SherryeB's Journal, 09 Sep 21

My kind of meal, looks scrumptious! 💜 

Sherry, I get too hungry on 1200 calories a day. What I'm learning to do is what you did with this meal, incorporate more veggies and fruit into my meals to give me the bulk I need without the calories. Keep up the good work! 🌈 

That looks absolutely delicious!  

Just curious, when I started this FatSecret, my recommended calories intake to loose weight is 1500 calories. I've only lost ounces since September 1st. I'm wondering if I should lower it? I too would be starving.  

Exactly, Shir! No one should have to go hungry to lose weight. Or eat tasteless, boring meals. There are plenty of low cal fruits & veggies that can add both bulk & flavor. 

Almcguire, since your account is private, I can't see what your starting weight is. If you have a substitute of weight to lose you should be able to lose on 1500 calories. Of you are smaller, you might have to cut back a little. If you don't have a food scale, invest in one. Often, we think we're eating an amount of calories, that is in fact higher. I lost eating 1300 to 1500 calories a day, but it did take awhile. 

Darn spell check!Substantial...not substitute.  

I lost at 1700cal a day. But that is logging EVERY SINGLE CALORIE, or you go over without knowing it. Like Sherrye said get a scale Almcguire, be serious about logging and be PATIENT, that’s the secret! I only loss ounces, but I did so every day almost, make sure you log and be a little more active than usual.🌸 Sherrye, that looks like a dish that would be served to you in a restaurant.👍😋😋😋😋 

Just to add to the discussion about how many calories to eat to lose fat: no one, and not even a calculator based on the best estimates, can give you that number. Take the average of a few different online calculators (inputting as much info as you can) to try out a recommendation, but see what happens to your weight over the course of a few weeks (look at the average) to decide what you need to do. How much you can eat to maintain weight depends on many factors such as height, muscle mass, activity (which will depend on your job and lifestyle) any formal exercise you do and the types of food you eat (they affect energy expenditure). Also, unless your day to day activity is very similar, your daily energy needs may fluctuate quite a bit (mine do). I'd recommend just eating as you normally would for a week, just keeping track of the foods and calories. If you are maintaining at that intake, those are approximately your maintenance calories. Adjust as necessary to lose. 

Generally you'll want a deficit of 250+ to see results. Just 250 may be too little to see noticeable progress in a couple of weeks, around 500 is better for changes you can track, but it's really up to you. 

The biggest thing to remember: metabolism isn't fixed, it adjusts to calorie deficits and surpluses, and that's why although the simple truth is that fat loss occurs in a deficit, it can sometimes be hard to create one for sure. Just adjust as you go. 

When we fill out the profile portion of these apps. They generally ask about your normal activity lever; sedentary, active, athletic, etc. if you select anything more than sedentary the programs give you a certain amount of calorie credit for that category. Then on a daily basis we add in cleaning, cooking, short walks, shopping a brief swim and we get more calorie credit. Ultimately you are double counting . It might be best to choose the sedentary option and build your own activity. That may be why many are Eating more calories than they should and not seeing results. 

I love this! Keep going, you're almost there! 

Amazing looking meal SherryeB 🙌😋