Difference between 1- and 1.5-pound calorie recommendations

[monicayd]

Does anyone understand why the recommended calorie intake to lose 2 pounds per week is 1,200 and the recommended amount to lose 1.5 pounds is 1,270, but to lose 1 pound per week it jumps all the way to 1,520?

I was doing 2 pounds just fine, but after I lost 11 pounds (and this comes after I'd already lost 40 before but I reached a plateau and finally started to use the Fitbit and MyFitnessPal), I then decided to slow things down because I like to kind of hang out at a weight for a bit and maintain before continuing on, plus the holidays and my birthday are coming up and I'm not unrealistic about the food temptations. I'd rather slow down than do nothing. But right now I'm trying to decide if I want to do 1.5 or 1 before Thanksgiving gets here when I was planning to take it down to 1 for sure or even .5. The huge leap in calories seems odd. Anyone get it? Thanks much.

[SunsetRunner]

Not sure about the calories @monicayd

Though it's better when wanting to loose weight to have a larger deficit since food can contain more calories than the package tells or less, the real nutritients a food contains matter to (one banana can contain more nutritients than another banana for example) your body staying longer satisfied..

It's also possible to have eaten a bit more than actually logged.. when having a larger deficit then for example 250 calories a day, there's more chance of being in a deficit.

Also listen to your precious body (the food plan is a food plan) it isn't aware about your hunger / satiety signals (when feeling comfortably satisfied / not hungry), listen to your body, if feeling needing to force feed even if there's calories left to eat.. don't force your body having more than it needs, it may be perfectly satisfied with lots less calories overall 'specially if eating nutritient rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs.. everything provided by nature in it's purest form (as minimal as processed).

Your body is very clever and let know when it's hungry or when having enough (even which food / nutritients) it's needing in the moment.. it can also tell when eating it wants a bit more meat for example, that last potato on the plate doesn't look appealing to have anymore yet your body asking for some more vegetables..

Try listening to your amazing body to, in addition with the food plan (to see / change food habits if needed).

When eating, if feeling needing to force feed your body.. not being hungry.. wait until your body asks for more nourishment regardless the time.. or the calories left in the food plan.

Have Fun

[monicayd]

Thanks, Mystique. (Love the name.) I don't tend to do 1,500 calories unless I'm eating out a lot because I'm away from home or I'm doing a lot of exercise, so I don't really plan to just eat that much because the app says so, but MyFitnessPal will say it thinks you may be eating too little if you fall too far under their recommended daily goal. Right now it's set at that 1,500 level because I set the goal to 1 pound per week, but I was purposely eating only when I felt the need and ended up around the 1,270 level, which was what I wanted to do anyway. The app thought I ate too little. 🙂

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone else had figued out why such a difference in calories when trying to lose just .5 pound less from the previous goal. I'm listening to everything - my body and my apps - and judging from there.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share that with me!