Fellow lifters, am I eating too few calories? How many do you eat? I'm trying to maintain.

Childfree1991

It says here that according to my activity level, weight, height, etc. I need to eat 1870 calories per day to maintain. The problem is I've been SOOO hungry lately. I'm a 23 y/o female 5' 6 and 124 pounds. For a few months, I would fluctuate between 126-127 then eventually 125-126 and now I'm at 124. Not only that but my size 2 AND size 0 jeans are getting easier to put on (the size 2's are literally getting a bit baggy). I know I'm probably just getting lean but I've been so hungry. I have NOT been doing a calorie deficit so I'm wondering if I'm just building more muscle while not keeping up (food-wise)? I do resistance training at home 20-30 minutes per day 5-6 days a week (free weights/barbells, bands, ab roller, push-up bars, squats, etc.) and I currently don't have a car so I take the bus and walk everywhere I need to go whether it's college, the nearest grocery store, my apartment, the bank, church, work, etc. I do both of these on almost a daily basis. Sometimes I lug 3-4 bags of heavy groceries/items home on foot, and 4 days a week I'll lug my heavy messenger bag all the way to school (I walk there). My point is, am I not getting enough calories according to my activity/resistance amount? I put lightly active for mine. Any advice?
Ps- I know 20-30 minutes probably isn't much for resistance training. I used to do more/longer resistance training when I lived with my now ex because he had a car but I've been getting worn out/sore easily which may be because of the fact that I have no vehicle to assist me.

TavistockToad

if you're losing weight/fat and don't want to, just eat a bit more.

jemhh

Are you logging your exercise calories and then eating them? If not, you are not eating at maintenance (and you clearly aren't if you're losing weight.) MFP's goals are set up so that you eat the base calories and then add in your exercise calories and eat them. I just checked the Scooby calculator and at 3-5 hours of exercise a week, your TDEE is approximately 2072. That seems to fit with your current calorie level and loss rate. My suggestion would be to up your calories to that level. Stay there a couple of weeks to see how you're doing. After that I'd probably try inching up the calories a bit to see if you can add in more but that is up to you.

Childfree1991

@jemhh thanks. And no I don't log all the activity (i.e. the walking). Because 1- I have no idea what pace I'm at. Sometimes I go from walking to running to catch the bus on time or because I'm in a hurry for something. 2- I never really check my phone to time my walking when it comes to errands and school on foot. I'm already too busy concentrating on navigating to the right destination anyways. And 3- MFP doesn't give the calorie burn for resistance training especially lifting weights. Even if it did, I wouldn't know exactly how much the groceries weighed and/or my college bag. That's why this is confusing. Plus, I don't know how many calories muscle burns at rest.

jemhh

You can log the resistance training under cardio. I believe they have it as "strength training." Regardless, now that you are trying to maintain, I think that switching over to entering your own custom goal and then not logging exercise will probably work better for you. Doing that, you'll eat at the same approximate level all week rather than higher only on exercise days.

colors_fade

Childfree1991 wrote: »

@jemhh thanks. And no I don't log all the activity (i.e. the walking). Because 1- I have no idea what pace I'm at. Sometimes I go from walking to running to catch the bus on time or because I'm in a hurry for something. 2- I never really check my phone to time my walking when it comes to errands and school on foot. I'm already too busy concentrating on navigating to the right destination anyways. And 3- MFP doesn't give the calorie burn for resistance training especially lifting weights. Even if it did, I wouldn't know exactly how much the groceries weighed and/or my college bag. That's why this is confusing. Plus, I don't know how many calories muscle burns at rest.

You're way over-analyzing this.

In the long run, measuring the difference between walking or running to the bus stop is just not worth it. You'll burn more calories doing the math in your head than the difference between those two exercises.

If you don't want to track exercise, then either (a) adjust MPF to more than light-activity or (b) just eat a bit more.

If you're hungry, honestly, you're body is trying to tell you something. My wife is ripped - a little taller than you, a bit more muscle. She's always trying to maintain, and watch what she eats, but she gets hungry too. So she eats. And she doesn't put the pounds back on.

If you're trying to maintain, really learn to listen to your hunger cues. They exist for a reason.

ExRelaySprinter

Yes, you need to be eating more than 1870 calories.
As others have said, bump up your calories by 200-250+ and take it from there.
I'm 2" shorter than you, miles older, do similar exercise and i maintain (128lbs) on around 2000 cals a day. So i reckon your TDEE is much more than 2000.

XavierNusum

jemhh wrote: »

Are you logging your exercise calories and then eating them? If not, you are not eating at maintenance (and you clearly aren't if you're losing weight.) MFP's goals are set up so that you eat the base calories and then add in your exercise calories and eat them. I just checked the Scooby calculator and at 3-5 hours of exercise a week, your TDEE is approximately 2072. That seems to fit with your current calorie level and loss rate. My suggestion would be to up your calories to that level. Stay there a couple of weeks to see how you're doing. After that I'd probably try inching up the calories a bit to see if you can add in more but that is up to you.

+1 for scooby!

Or find your own maintenance level by increasing your calories 250/day every week until you gain. Once you have past you TDEE you should gain 0.5 lbs per week.
250 X 7 days = 1500 cals (3500 calories is ~1lb)

A 2-4 spike is not fat or muscle. It's most likely glycogen stores filling up or water so ignore that and keep going. I would also suggest keeping the slight surplus, when you find it, for a couple of weeks to make sure. And of course after that, the calorie level right before the first 0.5lb gain was true TDEE for you.

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/3817-eat-more-2-weigh-less

Childfree1991

colors_fade wrote: »

Childfree1991 wrote: »

@jemhh thanks. And no I don't log all the activity (i.e. the walking). Because 1- I have no idea what pace I'm at. Sometimes I go from walking to running to catch the bus on time or because I'm in a hurry for something. 2- I never really check my phone to time my walking when it comes to errands and school on foot. I'm already too busy concentrating on navigating to the right destination anyways. And 3- MFP doesn't give the calorie burn for resistance training especially lifting weights. Even if it did, I wouldn't know exactly how much the groceries weighed and/or my college bag. That's why this is confusing. Plus, I don't know how many calories muscle burns at rest.

You're way over-analyzing this.

In the long run, measuring the difference between walking or running to the bus stop is just not worth it. You'll burn more calories doing the math in your head than the difference between those two exercises.

If you don't want to track exercise, then either (a) adjust MPF to more than light-activity or (b) just eat a bit more.

If you're hungry, honestly, you're body is trying to tell you something. My wife is ripped - a little taller than you, a bit more muscle. She's always trying to maintain, and watch what she eats, but she gets hungry too. So she eats. And she doesn't put the pounds back on.

If you're trying to maintain, really learn to listen to your hunger cues. They exist for a reason.

Alright, I'll eat more thanks. And ps- sometimes I don't have the bus to help me at all. Last week for example, I had to walk over 2 miles (according to phone GPS and time/energy) while carrying 3 heavy cloth bags of groceries, along with my backpack. People with cars and financial stability, count your blessings.