Does anyone know how many calories I need, roughly?

leahxxoo

I'm a 23 yr old female, I weigh 147 pounds and I'm 5 ft 6. I want to lose 0.5-1 pound per week. I've just started cycling to and from work and I cycle 17 miles per day in around 110 minutes. I do this around 4 days per week and when I'm not in work, I cycle to most places instead of taking public transport. I'm not sure how many calories I should be eating. MFP says I should be eating around 1,600 calories but I don't know how many exercise calories I should be eating back to still lose weight at a steady pace?

kshama2001

Because exercise burns tend to be inflated, many here suggest not eating more than 50% of the calories you earn from exercise. You can manually change the number as you are adding the exercise to your log.

What's your goal weight?

leahxxoo

Thanks After I log my exercise, it says I can eat 2,300 calories which seems like a lot to lose weight. My goal weight is around 132

emdeesea

I use this calculator and have lost about 55 pounds. It figures in your exercise and gives you about what you should eat daily in calorie content. I just use MFP to track calories - I don't track exercise.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

lemonychild

U should see if you lose at 75% calories eaten back. If it doesn't work, just readjust. All of these calculators only give us a starting point u have to tweak it to u

terbusha

What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 0.5-1 lb/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 0.5-1 lb/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

Cortneyrenee04

I would try the 1600 and if you're hungry, add back your exercise calories. How strenuous is your route to/from work? Unless you're biking far across town on this route and getting around town, I wouldn't add too much back in. If it's a lot of hill climbing and you're pushing yourself for most of those 17 miles, I would eat a little more.

You can try an app that tracks your ride and see how many calories it says you burn... it won't be quite accurate, but it might give you some idea!