1200 calories vs 1600 calories

[Bikini Bound]

I'm beginning my third week of my weight loss journey and have lost about 6 lbs so far. I have been exercising 6 days a week and averaging about 1200 calories a day. My trainer does not approve of my eating habits and advised me to increase my calories to 1600. I am afraid to do that but I promised I would.

Has anyone had any success long-term from eating 1200 calories a day or did your weight loss eventually stall? Am I better off just eating the 1600?

 

[cyclonesforever]

If you go too low on your caloric intake then your body will start to panic in a way and your metabolic rate will decrease, meaning that your resting calories burned will be lower. I think this is your trainer is worried about. Another thing to compare it to is water weight. Believe it or not but you may bloat up a little from water weight if you drink too little water because your body starts to hold all the fluid it gets because its afraid it may not have enough later on. You do not want to go too low on things such as caloric intake for more than a couple days. If he recommends going to 1600 then I probably would. Something else to consider is fluctuating your intake different amounts each day. This in a sense keeps your body on its toes and will burn even more calories and raise your metabolism. Hope that helps.

 

[amy1985]

Given how much you're exercising, yes, 1200 calories does seem quite low. Even if it does stall your weight loss, you're better off losing slowly and steadily rather than risking losing muscle by tapering off too fast. You want to save some of that tapering for when you're closer to your goal- the less you have to lose, the harder losing weight is, and you don't want to be left with no buffer of calories to cut.

 

[Omega]

I agree with the others that it makes sense for you to be on as many calories as you can while losing weight to give you calories to cut if things slow down - so that you can get your weight loss started again.

While not specifically talking about the same numbers - I often found that my weight loss slowed and I had to choose whether to exercise more (at an already excessive level) or eat less calories...

Plateaus are very real and very distressing...