angie-leigh's Journal, 14 March 2021

10-15% is the safest and most sustainable way to lose weight as it allows for mistakes and helps the slow transition into changing your diet. anything above that is considered extreme and should only be done with alot of research and commitment. With any diet you should be eating 3-6 times a day (includes full meals and snacks) and remember any new diet takes 2-4 weeks for your body to normalize. Realistically any diet changes should be permanent and allow for mistakes and high colorie days once a week (fast food, restaurants etc). Keep into consideration that different diets work for different people. Do your research and find what works for you. 

What's 10-15% im having 1200 calories a day but wondering if should lower it. Thanks for all ur advice.  

Based on your RDI - Recommended Daily Intake of energy units (calories / kilojoules) AND your level of activity. So if you are not very active it can be more difficult to find the right level. Once you start to increase your level of activity it becomes easier to match inputs and outputs so that there is a small caloric deficit most days. Like Pedro said, only cut down 10/15 % or your metabolism, the rate at which your body uses energy, will slow down to compensate and it’s hard to get it fired up again. 

It hasnt even been 2wks, so maybe I should learn some patience as well. Thanks  

Make sure you are calculating your calorie intake properly because 1200 calories is pretty low for a maintenance total. Use a calculator and multiply your maintenance RDI by 0.15 to get the calories you need to cut. For example mine is 2800 and my cut is 25% so my daily intake is around 2200 calories (700 calories cut). 

I think my RDI was 1500 or 1700 but thought that was a bit high. 

Alot of calorie counters will give you different numbers. It's better to use a reputable website to determine your true RDI. Take 10-15% off that and figure out your diet. Takes time and patience but eventually you fall into a routine and get better at it. If you try to do more than 15% without specific diet and exercise your body will lose weight quickly then switch to survival mode after awhile and you will stop losing weight and you will get lethargic because your metabolism will try to slow you down. Most people that try doing it end up failing the diet they are on and go back to how they were eating originally.  

I was going to start using lite n easy and when i started with them they recommended 1200 as a jump-start plan for 2wks. Thanks for all your help will do more research