RDI

this may sound like a silly question but i will still ask. If my RDI is supposed to be 2300 calories a day and i eat around 1900 calories will i still lose weight even if i dont exercise? and if i will still lose weight why is my waist is adding on inches?

2300 cals. seems really high to me, especially for a woman, no matter how overweight she is, and even more especially if you arent interested in exercising. So I'm glad you have the sense to be eating less than your RDI says. Unless you consume 1200 cals. or less, I would give up on the idea of not exercising. Even if you consumed very little cals. and lost weight through diet alone, you would likely gain it all back eventually because when you diet and do not exercise, we tend to lose some of our lean muscle mass. If we lose that our metabolism slows down and makes our bodies fat hording machines instead of fat burning machines. If you are not seeing a decrease in inches, it is because you are consuming more calories than you are able to burn off. Calories burnt must equal more than calories consumed every day for a prolonged period of time for weight loss to occure. The science is as simple as that. Good Luck!

Essentially: You will lose weight, if you use more calories than you take in.

However basing that on your calculated RDI is dangerous. RDI is essentially an educated guess at the number of calories you are using per day. Everyone is different. Going on my RDI and daily usage I should be losing nearly 50% more than I am...

As for your waist, that will vary from day to day and week to week depending on a variety of factors (such as water retention). it is best to measure your loss across a variety of metrics. I use weight & my waist size. And from past experience weeks where I have maintained or even gained on the scales can be weeks where I have suddenly lost size.

thanks riocaz and holfraz your answers are very helpful