Is 1300 calories enough? How long before I'll stop being hungry?

[Wannabemamas]

Used to be a size 10 now I am a big 12 and and generally a bit out of shape. I am never consistent with my workout routine and food regime so I normally alternate weeks when I eat very well and workout regularly with months when I don't and tend to gain weight.
A bit of a cliche but with the new year I really want to get back into a better shape and shed a few kg. I am using myfitnesspal to cal count and the app tells me I need 1300 cal per day (on days when I don't go to the gym). I am used to eating way more than that and I feel hungry :( How long will it take before I adjust? I only started yesterday so perhaps I just need to be patient.

Also, what is going to happen if and when I reach the goal weight? Wouldn't increasing calories again bring me back to where I started from? This is something about diets I never really understood.

Hi , I'm same height as you and found sticking to around 1300k a day works for me to lose weight. I also strength train 30 min 5 x a week.

It helps me to loosely do 16:8, so the later I can hold off for my first meal the better. So I usually skip breakfast, eat a small lunch and then a snack (Greek yoghurt and berries) after work. Late dinner about 8ish stops me snacking in the evening and prevents going to bed hungry. That works I guess because I have teenagers and we all eat together quite late these days.

Sorry to hi jack. I've got ot of weight to lose and for the last four days I've been on 1400 calories. The TDEE calculator says my maintenance calories are 2030. For reference I'm 264lbs. Aiming to lose 6 stone . I'm soo hungry. How can I stop being hungry and reaching for the late night snacks? I am only snacking on fruit, meat, crackers etc.

@AlwaysAnxiousAnnie ok TDEE seems low, how tall or active are you? Was this your BMR or actual TDEE? I did a TDEE based on you being 5ft tall and sedentary and it was more than 2030 calories. I don’t think you have it right. Even light exercise puts that TDEE to 2,400 and then to cut 500 off would give you a good deficit to work with. 1400 is too low - you are hungry. You need to work it out correctly x
and even if it was 2030 for maintenance you are cutting well over 500 calories off it, why so much? Eat 1530…

I'm 5ft 4, 264lbs and lightly active.. I'm not sure. All th number confuse me.

This is one you can use

https://tdeecalculator.net/

it says your TDEE with no or little activity is 2,223. So you would minus 500 from this number to be in a deficit.

Once you lose some weight you need to recalculate the TDEE from time to time.

If you increase your activity to light (exercise 1-2 days a week), your TDEE is 2,500. So minus 500 from this number.

@AlwaysAnxiousAnnie

I've put your height/weight through the TDEE calculator that's signposted by the NHS. I used a notional age for you of 35 (TDEE tends to go down with age)

It suggests that you will lose weight at a moderate rate (1lb a week) on just over 2000 calories a day, and 2lb a week at 1580 calories a day.

I'm 105kg and eating 1400 and walking an hour a day and I'm finding it okay.

I once read a tip about how to work out calories to lose weight that I will share here.

Log your food for a week or so eating as your normally do and see how many calories you are eating. If you generally were eating (for example) 2500 a day then reduce to 2000 for a couple of weeks. If this doesn't work try 1800 and reduce by 200 a day til you find a sweet spot where you lose weight.

This method means that you don't suddenly plunge yourself into a huge calorie deficit.

Before I was intermittent fasting I would lose 1-2 pounds a week on 1700 calories a day which sounds like a lot but worked with my activity levels and body make up. I think sometimes it is better to use trial and error rather than generic online calculators.

@JemimaFuddle I agree but most people never do this they do just plunge into some random crazy low calorie deficit so at least a calculator provides some rationale for one method of working it out. Also people aren’t always honest with themselves about their intake, it’s hard to remember to log everything and takes a while to get into the habit!

1200 calories is only ever going to be manageable for short, small people.

It really depends on what you eat.

On Tuesday I ate 1,213 calories but because I had lots of lean protein and salad (big portion of grilled chicken with handful of air fryer wedges and huge salad) I felt really full.

Yesterday due to circumstances beyond my control I found myself in a place where there was only Macdonalds available to me for one meal. I had nuggets and side salad and ended up feeling very hungry the rest of the evening so had to eat more when I got back home. I ate 1,643 calories in total and didn't feel anywhere near as full as the day before.

Also I find breakfast makes a huge difference. If I have toast or cereal I tend to need a large portion to fill me up. So I started having scrambled egg and increased the egg from one to two and reduced the toast from two to one. The result is I feel full but am eating less calories overall.

I am 5 ft 2 and weigh 56KG and am on 1200 calories a day. I want to lose 7-10lb. This is what MFP and online calculators have suggested I need to drop weight. At 66 kg I would think you could eat more that 1300 but the weight will come off more slowly. It will depend how much weight you want to drop each week. I am only aiming for 1lb a week.
I overate at Christmas and felt rotten about it and am back on the healthy eating regime now. I exercise between 2-4 times a week and try to eat lower carb, low sugar and higher protein. I generally don’t feel massively hungry on 1200 a day. Drinking water helps.

OP, I’m also 5ft 2 , and put on weight in my early 20s so went up to 12 stone from my usual 9-10 stone. I lost the majority of this over the course of a year when I was 23 by eating around 1500 calories a day and going to the gym 2-3 a week for 1.5 hours each time.

This was before smartwatches and smartphones so I don’t know how many steps I was doing, but despite having a desk job, outside of the gym I’d walk about an 1-2 hours each day through commuting, shopping after work, walking around with friends in the high street over the weekend (pre-online shopping) etc.

I think it was the combination of being fairly active and the gym which helped me lose weight and maintain it.

So over the next decade I’d have periods of several months or even a year when I’d be having daily Starbucks and cakes etc and eating fairly large portions while not going to the gym, but I maintained or even lost more weight and stayed below 9 stone 8 because I was so active. The weight didn’t start to creep back on until my mid 30s when for various reasons (under employment, lockdown etc) I was walking much less but eating the same.

I think it’s better to stay above 1200 calories and do exercise than go below that. For me, most of the time, eating something like 1000 calories wouldn’t feel enough. Keeping busy, and drinking lots of water and eating lots of veggies is helping me stick to 1300 calories right now. I’m 70KG having lost about 10KG over the last 2 years. Online calculators tells me I can have around 1300 calories to lose weight.