Figuring out calories for maintance? activity level?

Ulwaz
Ulwaz Posts: 380 Member
edited November 8 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Im female, 22 years old
123 llbs (56kg)
5 foot 9 inches (176cm)
I do about 15-30 mins on my exercise bike daily
I do alot of walking most days
I work fulltime in a hospital

Not sure what to class my activity level as :)
any help/advice would be amazing! <3

Replies

  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
    The Harvard Medical School says to eat 15x your healthy weight (lbs) in calories if you're active at least 30 min a day.
    So that would be a good place to start.
    If you're still losing weight & don't want to, eat a bit more. I'd suggest nudging it by maybe 50 - 100 cal & give it a couple weeks to see the effect.

    http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HB_web/calorie-counting-made-easy.htm

    As for what to tell MFP, I'd say you're probably "active" if you're on your feet most of the day.

    And at your height & current weight, you're underweight. You should be 130 - 165.
    http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
    So 130 x 15 = 1950 up to 165 x 15 = 2475

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  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    You are definitely underweight. After you determine what a healthy weight is, it will take some experimenting with calories to figure out how to stay at that weight. When I hit maintenance, I changed my calorie level several times until I was happy with the result.
  • steff274
    steff274 Posts: 227 Member
    I had my activity level set to active and was dropping weight without wanting to so have set it to very active.. I work with horses and go to the gym frequently my calories without excersize are 2010 most days I am eating 2500 calories up to 3000 I am 5ft 2 and 105 pounds ;)
  • JeanCricket
    JeanCricket Posts: 176 Member
    edited November 2014
    Sounds like you are active to me :-)
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    edited November 2014
    Why don't you get a pedometer or fitbit? I found it gave me a much more accurate picture of what I was doing exercise wise. Especially since I vary a lot day-to-day. I would have sworn I was activity, but have to work to actually hit those numbers.
  • pkw58
    pkw58 Posts: 2,038 Member
    nxd10 wrote: »
    Why don't you get a pedometer or fitbit? I found it gave me a much more accurate picture of what I was doing exercise wise. Especially since I vary a lot day-to-day. I would have sworn I was activity, but have to work to actually hit those numbers.

    Agree!

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