couple of weeks and I mean STICK to it! Did you lose weight? How much? The rule I read for losing weight safely is take your weight and divide it by 100. That's how much you can lose safely in a week (roughly, everyone is different). So if you lost on average a couple pounds each week, you're good! If you lost 1lb total, try cutting back 100-200 calories. If you lost 10lbs a week, that's bad. You're not on the Biggest Loser here. :P And if you're starving, eat a little more or increase your fiber or protein. But I mean *starving*. Hunger is normal! Your stomach will rumble. Mine will get really loud for about half an hour, then it'll calm down. :) But yeah, the best way to figure out what's right for you is just to try it, see what happens, and adjust from there. Good luck!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rana (Post 4131704)

Personally, I would skip counting calories right now and focus on creating healthy habits.

I would start by eliminating one thing this month. Say, for the month of December that you will only drink water -- no soda, no wine, no beer, no juice. See how it goes. If you're feeling crazy and really want to go hog wild, add 5 servings of vegetables/fruit a day. That means you can have 3 veggies and 2 fruits. Make sure you get those every day. Do not count calories.

Then, in January, try something else. You only drink water, eat your 5 servings a day of veggies, AND you don't eat dessert, except for 1 dessert on weekends. See how that goes.

Then, in February, you add something else. You only drink water, you eat your veggies, you don't eat desserts, AND you exercise 3 times a week for one hour. See how that goes.

Eventually, you can start keeping track of how many calories you're eating if you're not losing weight. You're starting at 301 lbs. That means that to maintain 301 lbs, without any exercise or movement (bed-ridden), you need to be eating at least 2200/day, probably more, since you aren't bed-ridden.

Once you start keeping track of your calories, just reduce them by 500. If you're eating 2700 calories every day, then just eat 2200. See how that goes. Then reduce it by 100 calories (that's a piece of plain bread depending on the size/type). Then reduce it by another 100.

But I really recommend the healthy habits first, because you need to focus on eating healthy, nutrient rich food, in order to limit your calorie intake, imo.

Also, this ^^^^
Eating healthy calories is more important than eating less, IMO. Starting by creating healthy habits and then adding as you go is what I did too. I started just be watching what I ate and cutting out sodas. Then I started jogging, then I added calorie counting. Doing it slowly instead of all at once can help it be less overwhelming.

from experience, going below 800 calories has had the tendency to wreck my diet and it ~can be a bit related to disordered thinking to believe that you need to restrict in such a way. the times that i have limited, it's been out of desperation and normally i bounce back in an awful way because i constantly think about food, begin to feel out of control, and eat back all of whatever deficit i created in restricting myself anyway.

as a general rule, i stick to 1200 calories a day. it works for me. i have plenty of energy on it and i usually don't think about food obsessively. if i feel more hungry one day, i'll increase my calories to 1500. some days i'm simply not hungry, and my total is more around 800-1000. experiment and see what works for you, and don't do anything that makes you feel obsessive or out of control.

anyway, as others have said -- doing something drastic to start off may not be the greatest idea. go gradual. it might be beneficial to you to record how much you're eating on a regular day, and then try going 500 calories or so less. you could also look up your bmr and start from there.

good luck! i hope you find what works for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mammasita (Post 4131538)

One pound is 3500 calories.

Calories needed to maintain current weight for a moderately active woman is 12 x <body weight>.

To lose one pound a week, we need a calorie deficit of 3500 calories because 3500 calories is 1 pound.

Using myself as an example:
12 x 202 = 2424 calories a day to maintain my weight at 202 pounds
2424 - 500 = 1924 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week
2424 - 1000 = 1424 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week

This number lowers as we lose weight. When I reach my goal of 159 pounds, I will need 1908 calories to maintain.

So everyone is different based on their weight and activity level.

This is perfect, exactly what I needed! I have been so lost and floating around with what do I eat? And everywhere else has been on the very high end.. and it doesn't seem right to me. I am going to give my numbers a try for the rest of the month. (which is 1196 - 1696 - I am going for the high end of this. cause under 1200 just doesn't do it for me)

Just remember that that will be the average amount of weight you lose. A lot of things can affect your day-to-day weight. Every person's body is different and you get get discouraged if you expect exact, consistent daily results.

