Been a major struggle...

[bruinsgirl33]

Been off and on trying to lose weight for the last several years. It's been a struggle between family health scares, several deaths (my 2 grandmothers and the owner of the store I work at) AND family substance abuse, all over the course of 5-7 years. When I stress, I turn to food. Now that things seem to be finally stable, I am finally ready to 100% commit to doing this. I'm female, soon to be 26, am 5'2 and just over 160 lbs with 43% BF.

I used to be able to lose weight when I was at 1200 calories but that was prior to getting more daytime hours at work, making me far more active during the day, in addition to me now adding strength training to my routine. Right now my immediate plan until I hit 140 lbs is to do roughly 1900 cals on my 2 upper body strength training/HIIT cardio days, ~1700 cals on my 2 lower body strength training/steady-state cardio days, and 1200 cals on the weekends, my designated "off days." (I designate Fridays as my "Garbage" day since I go out to dinner with my dad.) I usually burn around 2400 cals a day during the workweek, ~1600-1700 on the weekends.

I live with my parents, and my mother used to be a fitness instructor. She's been trying to tell me for weeks that I should stick to 1200 cals because "that's what used to work for you before." I've only just started doing my actual plan this week (have been daily weight tracking for 2 weeks), but don't want to put my body at risk of starvation mode if I'm only doing 1200 cals/day when doing some form of cardio and strength training 5 days a week, 2 of my cardio days being HIIT.

Any advice? Thank you!

[Sweetiepie13]

I am by no mean any kind of expert.  I have been plateauing the last year and have recently found that that I do not loose weight unless I do about every other day at 1200 and 1500.  I am 5"7 and was 178 but am down to 167, the weight has come off slowly but I immediately gain if I go above 1500 calories a day.  I burn about 3200 calories a day according to fitbit.  So I don't want you to be disappointed and I realize we are all different but I would try something lower even 1700 on cardio and 1500 other days and then 1200 on the weekends.  

[bruinsgirl33]

Okay. I might give that a chance in a couple of weeks (have that female TOM coming up), so once that's over I'll assess then. Thank you!

[kaelarenee7]

I'm 5'8", about 200 lbs and burn between 3,000-4,000 calories a day. I generally eat about 2000 calories a day (more when I burn more). 

Obviously, my body is different than yours, so you'll have to do your research on what your BMR is, and try not to eat below that. The 1200 calorie a day rule is a made up rule that has circulated the internet, when really, we all have different needs. 

You'll also have to change things up based on what you burn and what gives you results. And what worked before, might not always work.

Generally, when I hit a plateau, I'll change up when I eat in a day (such as eating more frequently) and really look at what I'm eating. I also don't generally track food on my days off work, or at least don't worry about a calorie deficit on those days, because I know that I'm not as active those days but my body still expects a certain amount of food or I would still be starving by the end of the day trying to hit my calorie deficit. And as long as you are maintaining a sustainable deficit for you, you should see results.