CC suggests 1450 calories?

Hi everyone! I'm confused on what to do. I have 70 lbs to lose to get to my goal. I assumed I would reduce calories as I lose weight. But with my specs- sedentary job, 36 yo, 5'8, 235 lbs, it says I should eat 1450 calories. When I first signed up in March (and then didn't come back for awhile) it told me my daily intake should be approx 1800. So when I went to update my info, and my weight was actually 5 lbs heavier, I was surprised that it dropped me in calories per day. My daily burn without exercise is 2170. If a woman isn't supposed to go below 1200 calories, it seems like there isn't much room for reduction. How did you all adjust to that?

Just to let you know, I lost 65 lbs on Weight Watchers, but needed something new. I'm now coming off a one year plateau- I haven't gained the weight back, but I have stagnated in my loss. I like this site though, and have a HRM that helps me calculate my burned calories during exercise.

I appreciate any advice, and look forward to busting through this plateau!

i really want to know the answer to this.

i just got here and i've got 60 lbs. to lose and this site tells me i need to eat 1400 calories, which seems like awfully little to me. i thought most women needed 2,000 to survive?

You should only be eating 500 less than your daily burn, so in this case (2170-500) 1670. This would be on days when you do not workout, you will need more on days that you do.

Hi waterdancer! LOL- cute name. Maybe we will both find out. In the meantime, I compromised. I reduced my calories to 1700, and have set a daily goal of burning 400 calories through exercise. I don't know if people will go back and look at today's menu. It's horrific. I woke up late and ate crazy stuff before going to work. My non-scale victory is that I owned up to EVERYTHING that went in my mouth.

Here's the crazy thing which is really a 2nd question to my first question- After all the junk I ate this morning (confession: poptarts and mini donuts) why did CC still give me an A- when every thing listed was a grade of D? Was it just because I was below my daily calorie goal? Weird.

I'm Gabbi by the way.

Thanks Trikki- that's what I thought. Weird that they put me at 1450.

thank you :)

i'm chrissie! nice to meet you!

wow. a friend of mine suggested this place to me. :( it's a bit scary to hear that maybe some of the advice it's giving is wrong? maybe i should reconsider and go to sparkpeople.

Original Post by yoda0520:

Hi waterdancer! LOL- cute name. Maybe we will both find out. In the meantime, I compromised. I reduced my calories to 1700, and have set a daily goal of burning 400 calories through exercise. I don't know if people will go back and look at today's menu. It's horrific. I woke up late and ate crazy stuff before going to work. My non-scale victory is that I owned up to EVERYTHING that went in my mouth.

Here's the crazy thing which is really a 2nd question to my first question- After all the junk I ate this morning (confession: poptarts and mini donuts) why did CC still give me an A- when every thing listed was a grade of D? Was it just because I was below my daily calorie goal? Weird.

I'm Gabbi by the way.

Are you just referring to your breakfast foods as D's, or everything you ate?  I find that the CC grades are kind of iffy and should not be believed as absolute truth.  They're essentially just measurements of the nutritional value of a food per wieight of a serving.  Foods that are not really bad for you sometimes get bad grades because of the ratios of macro- and micro-nutrients per serving.  Essentially the analysis just tallies all the nutrients up and works it out to the total number of grams of food you consumed (I am guessing this).  So even if you have a lot of D foods, but your sat. fat, cholesterol, sugar, sodium, fat, protein, carb, etc., etc., levels are all within acceptable ranges you get an A-.  You have to take the CC grades with a grain of salt.  I have had a lot of A days recently, then a few days ago I had an A- day, but I couldn't see the reason why (I ate pretty much the same types of things as my A days).

I don't know if this might apply to you or not, but keep in mind that CC bases your caloric intake on the date you set for your goals as well.  For instance, if you want to lose 30 lbs. by December, you will be given a smaller calorie allowance per day.  But ifyou wanted to lose 30 lbs. by March of next year, you'll be given a higher, more lenient calorie range.  I found that by letting CC pick the goal date it set my calorie intake at about 500 calories less than my energy output.  I personally think that this is the healthiest way to do it, then you can evaluate and change your goals and intake along the way.  Good luck, and congratulations on losing 65 lbs!!  That is amazing, and you can lose the rest!!

Yoda, did you by chance change your Goal Date? like toad99 mentioned, this may explain why the calorie limit was lowered when you updated your info this last time.

You have done a great job so far, so keep it up!!