What's the best daily calorie intake for weight loss?

[heyitskaty]

Hello everyone. I've been with a personal trainer for a few months recently, but now I'm on my own due to only so much cha-ching$$$ I lost about 10 lbs with not much of specific dieting but mainly with better changes and tons of exercise.

I'm on my own now and I'm also at a different gym. The exercise part is all good and fine, but I don't want to waste my valued time dieting wrong when I could be losing weight 'faster'.

So tell me, in your opinion...
What's the best daily calorie intake for someone trying to knock off about 15 lbs? I'm counting calories with the app MyFitnessPal and I set my daily goal to 1,300.

My main worries are:

A. I won't get enough calories and my body will go into starvation mode and store the fat.

B. I won't be losing as quickly as I could be.

C. I won't lose over a 1/2 lb a week and I won't be able to figure out what the problem is.

And D. I'll get frustrated and eventually disappointed in myself after about 3 weeks with no more than 5lbs lost...

I feel like I'm asking too much of myself, but I know it's possible. I'm a pusher, I'm a fighter, but I know that if I don't see any lbs dropping off eventually then I will start to give up. And I don't want that.


Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong! Tips are VERY welcomed!!

BTW, a reg. diet on a good day for me would look something like this

Breakfast - Protein bar

Snack - 1/2 cup carrot sticks w/ some ranch

Lunch - 1 grilled chicken breast w/1/2 cup (often more) non-buttered and non salted green beans

Snack - about 2 handfuls of red grapes

Dinner - homemade lean ground beef patty w/mozzarella cheese and some ketchup, side romain salad, and carrots again (or green beans again.)

Usually drink about 5-7 water bottles throughout the day.
1-2 glasses of crystal lite flavored drink a day also.

 

[puccah8808]

You don't eat enough. At that daily intake and regular exercise, you should have hit your goal already.

What's your current weight? What's your current routine? What's your goal? How old are you?

 

[heyitskaty]

I wasn't dieting well when I was exercising with the personal trainer 3-4 times a week.

I just started dieting well a few days ago, after coming home from vacation. I have kept the same workout routine though; 3-4 times a week, about 45 minutes each time. Mainly cardio and weight resistance. Legs and butt one day, arms and chest another, back and chest, and full body once a week.

 

[Driven2lift]

^ if you just started eat more than that.
Leave yourself room to progress.

What are your current stats?
You will know in 1-2 weeks how fast this weight loss is set up for and be able to go from there too

 

[JudoJosh]

You are on the right track but you are over thinking a lot of this. Worries A-D, ignore them. They aren't important. Instead focus on making small changes and tracking your progress. I see you got an app for calorie tracking, great! 1300 calories seems low but I'm not sure what your weight and gender is, but it does seem a little low. For right now, don't worry about calories. Just enter all your food into the app and be aware of how your weight fluctuates. Try and eat a decent amount of protein with each meal, focus on increasing veggie intake, and try and limit carbs to around workout times. After a week or so of this then change out your average calorie intake and weight status and from here you can adjust and try and eat either more or less

 

[matt8483]

1300 cals is extremely low, especially if you're working out at least 4 days a week. In order to help with diet, one would need to know what your stats are.