Short ladies under 5'1 - what's your daily caloric intake?

knittingbee928
knittingbee928 Posts: 50 Member
edited March 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 35 y/o, 5'0 and trying to lose about 13 lbs. after a surgery and longer-than-expected recovery. I weight 113, trying to get back to 100. I can't exercise at all yet except to go for brisk walks, no longer than 30-40 minutes. I'm struggling trying to figure out what my caloric intake should be. On this site: https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html, it says to maintain I should eat 1800 calories a day, to reach my goal in 90 days (100 lbs) I should eat 1300 calories a day, and to maintain the 100-lb goal I should eat 1700 calories a day. I adjusted the option for exercise to "moderate" because I do walk for 1/2 hour at least a few times a week, and soon I'll be able to get back to the gym.

All of these numbers seem really high to me, for someone of my high (and age!).
What do you all think? Bonus points if anyone can tell me whether to eat back half or all of the calories burned during exercise.

Sorry for the messy link, the formatting options appear to be broken on MFP right now.

Replies

  • knittingbee928
    knittingbee928 Posts: 50 Member
    ETA - "To maintain my current weight, I should eat 1800 calories a day."
  • knittingbee928
    knittingbee928 Posts: 50 Member
    edited March 2016
    OK, my title should be "Short ladies <5'1 - what's your daily caloric intake?"

  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Well for what it's worth, I'm 5'2, 41 years old and have a desk job. My exercise is walking (15K steps/day) and light weights. I ate between 1500-1900 to lose 30 lbs and am maintaining at around 120 eating around 2100/day.

    You could also use MFP with a goal of losing 0.5 lb/week, log your exercise and eat back a portion of those calories.
  • knittingbee928
    knittingbee928 Posts: 50 Member
    I have a desk job too. I'm using MFP and it won't let me lose as much as a pound a week - it automatically sets it at 1200 calories, with weight loss at .5 lbs per week. I read somewhere on MFP that 2 lbs a week is healthy if you have 75 lbs or more to lose, and .5 is healthy when you want to lose under 15 lbs.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    knittingbee928 wrote: »
    I have a desk job too. I'm using MFP and it won't let me lose as much as a pound a week - it automatically sets it at 1200 calories, with weight loss at .5 lbs per week. I read somewhere on MFP that 2 lbs a week is healthy if you have 75 lbs or more to lose, and .5 is healthy when you want to lose under 15 lbs.

    MFP won't allow a calorie goal under 1200 for women. Based on your stats, it likely thinks your maintenance sedentary NEAT calorie burn (that is everything except exercise) is only 1450 or even less. A lot of people find that their numbers are higher than what MFP recommends (I certainly did) and so that is why the custom goal option is there. You are right that with only 10 lbs to lose, 0.5lb/week is an appropriate deficit. You mentioned a surgery, so I'm not sure what kind of exercise restrictions you might be on, but a lot of women already at a healthy weight for their height find that rather than losing more scale weight, focusing on strength training and recomposition actually gives them the body they desire, even if at a higher weight than they may have originally been aiming for.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Oh I also missed your bonus question. I have always eaten back ALL of the calories from exercise that I earn from MFP, but if I'm understanding the site you used to get your 1800 cal estimate to maintain, didn't that include your exercise estimates? If that's the case, then no, you wouldn't take a deduction from that AND eat back your calories.

    I would probably start with a calorie goal of 1300 in MFP, log your exercise and eat the calories back. Give it a few weeks, see if you are losing 0.5 lb/week, and adjust from there.

    Have you considered getting a FitBit or other activity tracker? I use one and have found it to be an incredibly helpful tool while I was losing as well as now that I'm maintaining since I think it's calculation of my TDEE is very accurate.
  • knittingbee928
    knittingbee928 Posts: 50 Member
    edited March 2016
    "Have you considered getting a FitBit or other activity tracker? I use one and have found it to be an incredibly helpful tool while I was losing as well as now that I'm maintaining since I think it's calculation of my TDEE is very accurate."

    Oh that's interesting. I've considered a FitBit because I like to track exercise (it keeps me motivated!) but I've heard that the trackers** aren't very accurate in terms of tracking steps... I'll look into it again though. I really like the idea of it.

    **Also, I have a tiny wrist - 6" - so it's hard to find a tracker that fits :smiley:
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    knittingbee928 wrote: »
    "Have you considered getting a FitBit or other activity tracker? I use one and have found it to be an incredibly helpful tool while I was losing as well as now that I'm maintaining since I think it's calculation of my TDEE is very accurate."

    Oh that's interesting. I've considered a FitBit because I like to track exercise (it keeps me motivated!) but I've heard that the trackers aren't very accurate in terms of tracking steps... I'll look into it again though. I really like the idea of it.

    If you do mostly step based activities I think they are very accurate. There's probably a few hundred steps in the course of my day and total of 15K that are from animated hand waving (I'm an emphatic talker) but they are definitely directionally correct and there is a huge group of people who use them in conjunction with MFP with great success.

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