6lbs left to lose...how many calories per day?

chasingyouu

Female, 18, 5'5 and 136lbs

I'm having trouble knowing what to set my goals to. Some days I don't do any exercise and others I'm on my feet all day (I'm training to be a chef in college so some days I'm constantly in a hot kitchen and others I'm sitting in a classroom). I never do anything like running but I go for walks almost every day.
I've lost 22lbs since January and after what felt like a sudden burst of weight loss, I've come down to a very slow pace. I don't mind because all that's left to lose is just vanity weight. I'm happy to have come down to being a healthy weight and my confidence has been boosted greatly.

All I want to know is if I should set my activity level to sedentary or lightly active. Or should I eat more on days I'm active than days that I'm not?
And I would also like to know if I should aim to lose maybe 0.5lbs a week because I have so little to lose? At the moment I'm averaging 1300-1500cals a day. When I'm set to lose 0.5lbs on sedentary, MFP gives me 1500cals and when it's set to lightly active it gives me 1710cals and there's quite a big difference between those two numbers.

And just in case anyone's asking, I weigh and measure all of my food
Any advice will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

cwolfman13

use this calculator and set it to lose about 1/2 Lb per week. The difference between the two calorie goals you are getting really isn't that much..pick one and get started...adjust as per real world results. these calculators aren't gospel...they are just reasonably good starting points...I think people do far too much hand wringing and waste craps loads of time and energy worrying about nominal differences these calculators give you when all they really need to do is get going and watch their own data roll in.

BWBTrish

cwolfman13 wrote: »

use this calculator and set it to lose about 1/2 Lb per week. The difference between the two calorie goals you are getting really isn't that much..pick one and get started...adjust as per real world results. these calculators aren't gospel...they are just reasonably good starting points...I think people do far too much hand wringing and waste craps loads of time and energy worrying about nominal differences these calculators give you when all they really need to do is get going and watch their own data roll in.

yeps i think this too

chose your goals and test. Eat a bit more at the more active days and eat at least 50% of your burned/training calories back on top.