Hi & Help!

[a_betts72@yahoo.com]

First thing's first...Hi!!! My name's Alicia & I'm new to this site (but not new to trying to lose weight). So far this site seems pretty awesome as I fill out my food diary & journal my thoughts instead of eating them.

I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out how much my daily calories should be. I'm 38 years old & only 4' 8" tall. When I was on WW at this same weight (& obviously height), my daily point count was 18 points. Doing the math, that would mean that I should only be eating 900 calories per day. Is that correct or is it the 1200 calories per day that's usually recommended? I know I need to figure this out because if I'm consuming not enough calories, it's just as bad as consuming too many calories, correct?

If you can help me figure this out I'll be your friend forever. Thanks!

[azrunner6]

The recommended daily intake is 1200 calories a day for women, however depending on your activity level you many need to consume more or even less. To lose weight generally you have to burn more calories than you consume but doing this in the heathy way by eating your fruits , vegs, protein, carbs as recommended but in portions.

I myself have just discovered this website and find it a blessing as it is very hard to keep a food and exercise journal at home. But being that this is so well organized it will work perfectly for me at work. I look forward to updating it!

[cjohnson728]

Hi Alicia, you raise a very good point. I am on the smaller side myself, so I know it is frustrating to burn fewer calories than others do.

The 1200 is the magic number under which people think your body starts to slow down to conserve energy--the "starvation mode" hypothesis. To the best of my knowledge, it has neither been proven nor disproven. There are people on this site who have experienced a slow down or stop in weight loss when dipping below a certain number of calories. There are also others who have gone well below it and not experienced a slow down. This leads me to conclude that it's an individual thing.

I would suggest trying different calorie intakes for a couple weeks at a time to see what you can sustain and how you lose the best. The logs make it easy. It may be that you just need to take a slower road to the overall loss because it is harder to manage a significant calorie deficit when your overall burn is relatively low to begin with.

If you don't have a lot to lose, that makes it a bit harder as well.

But it is do-able. The tools here and the people make it easier.

[a_betts72@yahoo.com]

Thank you both for answering my question. After inputing my activity level (if you can call it that ), the calculator came up with 1,191 calories, so I guess I'll start with that & see how it works out.