Will I lose weight with 1600-1700 calories per day?

[PrincessBananaH]

I am 5.2 ft tall and weight just over 10 stones, have gained a lot of weight over the past 2 years (had a DC, little time to work out, sedentary job).
I want to lose weight and go back to how I used to be, my aim is to lose at least 1 stone but am not in a rush and am looking for a lifestyle change rather than a very restrictive diet that will work in the short term but not in the long run (been there).
The way I reached the current weight was mainly by eating pretty much whatever I fancied at any given time and not exercising. So I'd say that in average, I used to eat about 2000-2200 Kcal per day with a sedentary life. Based on myfitnesspal I'd have to eat 1300 kcal per day to lose weight but for me it is simply not sustainable. So I wonder if limiting my daily intake to 1600-1700 kcal per day (plus a heavier meal in the weekend if eating out or having a take away) and doing a quick 25-30 min workout 3 times a week I can expect to lose weight over the next few months?
I have started a few weeks ago and already feel better, I can see that from my jeans etc but not sure if it will continue in the long run or whether I'd have to cut calories further in order to properly shed weight.

As I said, I am aiming for a sustainable lifestyle change, I'd rather get there slowly in 6 months than restricting myself too much to lose all the weight in 2 months.

Lightly active I would say. So if you stick to 1550 for example you should lose 1/2 lb a week. Your TDEE will go down slightly as you lose weight but not as low as 1600.

Sorry I have not read the whole thread but I have lost weight with very similar starting weight and height and a small deficit. I was around 162 cm and 62 kg, I lost 10 kilograms slowly. I have a desk job but I train 6 times a week (one run, weights, martial arts and stretching/yoga). I ate roughly 1600 a day, sometimes I ate back exercise calories, sometimes I didn’t. I’m over 40.
Mind you I am addicted to training and have been exercising regularly for several years before I decided to lose weight. I also eat quite healthy and have done so for the last 3 years.

That’s why I used the word average. It’s very unlikely that people would burn more than 200 in an half hour unless they had loads of muscle and exercised very intensely. This is average though, not fixed.

Calories burned relates to how hard you work (heart rate intensity) and is nothing to do with muscle mass.

If our stick to 1600 calories you should lose weight. Once you're at your goal weight upping to 1800 will "maintain" that weight.

That feels right based on you saying 2000 and you slowly gained?

My other advice would be to track your macros.

Our bodies burn through carbs and sugar like a log burner burns through paper. Your current breakfast is quite carb heavy and that's probably why you're getting hungry fairly soon after.

Fats take longer to burn through, so 400 calories of fat will keep you feeling fuller for longer than 400 calories of carbs.

Try eating your full fat yoghurt for breakfast and include things like avocado, eggs and cottage cheese at lunch. Lay off the rice cakes and eat more nuts instead (walnuts, cashews almonds are best!).

Have the bulk of your daily carbs (rice, pasta, legumes) with your evening meal.

If you try to do something like splitting your calories as 40% fat, 30% protein and 30% carbs it should stop you feeling as hungry when you cut down to 1600 calories.

I'd put your details into the James Smith Counter and see what that suggests.

If you focus on building muscle that will increase your metabolism as well. Make your 3 weekly workouts resistance training to build muscle and focus on increasing your protein intake - min of 25g per meal, and a daily intake of c0.8g per lb body weight. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water, getting at least 7 hours sleep per night and walking as much as you can too 👍🏻

Thanks all for the suggestions. On the water thing, does it actually make a difference in weight loss? I really struggle to drink more than 4 glasses per day :(

I don't think water directly helps with weight loss, it may however help by making you eat less as often hunger gets confused with thirst. If you are having lots of whole foods you will get a decent amount of water through your diet.

Also remember the 2 litres a day of water is an average, if you have a small body it is likely you will need less.

@Itisnearlyspring if I drink 2 lt a day I would go in the toilet every 30 min (unless it's summer or I am exercising a lot)

An average glass is around 300ml so 4 glasses plus water through food probably means that you are already getting around 2l so I really wouldn't worry about getting more.

To the OP. Look at it this way dropping from 2200c to 1600c is a brilliant step in the right direction. IF you can maintain that you will probably find you are either losing weight or at the very least stopping yourself putting any more weight on.

Do that for a couple of months and you will know if its enough of a drop to make the difference. Not sure how old your child is (pram/walks etc) but a 30-45min walk every day would make a huge difference to your calories over those couple of months. Dont look at it as a marsbar or whatever. For example i walked 35mins this morning and burnt 200 calories. Nothing in the grand scheme of things. But if you do that every day on top of dropping your calories down to 1600 per day you will have saved 48,000 (800 x 60) calories over the course of two 30 day months. Thats going to start making a difference and make you healthier.

@Tessasanderson thank you, I think I will continue for a few more weeks and see. I have lost a tiny bit and clothes are looser, I am less bloated in general but don't know how long this will last for.
DC is in pre school and I work FT an office job, long daily walks are very hard to fit in my schedule unfortunately :(

No way could you have burned 200 calories walking for 30 mins

I do 5k a day , plus clock up between 5 and 7 miles a day in work and would only burn around 500 calories over and above my resting calories> I think you are possibly adding resting and active calories together . Exercise doesn't burn as much as people think

So far today ( day off ) and Ive only done a 2 mile walk ( so far ) -197 active calories plus 846 resting To push calories up over 2000, Im looking at having to put in over 15000 steps a day, minimum of 6 miles

@suki1964 you do this regularly though so are fit. Someone starting out doing exercise will burn more, especially if they are larger. I think my Fitbit over reads but if I go for a 3 mile walk with a bit of hill work it gives me about 3000 calories burnt for the day. It will be over reading but not by 1000 calories.

