Should I really be eating 1250 cals?

I am 21, 5'8 and 180 lbs. CC tells me I need to eat 1250 cals a day for a weight loss rate at 1.5 lbs a week, to reach my goal of 125 lbs some time in July...granted there are no set backs, which I am sure there will be. I don't think 1250 clas sounds unreasonable...because when I eat healthily, reaching even 1400 is kind of hard to do for me. Should I take CC's advice? (I don't think it would steer me wrong), or is 1250 cals completely unreasonable?

I'm 5'5" and 180'ish lbs and CC told me to eat 1550 cals/day. I think 1250 sounds a bit low, I remember in my nutrition class our prof. told us 1200 was the bare minimum. I think the more important thing is tracking the difference between the calories burned and the calories consumed. If the difference is in the 500 calorie range you should be losing ~1 pound/week.

Maybe cals vary because of height, age, and amount of weight to lose? I am utterly confused. When I weighed less, and I was on CC for a month, I was instructed to eat 1400 cals. Now that I weight more (About 20 lbs more) it says to eat less. I just want to follow GOOD instructions to get GOOD results.

Yes, it will vary the cals based on height, age, and how much you want to lose and your goal date.  The website gives you an estimate based on all of these things.  You don't have to go with the estimate, and I'd actually suggest trying 1400 again because if you start at 1250 you don't have very far to lower your calories if you decide later you need to.

try www.phord.com/cc - it's a site that a cc+ member created that gives a little more realistic calorie targets. But I agree - 1250 is too low for you.

edit to add: Remember, if you use the calorie target tool, and set it to sedentary, thinking "oh, I'll log the exercise as I do it" - the tool doesn't know that! It gives you a target as if you really are sedentary.

Okay, so I think I will stick with 1400 calories. On the website you gave me, amethystgirl, 1633 cals seems a bit high, and would only give me a 300+ deficit. I'd like to start off with a bit more than that. I am afraid now even at 1400, because lowering my cals wouldn't be able to do much if I needed to, since I can only cut out 200 calories realistically and on the safe side. 200 cals may not make a big difference. So...maybe I should shoot for 1400 - 1600 cals a day, and not freak out if I am above the 1400 mark...because apparently I'll still be fine eating up to 1600.

How much are you exercising? If you raise your activity level, you could have your (proverbial) cake and eat it too - that is, move more, eat more, lose more.

Well, considering I am a fat slob -- exercise is like...non-existent. Unless you consider walking up 4 flights of steps every day, at least 2-3 times exercise. I'd like to start walking 30 mins to an hour, though.

Original Post by chrstine:

Well, considering I am a fat slob -- exercise is like...non-existent. Unless you consider walking up 4 flights of steps every day, at least 2-3 times exercise. I'd like to start walking 30 mins to an hour, though.

 Hey Chrissy. I just clicked on your profile and it says that you like for people to be brutally honest, so hear goes. I am only 10 lbs lighter than you are right now and I have lost 50 lbs. When I weighed 225 lbs I started exercising. So if you really want to create a bigger deficit, there is no reason that you cant. You are definently not so overweight that you cant exercise, you just have to challenge yourself to do so.

Good Luck.

I know I have to. What sucks is that since I gained so much, my knees started to give me issues. Walking is not out of the question, I think I just need to train them to be stronger. Exercise is something that I know I can do...but finding the right cals...I am not sure I can. I feel like I have been led in every direction except the one I need to be on. 

I am not sure walking will give me a good deficit...it's only walking! I'd love an elliptical...but who knows when that will happen!

When I signed up today, I thought mine was WAY too high.

I'm in that "down to the last 5lbs" group, but 2200 a day when I listed myself as lightly active sounds a bit off to me.

Wendylicious,

i agree with you with the amount of cal to eat. I weigh 164 now after increasing my intake to 1800 per CC. What I discovered was, I was not eating enough to make it through the day.( I forgot to mention I am 5'7 and 42.) I am very active, I excercise 6days a week, but I have had to forgo running due to bad back and a foot condition. Anyway, it is very hard to believe CC wants me to consume 1800-2000 cal per day. I'm genarally not that hunger.

The calories/day estimate cc gives you also depends on your activity level. When you signed up you answered some questions about that. The more generally active you are (NOT counting your workouts), the more calories you can eat. Energy in- energy out.

So I'm 5'6', 195, and sit behind a computer all day. They told me to keep mine down to 1200 calories.  So it doesn't sound unreasonable to me necessarily since you are also much younger than I (I'm 51). If you can keep it to 1250, all the faster you'll reach your goal, but obviously if it's too hard to stay with it, you've got to just decide what you can do.

Christine--You just need to start doing a little exercise each day and then you will realize how much better you feel and want to keep doing it.  I trained for a marathon when I weighed 190 pounds and actually RAN the marathon at 180 pounds.  So do not let weight deter you from working out and it will improve your mood too!

Best of luck to you!