How much calories should I be consuming daily?

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting here. I started out tracking my calories since October last year and I followed the one given in MFP. Then I kinda did more research and manually key in a certain amount of calories couldn't rmb how much was it. Then right now I'm just confused to what is the correct amount I should be consuming in order to continue losing weight? I feel like the one that is given automatic my MFP is too low. I don't know. I need advice on this. I'm 156cm, 79kg. I plan to workout 5 days/wk. thank you in advance

malibu927

If you want to follow MFP's goals, set it to .5 pounds for every 25 pounds you want to lose, and eat that plus half of your exercise calories. If you're basing it on TDEE (which sounds like what you had looked up), calculate it, take 20% off that number, and eat that much (no exercise calories, as they're already factored in).

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

malibu927 wrote: »

If you want to follow MFP's goals, set it to .5 pounds for every 25 pounds you want to lose, and eat that plus half of your exercise calories. If you're basing it on TDEE (which sounds like what you had looked up), calculate it, take 20% off that number, and eat that much (no exercise calories, as they're already factored in).

Thanks alot. I guess I'll have to stick with the TDEE calculation because I don't have an accurate number of exercise calories.

LKArgh

Since you have been doing this for a year now, are you happy with the rate of weight loss so far? If yes, stick to whatever you are doing.

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

aggelikik wrote: »

Since you have been doing this for a year now, are you happy with the rate of weight loss so far? If yes, stick to whatever you are doing.

Been tracking for 10 months on and off. 10 months and I have lost 50lbs. I think I could have done better.

nordlead2005

Your BMR is ~1496. This is the amount of calories you need to consume every day to maintain your body while sleeping all day long. Your MFP NEAT level (basically, everything except exercise) for a lightly active person (most people) is ~2019.

Now, there are two ways to create the deficit needed to lose weight.

The MFP way, which is take your MFP NEAT level and subtract your weight loss goal. Want to lose 1lb/week, eat 1519 calories/day and eat 50% of your exercise calories back.

The other way is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) based. You can start with a TDEE calculator (say scooby's workshop tdee calculator) and eat at its recomended amount and don't log exercise calories (they are part of TDEE). Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again. My input to scooby's says you can eat 1984 calories to lose 1lb/week.

These numbers are pretty close to each other. If you are working out 5 times a week, with MFP you would eat 1519 + exercise calories vs 1984 based on TDEE-20%. Ultimately, with either method, you should evaluate in a few (4-6) weeks and see if you need to adjust your food intake goals.

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

nordlead2005 wrote: »

Your BMR is ~1496. This is the amount of calories you need to consume every day to maintain your body while sleeping all day long. Your MFP NEAT level (basically, everything except exercise) for a lightly active person (most people) is ~2019.

Now, there are two ways to create the deficit needed to lose weight.

The MFP way, which is take your MFP NEAT level and subtract your weight loss goal. Want to lose 1lb/week, eat 1519 calories/day and eat 50% of your exercise calories back.

The other way is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) based. You can start with a TDEE calculator (say scooby's workshop tdee calculator) and eat at its recomended amount and don't log exercise calories (they are part of TDEE). Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again. My input to scooby's says you can eat 1984 calories to lose 1lb/week.

These numbers are pretty close to each other. If you are working out 5 times a week, with MFP you would eat 1519 + exercise calories vs 1984 based on TDEE-20%. Ultimately, with either method, you should evaluate in a few (4-6) weeks and see if you need to adjust your food intake goals.

Omg, thank you so much! This is really detailed. I need to clarify this part sorry but what do you mean by this "Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again."?

DeguelloTex

If you're gaining extra weight, your TDEE isn't as high as the calculator says. If you're losing extra weight, it's lower than the calculator says. (Presuming accurate measurement of intake.)

AspenDan

You lost 50lbs?! That's awesome! Great job

Liftng4Lis

courtsley_fitnessjunkie wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

Since you have been doing this for a year now, are you happy with the rate of weight loss so far? If yes, stick to whatever you are doing.

Been tracking for 10 months on and off. 10 months and I have lost 50lbs. I think I could have done better.

Keep doing what you've been doing.

deannaaaaaaaaa

50 pounds in 10 months is something to be very proud of! I've lost 43 in 8 months and its HARD work lol. Be proud

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

danieltsmoke wrote: »

You lost 50lbs?! That's awesome! Great job

thank you so much

nordlead2005

courtsley_fitnessjunkie wrote: »

nordlead2005 wrote: »

Your BMR is ~1496. This is the amount of calories you need to consume every day to maintain your body while sleeping all day long. Your MFP NEAT level (basically, everything except exercise) for a lightly active person (most people) is ~2019.

Now, there are two ways to create the deficit needed to lose weight.

The MFP way, which is take your MFP NEAT level and subtract your weight loss goal. Want to lose 1lb/week, eat 1519 calories/day and eat 50% of your exercise calories back.

