Basing calorie intake on "ideal" weight and not below - recipe for success?

[EBridgman88]

Hi everyone. I've been trying to lose weight by cutting calories to 1400 per day but am missing out on food/drink I like and have found it hard to stick to for any good length of time. Plus it's making me tired and lethargic! I've been doing lots of reading about how you should never consume less calories in a day which you're body would need at its optimum weight - if you do, it means you're staving yourself and it makes you tired. So, according to this I should actually consume about 1720 calories per day as a healthy balanced diet (lots of lean fish/meat and veggies). At my current weight my body would apparently need over 2300 calories per day so cutting back to 1720 should make me lose weight more sustainably than if I cut right back to 1400. I'm juts wondering if anyone else has had any success with this approach or has any concerns/tips? I know it means losing weight at a slower pace but that's fine - I lost a lot of weight quickly years ago and just put it all back on once I ate "normally" again. I will of course be upping my activity levels also!

[moreless Administrator 7 stone]

Hi and welcome, EBridgman88

We always advise that you get a personalised calorie range from the NHS BMI calculator and aim to start at the upper end of that range. This post will explain more comprehensively healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

Losing weight isn't about starvation and misery.

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Wishing you all the best

[EBridgman88 in reply to moreless]

Thanks - this is really helpful and looks to reaffirm my experience so far. According to the calorie calculator it looks like I should lose weight provided I eat less than 2000 calories a day which gives me a bit more leeway. I'll give it a go and see what happens... watch this space!

[moreless Administrator 7 stone in reply to EBridgman88]

That should make things a lot easier for you

[Budda72]

Hi EBridgman88 welcome to the site moreless has sent you the links for you to find out what your calorie intake using the BMI Calculator is. It will give you a range of 400 calories, I’ll advise that you try to be near the upper range as this will help you lose weight but not feel hungry which is what a lot of diets make you feel and why they don’t work. This isn’t a diet but more like a lifestyle change to be eating healthy it doesn’t mean you have to stop eating foods which you like and eat grass instead but to know that what you do eat will have an effect on your body be it a good one or a bad one.

On the site there are many groups for you to join and I will advise you to join in with as many as you want, the groups range from daily diary where people post what they are going to be eating the following day this helps as you know what you are planning to eat and you don’t usually snack which will help. The weekly weigh in which is run daily I know sounds wrong weekly but daily is a group where you say what your start weight was what your weight that day is and if it’s a loss,gain or stayed the same for the week, join one of the days and and just post on the same day each week this will help you notice the difference you make with your weight.

Once again welcome to the site and enjoy

[IndigoBlue61]

Hello and welcome EBridgeman88

I’ve nothing else to add to your other replies but thought you may find this post useful as it explaines why sometimes you can eat more yet still lose weight healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...