I am new!

Hey everyone!

Im new, my name is leah and im 5'1. Go being short!

I was wondering, how many calories do you consume on an average day? I think being short would mean less food so...what is your caloric intake?

cheers!

Leah

I try to consume 1200. At first, I was strictly only eating when I was hungry, and sometimes my calories would only be at 700 or 800. I thought that was fine, and I was losing weight at a normal rate. I was being careful not to go OVER 1200 but I wasn't careful to get at least very close to 1200. But since then I have discovered that if I eat only around 800 calories for a few days, I might not feel hungry, but after a few days I feel absolutely WIPED OUT tired. Like falling asleep at work, coming home at 5:00 and immediately going to sleep until 9 at night, waking up to eat and trying to hang out for a bit only to fall asleep in my chair! It was miserable and embarrassing.

So anyway, now I try to get as close as possible to 1200 daily, and if I'm not very hungry I will eat something small but caloric, like nuts or olives if I find myself way below my calorie quota.

And welcome!  Go being short!  *high fives*

I eat 1200 too, but a good way to figure out how much you should eat is to use the "tools" button on this site. So click tools, then go to "Calorie Target." It will ask you your current weight and your goal weight, then when you click forward it will ask you your gender, age, height, activity level (there are choices), and goal date. Then when you click through it will tell you how many calories you need to eat a day to achieve your weight goal by the date you listed! It won't let you pick a date that would require you to eat less than 1200. 

Not to sound like an advertiser, but Calorie Count has a lot of useful tools like that! Happy dieting, and welcome!

I, too, eat 1200 calories a day not to exceed 1500, and much like Holly, I used to eat only when I'm hungry. This means that honestly, I was pulling in no more than 500 calories/day. My body obviously felt that it was starving, so I had to fix it.

The tools that were mentioned are helpful, but one thing that I've noticed is that when using it I'll receive a "target date" and then on the "My Home" page I'll see the "target goal reached by" date which is usually quite a few months difference, so I don't know what that's all about. I've also put in the amount of calories that I want to take in and my goal weight and will have the calculator auto-adjust for me, and still...many different dates, which doesn't make any sense.

Anyhow, it's good to have you in there, Leah. The individuals in this group are wonderful and supportive. I'm sure that you will do exceptionally well in here with us. :D

Jennifer

I am 5' 0". I was eating 1200 based on the calorie counter tools and I slowed down my metabolism on that amount - I wasn't losing much.  I am now eating 1500 to 1800 based on how much activity I do in a day.  30% protein, 30% fat, 40% carbs.  I'm lifting weights and walking.  I'm noticing nice muscle development with this plan.

I've read in many different places that it's actually good to be jumping around the amount of calories that are taken in for there to be successful weight loss. For example, for a few days eat 1200, next couple - few eat about 1800, then drop down to 1500, and then just do the yo-yo act with that for a couple of weeks, then go back to the lowest you can go (in most women's cases, this would be 1200), for a couple of weeks, then go back to the yo-yo trick again.

It does appear to work so long as the additional calories aren't sugars, fats, processed foods, etc.

Hi everyone!

Thank you for all your advice. i too was only eating when i was hungry and then getting way too tired. Calorie Count says i should eat around 1200 calories, I will stick to that and hopefully the pounds will just melt of right? hahaha ok. haha

Hope everyones week is going well so far,

Leah

Welcome Leah!  Late on this one but =)
I'm guilty of the too low bit also.  Least now I don't feel so bad!