How many calories do I eat a day to lose weight?

Question

Hello!
So I am 140 pounds, and would like to get down to my pre pregnancy weight.  
I’ve been trying to lose weight for over a year, but I can’t seem to do it. 
I’ll go on a super strict diet, aiming for 1,000 calories a day.  But then i get obsessive and try to eat less calories the day before, for example, if I have 1,000 calories one day, ill aim for 950 the next day, then 900, then so on and then before I know it, I’m eating 400-500 calories a day, basically starving, then I end up getting frustrated and going back to my old ways.  
I do this weird diet every few months, it always starts off good, but doesn’t end up good. 
I am trying really hard to do it the right way.  I’m trying to eat mostly fruits and vegetables, avoiding processed stuff.  I’m trying to not track calories since calorie counting never really worked out for me, and just focus on eating better, and making better choices.  But I feel like I do need to track calories since I’ve been doing this for about two weeks and only lost 4 pounds so far. 
So how many calories does a 145 pound person have to eat a day to lose weight? 
Also-  when dieting, how often should I be weighing myself? When I go on my diets I usually end up weighing myself about 6 times a day.  I know I shouldn’t weigh myself multiple times a day, but maybe once a day? Once a week? 
I should add I do not exercise.  I do have a 1 year old and a 4 year old, and I’m home with them and we are pretty active.  We go for atleast one walk a day, lots of beach and park and outdoor activities, so I’m not sedentary, but I am also not running on a treadmill like I should be either.

Answer

Your post sounds a bit like disordered thinking around food and dieting. Losing 4 pounds in 2 weeks is usually a healthy rate of weight loss. And caloric requirements differ for everyone.

Answer

Download the app my fitness pal, when you put in your information it tells you how many calories you should be having. When you exercise you get additional calories that you can either eat or save towards the end of the day which equates to a calorie deficit which equates to pounds lost. Link your Fitbit or Apple Watch or Garmin or whatever you have to it with Bluetooth and that’s how it links. The last thing you want is to go into starvation mode by eating too little calories, you need to focus on four things. Number one sleep. I know you said you had a baby but you need to sleep, because when you don’t sleep enough your body releases hormones that cause you to binge, crave, retain water, on top of that you become more stressed, the more stress you become an anxious or anxiety or depression, your body releases cortisol which causes you also to gain weight. So you need to focus on sleep, rest relaxation etc. Number to your hydration. When you don’t drink enough water your body can retain water causing you to bloat, etc. water also balances your salt and sugar intake which is what causes you to gain weight also, it helps to remove waste from your body so you don’t become constipated, you can carry 1 to 5 pounds of waste a day in your system. I am not saying that you should be taking laxatives or anything like that to remove the waist do not do that extreme. Any diet that goes from 0 to 100 never lasts because it is not sustainable. You will do anything for a piece of cake, when you have cravings it’s OK to give into them, but at the same token that doesn’t mean you eat a gallon of ice cream, that means you eat a little bit. It’s about balance, finding alternatives, it’s not about starving or depriving yourself. The more miserable you are the less likely you’re gonna stick to things. Number three you’re going to focus on your nutrition. Foods that walk on the earth and grow on the earth, less processed foods, slowly add in foods that serve you and slowly let go of foods that do not serve you. Number four you’re going to focus on some kind of movement. Walking, dancing, strength training, a Zumba class, stripper pole dancing class, something you’ve always wanted to try, swimming, belly dancing, whatever your heart desires. But some kind of movement. If it’s something you enjoy and something that you look forward to, it’s your me time or escape from reality, there’s more of a chance of you sticking with it rather than finding an excuse not to do so. And don’t tell me that nobody has motivation, everybody has motivation and then because we have the motivation to finish a series on Netflix, we have the motivation to get out of bed whether that is our bladder or a crying child, everyone has motivation it’s just what you choose to do with that motivation. It’s also physics, an object in motion tends to stay in motion while an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Nobody binge watch is a series on Netflix and in the middle of it says you know what I feel like going to the gym, no you watch another episode. The less you move, the less you want to move. And don’t do any extreme diets. Like I said they’re not sustainable, and sometimes they cause more damage and benefit. For instance keto is good for somebody who has epilepsy and has seizures, or somebody who has multiple sclerosis, it helps with inflammation, it helps with neurotransmitters in the brain, but it’s not good for somebody who has issues with blood pressure, cholesterol, their heart, etc. or can develop those things. Same thing with intermittent fasting, it works for some people it does not work for others, if you have diabetes, hypoglycemia, or other issues it’s probably not a good thing for you because you’re in love with emergency room. You have to figure out what works best for you. There is no one diet that works for everyone because majority of diets are designed by a man. Men cycle every 24 hours or women cycle every 30 days and that goes for women even who are in menopause or had hysterectomies you still cycle with the moon there is some point in your month that you are more tired have less energy etc. and that’s understandable and you give yourself Grace in space on those days, a bad day does not mean that it’s over, tomorrow is another day. Learning not to be so hard on yourself, changing your perspective and your brain set. Setting new pathways in your brain new habits, new things that become like auto pilot to you. Getting that mean girl out of your brain, the one that says things to yourself that you would never say to another human being, they say that you’re supposed to treat people how you want to be treated with love and respect, we need to give ourselves that same love and respect. Just take it one day at a time you’ve got this.