The other way is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) based. You can start with a TDEE calculator (say scooby's workshop tdee calculator) and eat at its recomended amount and don't log exercise calories (they are part of TDEE). Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again. My input to scooby's says you can eat 1984 calories to lose 1lb/week.

These numbers are pretty close to each other. If you are working out 5 times a week, with MFP you would eat 1519 + exercise calories vs 1984 based on TDEE-20%. Ultimately, with either method, you should evaluate in a few (4-6) weeks and see if you need to adjust your food intake goals.

Omg, thank you so much! This is really detailed. I need to clarify this part sorry but what do you mean by this "Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again."?

A website is going to give you a rough estimate. If you run your own numbers you can get a much more accurate number and no need to guess at parameters.

We know what TDEE means. We know that a pound of fat is ~3500 calories (sorry, I normally work in lb, not kg). So, if you lose 1.1lb/week (averaged over a few weeks, trendweight is great for this), and you were eating 1850 calories/day and accurately logged it, then we can calculate your TDEE. (1.1*3500/7)+1850 = 2400 calories for TDEE. If you wanted to continue losing at TDEE-20%, you would set your goal to 2400*0.8=1920 calories/day.

In my example, this would lead to a (2400-1920)/3500*7=0.96lb/week loss.

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

deannaaaaaaaaa wrote: »

50 pounds in 10 months is something to be very proud of! I've lost 43 in 8 months and its HARD work lol. Be proud

I am proud of myself! Haha. I feel like I have trust issues somehow with the number of calories to consume since I've hit a plateau once so it's bothering me a little bit but my doubts have been cleared! You've done an amazing job! I agree, it's HARD work. Haha.

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

nordlead2005 wrote: »

courtsley_fitnessjunkie wrote: »

nordlead2005 wrote: »

Your BMR is ~1496. This is the amount of calories you need to consume every day to maintain your body while sleeping all day long. Your MFP NEAT level (basically, everything except exercise) for a lightly active person (most people) is ~2019.

Now, there are two ways to create the deficit needed to lose weight.

The MFP way, which is take your MFP NEAT level and subtract your weight loss goal. Want to lose 1lb/week, eat 1519 calories/day and eat 50% of your exercise calories back.

The other way is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) based. You can start with a TDEE calculator (say scooby's workshop tdee calculator) and eat at its recomended amount and don't log exercise calories (they are part of TDEE). Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again. My input to scooby's says you can eat 1984 calories to lose 1lb/week.

These numbers are pretty close to each other. If you are working out 5 times a week, with MFP you would eat 1519 + exercise calories vs 1984 based on TDEE-20%. Ultimately, with either method, you should evaluate in a few (4-6) weeks and see if you need to adjust your food intake goals.

Omg, thank you so much! This is really detailed. I need to clarify this part sorry but what do you mean by this "Then in 4 weeks or so recalculate TDEE based on your personal results, no need to use a web calculator again."?

A website is going to give you a rough estimate. If you run your own numbers you can get a much more accurate number and no need to guess at parameters.

We know what TDEE means. We know that a pound of fat is ~3500 calories (sorry, I normally work in lb, not kg). So, if you lose 1.1lb/week (averaged over a few weeks, trendweight is great for this), and you were eating 1850 calories/day and accurately logged it, then we can calculate your TDEE. (1.1*3500/7)+1850 = 2400 calories for TDEE. If you wanted to continue losing at TDEE-20%, you would set your goal to 2400*0.8=1920 calories/day.

In my example, this would lead to a (2400-1920)/3500*7=0.96lb/week loss.

What if the calories/day varies? Like some days I eat less and some days I eat more? Do I take the number that I consistently consume? Also can it be more than 20%?

nordlead2005

Calories can vary every day, the average is what is important. I definitely don't eat the same amount every day, or even every week. You should take the average over the same timespan that you calculated your weight change. It should be multiple weeks of data (4 or more).

As a personal example. On Jul 6th I was 207.9lb. On Aug 10th I was 198.6lb. For a loss of 1.86lb/week. Over that period I averaged a total of 1749 calories/day. My TDEE is 1.86*3500/7+1749=2679.

Be careful when picking start/end dates. I actually adjusted my start date due to a spike in water weight on the 13th. It would have shown a much higher TDEE, where as starting on the 6th is more consistent with every other time period. Again, trendweight would help with this.

As for more than 20%. 20% is considered the safe amount. Losing 1-2lb/week is also considered a safe amount. 1200 calories/day is considered the minimum for a woman and 1500 is considered the minimum for a man. So, there are lots of measures of maximum weight loss. Just realize that the bigger the deficit, the more likely you will cheat and get frustrated when you don't see results, quit, or lose muscle mass. I'd rather see someone maintain a 1lb/week loss for 20 weeks then a person try 2lb/week and quit after 5.

courtsley_fitnessjunkie

thank you so much you've been very helpful!!!!!