What should my calorie goal be?

notsofitRebecca

I am a 32 almost 33-year-old woman and I'm 5'2" and weigh 154 pounds! I work out five days a week, alternating between the 30 day shred workout video and the C25K program.

What should I put as my calorie goal in my diary? I'm so tired of trying to guess!

Thank you!!!

RosieWest8

I honestly had the best results calculating my estimated BMR and TDEE and then eating less than my TDEE, but more than my BMR.

I'd take the average of your results from the Harris-Benedict formula and the Mifflin-St Jeor just to get a middle of the road guess.
http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

I always set my 'activity level' to 'sedentary' and then logged my exercise calories burned (I have a heart rate monitor and used another website to estimate my calories burned based on my average heart rate during my runs). MFP is notoriously inaccurate for many exercises.
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

**MFP automatically adds exercise calories burned to your daily goal and there are multiple opinions on whether you should eat them back or not. I ate all of my exercise calories back - and consistently lost weight so I know others will suggest other ways (don't eat them back or eat 1/2). I ate them back b/c I set my activity level as 'sedentary' --- if you include a different activity level when you do your calculation (ie. you include all that exercise you're doing in your TDEE then you will not have to eat them back).
I hope all this makes sense!

So even with all these numbers being 'estimates'.... when I was logging consistently I lost weight so it worked for me. Start somewhere and then after 4 wks decide whether you need to adjust your caloric intake or not. You can input your actual activity level in the formula (use something other than 'sedentary') and your TDEE will just be higher. Good luck.

Also, this is not the only way to do it, I just think it's the most simple to understand, or at least it was for me!

MKEgal

notsofitRebecca wrote:

I am a 32 almost 33-year-old woman and I'm 5'2" and weigh 154 pounds! ... What should I put as my calorie goal in my diary?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Goal setting, including calories & macros.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-06-08-setting-goals-667045

Find a weight which puts you in a healthy BMI range:
http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
At 5'2", you should be 105 - 130, so you have about 25 lb to lose.
Losing 1/2 lb per week would be a reasonable goal.

My doctor & dietician said to eat 10x my healthy goal weight in calories, so aim for 1300.
They also said to ignore exercise or "net" calories. Most people underestimate what they eat, and most machines (including MFP) overestimate calories burned.
Don't go below 1200 unless your doctor says it's OK.
Once in a while if you're really hungry, have 1/2 - 1/3 of your exercise calories.

When you get to your goal weight, nudge your calories up until you're not losing or gaining. If you're exercising 30 min per day, that would probably be about 15 cal/lb.

notsofitRebecca

Thank you!!! My BMR for one was 1462 and the other was 1358!

ana3067

MKEgal wrote: »

notsofitRebecca wrote:

I am a 32 almost 33-year-old woman and I'm 5'2" and weigh 154 pounds! ... What should I put as my calorie goal in my diary?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Goal setting, including calories & macros.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-06-08-setting-goals-667045

Find a weight which puts you in a healthy BMI range:
http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
At 5'2", you should be 105 - 130, so you have about 25 lb to lose.
Losing 1/2 lb per week would be a reasonable goal.

My doctor & dietician said to eat 10x my healthy goal weight in calories, so aim for 1300.
They also said to ignore exercise or "net" calories. Most people underestimate what they eat, and most machines (including MFP) overestimate calories burned.
Don't go below 1200 unless your doctor says it's OK.
Once in a while if you're really hungry, have 1/2 - 1/3 of your exercise calories.

When you get to your goal weight, nudge your calories up until you're not losing or gaining. If you're exercising 30 min per day, that would probably be about 15 cal/lb.

OP, i do not recommend eating 1300 as a goal.

Do as the first poster recommended: calculate TDEE if you exercise regularly, if you don't then just calculate non-exercise, daily living needs. I prefer calculators like exrx.net and health-calc.com over IIFYM (love the lifestyle, not the calculator - estimates too low). First one is a better estimate for me but the 2nd one is actually about equal for when I estimate my goal weight needs. Subtracting 20% is more than enough for your goals, or about 1lb/week. If you do not exercise regularly, then estimate normal daily needs then log and eat back all exercise calories. If you do not lose at your estimated rate, then either lower your exercise calorie intake to 75% or 50%, or lower net calorie intake by 100 cals or less. Monitor for a month, adjust things as necessary. It's all about trial and error. And as first poster said, if you include exercise then do not eat back exercise calories.

Everyone's goals are different because it's based on your personal activity level, not based off eating 10x your current weight or calculating maintenance by multiplying by a static number. e.g. I am more active now because I walk more (university) compared to my summer lifestyle, so my intake needs changed.

The issue with using a generic 10x bodyweight thing is that is may be reasonable when starting out at a quite high weight, but no when one is within a reasonable distance from their goal. E.g. 2150 calories is actually not so terribly unreasonable at all, assuming one is not all that active at this weight, and this might actually be within a reasonable deficit fr someone starting out at a heavy weight. 1300 is not reasonable for the majority of people.

ana3067

notsofitRebecca wrote: »

Thank you!!! My BMR for one was 1462 and the other was 1358!

Make sure you are not basing your intake needs from your BMR though, as in don't create your deficit from this. I just estimated your needs from scooby's workshop and 1800 is given as an estimated calorie goal to lose 1lb/week. Of course it's all an estimate, this is why I do prefer exrx.net type of website because you can do more customization.


OH WAIT wait WAIT. Your ticker says your goal is to lose 6 more lbs?? 5-10% deficit MAX should be used in this case. Scoobys rec is 2050-2150 in this case.

cwolfman13

I'm confused...this calculator will calculate a calorie goal for weight loss for you. Put in your stats...be honest with your activity level (understand the whole net calorie/eating back exercise calories thing, establish a realistic rate of loss goal (probably no more than 1 Lb per week with how much you have to lose) and voila...this calculator will calculate.

notsofitRebecca

ana3067 wrote: »

notsofitRebecca wrote: »

Thank you!!! My BMR for one was 1462 and the other was 1358!

Make sure you are not basing your intake needs from your BMR though, as in don't create your deficit from this. I just estimated your needs from scooby's workshop and 1800 is given as an estimated calorie goal to lose 1lb/week. Of course it's all an estimate, this is why I do prefer exrx.net type of website because you can do more customization.


OH WAIT wait WAIT. Your ticker says your goal is to lose 6 more lbs?? 5-10% deficit MAX should be used in this case. Scoobys rec is 2050-2150 in this case.

I'm trying to do small goals so that I'm not discouraged! Ultimately I want to get to 125!! I had a baby 10 months ago and I've lost 20 since I started dieting in March. But my weight loss has slowed significantly and it's already getting hard to loose! So, I came here looking for a fresh outlook! I appreciate everyone's help!!!

I've been eating my exercise calories, so I think I'll stop doing that and see what happens! I really just don't know what to set my calorie goal too! It's frustrating not knowing how many calories my body actually needs to survive!