Answer

Thats not enough calories and your actually doing the opposite thing by restricting your calories so much. Eat whatever you usually eat and excersize more. Otherwise your weight is just gonna yo-yo. Restrictive diets like that dont work long term and are extremely unhealthy. Also depensing on your height you shouldnt try and lose weight as 140 is normal and considered healthy

Answer

You’re not eating enough. Even 1200-1500 calories is considered too low for some people. Your body is in starvation mode and holding in all your fat instead of burning it like you think it would. You’re also slowing your metabolism. Without knowing you, your lifestyle, weight, muscle mass, etc. nobody except a nutritionist or your doctor could tell you exactly how much to eat, but continue to eat healthy and eat when you’re hungry. You can try downloading a weight/food tracking app (I use LoseIt) and you can input your weight, height, activity level, and reasonable goals to lose (1/2 pound/week, 1/week, 2/week) and the app will give you a recommendation of how many calories to eat per day. It can also break down how many calories you should eat per meal, how many of each food group you’re consuming, water intake, and other things. This is all stuff the loseit app can do, I don’t know about others but would assume they’re similar.

Answer

You should talk to a professional dietician about what's the best amount of daily calories for you. 1,000 a day is not healthy. Losing up to 2 pounds a week is a healthy weightloss rate. Anything more than that is not.

Answer

As a 157 pound woman who has been tracking her calories for a few weeks and is sedentary, I seem to maintain at about 2200 calories a day. And that’s even with my long history of disordered eating messing with my metabolism. That means my body needs that many calories just to survive.
What that means is that anything below that I should be able to lose weight as long as I’m consistent, even if I only knock off a few hundred calories per day.
That being said, every body and situation is different so my advice to you would be to keep a journal for a couple weeks of what you eat and your daily weight (don’t count calories yet cause you’ll obsess) and then tally up the calories for each day and see which days you maintained, gained, or lost. That should help you find out how many calories you need to maintain and then you can go from there. It could be something as simple as cutting out a few things you normally eat/drink or going for a 30 min jog or doing some aerobics.

Answer

Calories out vs calories in so depending how much you’re doing a day would need less calories.  
Doing it this way though you’re just going to gain it all back when you stop “dieting”
You need muscle to eat away your fat.  Otherwise your body, once you hit that point where you feel like you’re consistently starving, it’s just going to start eating away at your muscle to lose weight.  
Muscle weighs more than fat so people think “losing weight” and it’s healthier but your body needs the balance of the muscle to actually be healthy.  
Don’t go on a diet, change your diet…it’s a lifestyle if you want it to stick otherwise you’ll be right back where you started.

Answer

You are eating way too few calories to be able to lose body fat. With what you're doing, your body will be forced to cannibalize muscle tissue, which will completely wreck your metabolism. It's incredibly important that you do not lose muscle mass while losing body fat. 
For your size, I would shoot for 1400-1500 calories a day with at least 125 grams of protein. Find some at-home strength training videos on YouTube to do as well to help maintain that muscle tone.

Answer

Best way to lose weight is calorie deficit, your a healthy young lady you need around 1500val per day, ild say eat 900-1000, also fasting is REALLLY good! I fast have been for a long time it just the way I eat now, I wake up around 6am drink pint of water and then wait till 2pm to eat and I eat 1000 calories worth of food until 8pm then that’s it I go back to drinking water, 
Also I had covid few months back and it’s affected my taste and smell and I have gone off meat so I’ve stopped eating meat and Ive noticed im
Not bloating and have regular bowel movements and I feel a lot-lot better in myself (tofu and soya is what I’ve been eating) I’ve had bacon and chicken but even then it makes me feel sick 
Good luck xxxx

Answer

If you reatrict your calories too much, your body goes into starvation mode and slows down your metabolism which is counter productive. Meet with a dietician to plan out a diet which is healthy for you. When I was losing weight, I ate slightly smaller portions but really cut out excess sugars. Replaced treats with fruit, dropped juice, ate only whole grains, focused on veg and protein. I was never hungry. If I needed a snack, I had some  fruit and veg or a small handfull of peanuts and raisins. I did 150 mins of excercise a day, usually youtube workouts that I would split into shorter chunks so I could do them when I needed a quick break from work.

How many calories do I eat a day to lose weight?

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