We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Can my maintenance calories really be this high?

Posts: 26 Member
edited November 2024 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
So, after maintain by guessing and not logging over Christmas, I decided to have a strict week this week. I logged everything, didn't eat too much and exercised a lot. Including my exercise calories (from HRM) and what I ate, 3500 calories per pound meant I should have lost 1.25lb. I lost 3. So the maths says I have a maintenance calorie amount of 2670. this is huge - can it be right?
FYI I'm 5'5", and about 121lb. I run / lift (mostly just kettlebells) / do HIIT circuits / cycle for 45-60mins a day, usually burning about 5-600cal. Average net cal this week was 1100 (average consumed 1600cal).

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Replies

  • Posts: 26 Member
    meant to say - I'm about at my ideal weight, so trying to figure out what to set my maintenance level at.
  • Posts: 19,809 Member
    You need to discard the data from the first week of going into a deficit.
    The numbers are always skewed by water weight loss and less food in your system.

    See how you get on in week 2 and week 3....

    2000 is often given as an average maintenance amount for a woman and you are doing far more exercise than average.
  • Posts: 2,696 Member
    No - 1500 maybe....
  • Posts: 763 Member
    You want about a month's data to calculate TDEE. One week is not enough to know what is fat loss and what is normal fluctuations.

    I am 5'0" and 111 lbs, and my maintenance is about 2100 calories. I exercise about 9 hrs/week on average, combo of lifting, rock climbing, and roller derby.
This discussion has been closed.