I wish this was easier

pollypocket1021

Started January 1, with a goal of 0.5lb per week. Just did the math, and I've lost closer to 1.5lbs per week. Obviously this is a CICO issue. I'm having a hard time figuring out what my calorie goal should be.

I'm 5'0, and on Jan1, I was 137lbs. Today, I'm 115lbs. I have a feeling I was maintaining prior to January on about 5000-6000 kcal/day. Started at 1450 kcal/day, it's dropped the goal as I've lost, but honestly most days I'm over 2000. I weigh some things, but not everything. I also eat out quite a bit because I travel for work so much. So my caloric intake that is recorded is probably less than I actually consume. Nonetheless, I've lost at a faster rate than I would like.

The first week of a deficit, I felt "off," but since then, I feel fine, and I don't feel hungry. I don't generally do any exercise that is worth recording (that is a goal...someday...)

I figured I would be able to look at my average caloric intake compared to loss and figure out where I should be, roughly. Titrate up or down, etc. But I'm a little lost. I know I should start weighing everything and get a better idea of what I'm eating. Any suggestions on what a good calorie goal should be for 0.5lb weight loss?

Diary is open

malibu927

Change your activity level. If you have it set to sedentary, it sounds like you're more lightly active, or even higher.

Whitezombiegirl

pollypocket1021 wrote: »

I have a feeling I was maintaining prior to January on about 5000-6000 kcal/day.

Whaaaat? I'm 5ft0 too and my maintenance before exercise is 1450!

pollypocket1021

I'm already on lightly active and I have an office job and don't really "formally" exercise. Based on the description, I thought lightly active was fairly accurate and maybe even a little generous.

I wasn't tracking calories before, but looking back, I'm fairly certain 5000-6000 was probably the daily intake for over a year

lynn_glenmont

If you've been consistent in your logging, you have all the info you need to figure this out. Add up your last three or four weeks of calories in, add another 3500 calories for each pound you've lost during that time, and divide by the number of days in the time period, and that's a better estimate of your current maintenance level as measured by your tracking methods than any online calculator will be able to give you. (Another benefit of this is that it doesn't actually require you to be accurate in your logging, so much as consistent. If you're consistently undercounting or overcounting because you don't weigh everything or because of your work travel, and you continue that same consistency in undercounting and overcounting after you calculate your maintenance level based on your own data, it should still work. Of course, consistency while tracking with wild inaccuracy is probably harder to achieve than consistency while tracking with at least rough accuracy.)

If you still need to lose weight (not to be judgmental, but 115 lbs is fairly low weight unless you're really short), subtract 250 calories from the maintenance level you calculated, and that's your goal for losing a half pound a week.

If that's too much arithmetic for you, make your best guess as to what you're actually averaging in calories (if you don't add exercise calories back, which a quick look at your diary suggests you don't) or net calories (if you do add exercise calories back), and then add 500 calories to that (to go from 1.5 lbs a week loss to .5 lbs a week loss).

It looks to me like you're all over the place, some 1300 calorie days, some around 2000, and the occasional 2500 calorie day. Try raising your goal to 2500 and see what happens. Monitor. Adjust as needed. Don't panic if you gain a couple of pounds at first. Give it as least two or three weeks to see what the real trend is (and for premenopausal women, I would always advise at least one full cycle so your data isn't obscured by weight fluctuations related to your cycle).

pollypocket1021

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

If you've been consistent in your logging, you have all the info you need to figure this out. Add up your last three or four weeks of calories in, add another 3500 calories for each pound you've lost during that time, and divide by the number of days in the time period, and that's a better estimate of your current maintenance level as measured by your tracking methods than any online calculator will be able to give you. (Another benefit of this is that it doesn't actually require you to be accurate in your logging, so much as consistent. If you're consistently undercounting or overcounting because you don't weigh everything or because of your work travel, and you continue that same consistency in undercounting and overcounting after you calculate your maintenance level based on your own data, it should still work. Of course, consistency while tracking with wild inaccuracy is probably harder to achieve than consistency while tracking with at least rough accuracy.)

If you still need to lose weight (not to be judgmental, but 115 lbs is fairly low weight unless you're really short), subtract 250 calories from the maintenance level you calculated, and that's your goal for losing a half pound a week.

If that's too much arithmetic for you, make your best guess as to what you're actually averaging in calories (if you don't add exercise calories back, which a quick look at your diary suggests you don't) or net calories (if you do add exercise calories back), and then add 500 calories to that (to go from 1.5 lbs a week loss to .5 lbs a week loss).

It looks to me like you're all over the place, some 1300 calorie days, some around 2000, and the occasional 2500 calorie day. Try raising your goal to 2500 and see what happens. Monitor. Adjust as needed. Don't panic if you gain a couple of pounds at first. Give it as least two or three weeks to see what the real trend is (and for premenopausal women, I would always advise at least one full cycle so your data isn't obscured by weight fluctuations related to your cycle).

Thank you! That is exactly why I needed, just a step-by-step way to do the math.

I am all over the place. I've always been a mess.

I'm 5'0 if I stand up really straight. My BMI is about 23 now.

lynn_glenmont

pollypocket1021 wrote: »

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

If you've been consistent in your logging, you have all the info you need to figure this out. Add up your last three or four weeks of calories in, add another 3500 calories for each pound you've lost during that time, and divide by the number of days in the time period, and that's a better estimate of your current maintenance level as measured by your tracking methods than any online calculator will be able to give you. (Another benefit of this is that it doesn't actually require you to be accurate in your logging, so much as consistent. If you're consistently undercounting or overcounting because you don't weigh everything or because of your work travel, and you continue that same consistency in undercounting and overcounting after you calculate your maintenance level based on your own data, it should still work. Of course, consistency while tracking with wild inaccuracy is probably harder to achieve than consistency while tracking with at least rough accuracy.)

If you still need to lose weight (not to be judgmental, but 115 lbs is fairly low weight unless you're really short), subtract 250 calories from the maintenance level you calculated, and that's your goal for losing a half pound a week.

If that's too much arithmetic for you, make your best guess as to what you're actually averaging in calories (if you don't add exercise calories back, which a quick look at your diary suggests you don't) or net calories (if you do add exercise calories back), and then add 500 calories to that (to go from 1.5 lbs a week loss to .5 lbs a week loss).

It looks to me like you're all over the place, some 1300 calorie days, some around 2000, and the occasional 2500 calorie day. Try raising your goal to 2500 and see what happens. Monitor. Adjust as needed. Don't panic if you gain a couple of pounds at first. Give it as least two or three weeks to see what the real trend is (and for premenopausal women, I would always advise at least one full cycle so your data isn't obscured by weight fluctuations related to your cycle).

Thank you! That is exactly why I needed, just a step-by-step way to do the math.

I am all over the place. I've always been a mess.

I'm 5'0 if I stand up really straight. My BMI is about 23 now.

You're welcome. And congratulations on the 22 lbs you've already lost, and making it down to a BMI in the healthy range.

I've lost 40 or so pounds, in a much longer time, but I still have a ways to go to make it to a "healthy" weight (I was in the "severely obese" category when I started, now just "overweight").

And I totally get the "all over the place" on the calories. I do that myself. That's what's great about this tool, and having all my past data stored. It's so much easier to stay on track over the long term, knowing whether I've been averaging over or under maintenance over the past week or month, and being able to figure out what adjustments I need to make. I was never able to successfully lose a substantial amount of weight and keep it off long term following the advice of "just eat less," because without the data, it was hard to know if I was eating less this week than last week, unless I cut calories so drastically that it was obvious that it was less, and that kind of cut just wasn't sustainable for me.