I'm 5ft 3 and last October weighed 10 st 13. I work in a sedentary office job.

Since January I have been on approx 1,400-1,700 calories a day and I have gone down to 10 st 6.

I've adjusted my diet and increased my protein. So for example I ditched cereal breakfasts a while ago and have egg on toast instead. But now instead of 2 toast and 1 egg I eat 2 eggs and 1 toast.

Instead of 3 rounds of ham sandwiches for lunch I have 2 rounds with twice as much ham and added salad.

Instead of fish fingers, oven chips and peas for tea I eat 2 steamed cod loin fillet portions, home made air fryer wedges with the skins left on (much more filling than oven chips and add salad along with the veg or I eat a larger portion of chicken cooked chicken breast with a jacket potato and vegetable instead of eating less meat and more potatoes.

I find that if I fill up at meal times I want to snack less.

https://www.verywellfit.com/walking-calories-burned-by-miles-3887154

Gives a good idea on burned calories from walking

As for me being fit - rotflmao

Ive dodgy knees, I pant and puff and am shattered after a day in work. Im also 130 pound, and whilst my BMI is in the right range ( just) body fat percentage is still very high

@suki1964 you said “No way could you have burned 200 calories walking for 30 mins”

I weigh 250llbs and walk at 3 miles an hour. Your link shows I burn 133 calories per mile. So that works out at 199.5 calories for 30 minutes. Add in a few hill and the calories burned are increased.

Always one who has to go all in for the attack. I don’t care what you think but having been around professional sport for 30years, having trained an athlete to international standard, having coaching badges for multiple sports I am comfortable with my advice.

I could do screen shots of the last 2 years of workouts, walks, heart rates, elevation gain etc. However I will recap that the walk this morning was at 6am for 35.39mins. It was rather cold and the terrain is testing. I walked 3.12kms and burnt 208 active calories. I used 272 calories in total. The figures are slightly elevated because I am running a fever but give or take they are true. If you like I can recall a 3 month trial period where I did the same walks with a 15kg weight vest on to compare how my heart rate was effected and calories improved. I walk 8-10kms every day and lift weights 3-5 days per week. I don’t need to brag or overplay calories to anyone. I was just trying to simplify the calculations to show the benefits to a beginner of simply adding 30-40mins of raised heart rate and controlled diet.

I'm 5ft 5 and 11 stone and have to eat 1200 calories to lose weight. I maintain at 1500 but above that I put weight on. I'm fairly active, do yoga walking and ice skating and go to the gym, obviously all metabolisms are different but that might help?

I am 5 feet 5 & weigh the same as you. To lose weight I have to go down to 1200 calories or lower, then it’s 0.5 a week, nothing dramatic.

I tend to do this in fits and starts through, about 5/6 weeks like that and then a break where I eat what I want again, then my weight stays pretty steady.

I’ve come down from 11 stone like that but it has taken quite a while. I log absolutely everything on my fitness pal and don’t count the exercise calories.

It does feel tricky at first but then after 4 days or so it starts to feel normal - especially if you keep relatively low on carbs.

And I am currently keeping going towards 9.7lb, just have to stay on the low calorie “streak” for a good few weeks before having a break and just maintaining again!

I also agree with the poster who mentioned eating full fat yogurt etc, I think of you are reducing calories a lot then it’s important to eat what you actually enjoy or it does feel miserable.

I happily eat a bowl of full fat Greek yogurt for breakfast with honey and a banana. Maybe not a “diet” breakfast but it fills me up. I have sugar in my coffee still, and a bacon sandwich or cake if I want it - but just have to be brutally honest about logging the calories and stop at the 1200 mark no matter what!

I happily eat a bowl of full fat Greek yogurt for breakfast with honey and a banana.

I don't eat breakfast nowadays but a bowl of full fat (or fage 5%) Greek yogurt with berries and nuts is my standard mid afternoon snack. But being 5'1" and 63, it has to be a small bowl. It'd be idiotic for me to use the same sized cereal bowl as DH would. I've got a couple of small bowls now but also use teacup-sized ramekins.

A lot of it really is down to portion size.

I am schocked by all the people saying they only lose weight if they eat less than 1200 cal. That is totally unsustainable for me and not sure is healthy either. I have been in a great shape before eating more calories than that but with a moderately active job.
I will continue to try what I am doing now, no chance I'd go as low as that as for me that is simply not sustainable.

I tend to think it's more that people do lose weight with smaller calorie deficits than that, but obviously is slower, natural fluctuations in fluid and how much you've got in your gut can obscure seeing the fall on the weighing scales. So people get discouraged and revert to their 'normal' - which for any overweight person is very likely to be an excess versus what they would need to maintain steady weight.

I'm currently aiming for a small deficit (logging with Zoe, calories burned estimate from Apple Watch) - I think I'm very gradually losing but it feels sustainable.

One thing I find helpful when being mindful, is seeing it as a weekly total rather than daily. So sustaining the 1200/1300 Monday to Thursday, to allow more flexibility on a Saturday or Sunday.

The only thing with this approach is not having a ‘off the wagon’ mindset on relaxed days, and being accountable for how much is in every glass of wine, biscuit, takeaway etc.

I prefer to be more cautious Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, if I know a couple of drinks isn’t off the cards on Saturday. If I was very much on my limit every single day, there’s no real space to indulge in a treat.

I think though being very petite does mean my margins are much smaller anyway.