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

I focus strictly on calories - it helps me stay on track when tracking macros this early into my journey gets to be too much and makes me want to give up. So if it helps me to end my day with a 90 calorie non-dairy ice cream sandwich, or a 80-130 calorie yasso greek frozen yogurt bar, then yeah, I'm going to do that. Even if I was partaking in a 200 calorie ice cream bar (which at my calorie limit, I can't afford), I would track it and enjoy it. And sometimes I prefer watermelon for dessert, so I have that, or I don't need a dessert, so I just have a couple hundred leftover calories.

I'm not going to deny myself ice cream ever again - if I deny myself ice cream while I'm eating at a deficit, and never learn to portion it and enjoy it in a reasonable quantity, what hope do I have when I reach my goal weight and am eating at maintenance? Never eating ice cream again? What kind of lifestyle would I be setting myself up for if I can never eat reasonable amounts of treats again? No more cake at peoples' birthdays? No more thanksgiving food? No more pizza? No - you learn how to eat a reasonable portion of it, and satisfy your cravings without going crazy.

I've gone from eating a whole box of those ice cream sandwiches (8 bars * 90 calories = 720 calories) in one night, or a whole box of chocolate cheese cake (8 slices * 250 calories = 2000 calories) to this - I've learned that I can't fit the cheesecake into my calories, and the cheesecake isn't worth it for me to adjust the rest of my day to make room for it, so I don't eat that at all anymore. But the ice cream sandwiches, I've learned that I can have one or two at the end of the night when I have a craving for one, which I am happy with.

I'm glad that cutting out "suger-laden, heavily processed garbage" is working for you in your weight loss journey, and you should keep it up if that's what you find most beneficial. I will keep doing what I find beneficial to me :) and maybe at some point the ice cream bars/sandwiches will not be worth their calories to me, and at that point I'll reevaluate. That's the beauty of taking this process slowly - I get the chance to learn what works for me and my body while I'm losing, so that when I get to where I want to be, I've had plenty of practice eating how I want to eat.

/r/loseit Thread Parent