Calories left ???

[Tigerlily16]

Do I have to eat all my calories or is eating less better ? I have a lot to lose.I set my goal at 2 pounds a week. I am walking drinking water but my daughter says I am not eating enough. Do I have to eat all the calories it says I have left ?

[JetBlast2]

I'm sure that the "correct" answer is to eat all of your calories and lose weight slowly to avoid muscle loss etc. 

I can also tell you that I lost 48 pounds and I was almost always under my calorie goal for the day.  I did it in 6 months or so and have kept it off for 2 years.  The awareness of logging everything I consumed was huge!  I'm now lifting weights and putting back on a few pounds of muscle mass.  I'm 50 years old and look the best I've ever looked.  Feel great too.

[Esya]

@Tigerlily16

It all depends. How long have you been on this program? How much did you lose so far? How large is the gap you are talking about?

FitBit only estimates your calories burned. It is a good starting point, but it is most likely a bit off as everyone is different. Heart rate enabled trackers tend to overestimate calories burned.

If you keep changing what you are doing all the time, you are not going to find out what works for you. So I suggest to do something for at least 4 weeks, see if you lost or gained some and adjust accordingly. After adjusting review again in 4 weeks etc. etc. Your daughter might be right and it will show if you are losing a lot of weight fast and feel like you cannot maintain the weight loss journey in the long run. But by using this approach you will find your balance of losing weight, but not too fast.

[Tigerlily16]

Thank you for responding and Congrats on your weight loss!  I am just beginning and have lost very little so far but I just started logging this week and I am losing.