There's still a lot of controversy over the risks and benefits of extremely low-calorie diets, but in 40 years of dieting (my first in kindergarten), I've found that the best argument against the vlcd's that is the most relatable is that they're generally miserable. Why make yourself miserable, if you don't have to, and when you're at best going to get an extra pound per week out of the deal (and may get a lot less, because many people seem to experience drastically lower metabolisms as a result)?

I've done a lot of reading (unfortunately after the fact) that suggests that my decades of very low-calorie diets and yoyo dieting may not only be responsible for my sluggish metabolism, but also may have caused or contributed to my immune disfunction (including autoimmune disease, compromised immune system, and also "overactive" immune responses as well - my immune system has gone haywire in just about every direction it can).

I've read that both high-carb dieting, and severe calorie restriction both are implicated in many of the health issues I have (as is obesity itself, but the more I read, the more I believe that the yoyo dieting contributed to all my health issues, and even to the obesity itself).

Most people do believe that the very low calorie diets aren't healthy, but they're also very tempting, so most people who decide to try them, believe that they're only going to do it for a little while, you know - to "jump start" their weight loss, then when they're sufficiently motivated by the quick loss - they'll switch to a more "sensible" food plan.

The problem is that most people never get to the sensible portion. The weight loss, even at the "crash level" usually isn't fast enough to sustain motivation for very long - and if the crash diet isn't motivating enough, sensible is going to be intolerably slow - and it's at this point that most people think "what's the use? This is taking so long, I'll never get to my goal weight at this rate. If I'm going to fail and be this miserable forever, anyway - at least I should get to eat what I want."

"This time" literally is the first time I ever decided to diet by making gradual changes, rather than going from no effort, to life-overhauling. I decided to make only changes I was willing to commit to forever, no matter how slowly the weight came off (or even if it came off at all). But I didn't make changes that I was willing to make only until or if the weight came off to my satisfaction.

I don't think that it's coincidence that this is also the first time I've experienced anything at all like this success. I've never lost this much, and I've never kept it off so long.

Hi Port! I have to chime in and say I'm so happy that you're considering cal counting! We both signed up for MFP around the same time and I've seen your posts throughout the last year. I think that if you can stick with counting cals you will find success. I am starting to see success myself with counting cals. I first played around on several different cal counting sites/journals even expensive software from a nutrition class I took in college and found what worked best for me. (Myfitnesspal is the best for me. They have a database that the users contribute to, so I RARELY have to enter nutritional information since they have so so much.) MFP asks for your height, weight, weight loss goals and activity level and pops out a number for you to net each day. When I started MFP at 220 they gave me about 1550 cals a day. I'm much shorter than you though, at 5'6''. MFP also encourages you to eat back your exercise calories. This scared me as it's all about cals in vs cals out, right? Well. I wasn't losing. So I thought what the heck I'll eat back my work out cals. Once I started netting a total of what they recommended the weight has started melting off for the first time in my life. But that's not the best part of it. The best part of it is when I look at a treat I think in my head "do I really want to use my calories on this food or should I save it for something else?" I look at my calories as money in the bank I guess. I save them up if I want to "splurge" later. If I have used all my cals and simply must have something else, I'll go workout and earn back some cals. Calorie counting has really changed my relationship with food. It's still enjoyable and what not, but ultimately it is fuel for our bodies. Another thing with logging the cals that is nice is that it makes you accountable. At the end of the day you can see instant data from the choices you made that day...thus easier to correct.
Sorry for my long winded reply. To more specifically answer your question I would suggest to eat "normal" for a day or two and log every single calorie you consume. If you exercise log what your projected burn is. Calculate what your resting metabolic rate is. Get to know the numbers of how your body is functioning. So if your are netting, say, 2500 cals a day you can still lose about a pound a week just lowering your cals to a net total of 2000.
I know it's tempting to drop your cals low for faster results but I'm telling you for the first time in my life I am finally learning to have a healthy relationship for food, and truly understanding what is meant when people say, "it's not a diet it's a lifestyle change."

I think the study you're talking about with the extremely restricted diet had to do with older people who had type 2 diabetes. Going on a very stringent, very low calorie diet for months caused the diabetes to abate. They are being very closely monitored and their nutrition is being supplemented. I do not think that is a healthy thing for you to try and do on your own.

To echo what others have said, why be miserable? This is going to take a while. It just is. You might as well settle in for the long haul and find a calorie range that you can be comfortable at to start so you will stick with it. I know, it's exciting to get started, and you want to make all these changes and jump in with both feet. You can still do that on a reasonable amount of calories.