Calories for 150 lb girl

I'm currently doing 1250 calories a day on herbalife shakes and then healthy snacks and dinner. I'm 5'2" and 150 lbs, is that too little or too many calories? I exercise 3 times a week. Please help! Not sure how much I should eat.

Replies

janejellyroll

Did that calorie goal come from MFP?

MultipleHigh5s

Seems fine

LittleChipin

Goal came from when I started herbalife and used the little tool it came with to calculate it. But I'm not sure if I used it right

janejellyroll

stephanie9781 wrote: »

Goal came from when I started herbalife and used the little tool it came with to calculate it. But I'm not sure if I used it right

Well, I'm not familiar with Herbalife's tools and what they take into account, but you are on a website that will generate a calorie goal for you based on your stats and goals. If you are curious about how many calories to eat, you can try and see what MFP generates for you.

Without knowing anything about your general activity level, I think you could eat more.

shadow2soul

Plug your stats into MFP
Pick a reasonable weight loss goal (recommendations listed below)
Pick the activity level the represents your daily life WITHOUT exercise
Eat the calorie goal MFP gives you on days you don't workout
Eat the calorie goal MFP gives you + exercise calorie burns on days you workout (start with 50% of exercise calories and adjust up or down based on weight loss)
~I highly recommend using a food scale to weigh out your portions. Even packaged single serve stuff can have more in the package than a single serving. This can amount to hundreds of un-logged calories in the course of a day. Use measuring cups/spoons for liquids.~

Weight loss rate recommendations to minimize lean body mass loss:

No more than 1% of your body weight loss per week
0.5 lb per week if you have less than 25 lbs to lose
1 lb per week if you have 25-50 lbs to lose
1.5 lb per week if you have 50-75 lbs to lose
2 lb per week if you have 75+ lbs to lose

mitch16

Are you trying to lose weight? Are you losing weight currently at a reasonable pace? If you've answered 'yes' to both of those questions, then your calorie goal is probably correct.

KorvapuustiPossu

Sounds just about like my stats when I started here... I was 149 lbs, also 5'2... I've been at 1200 kcal for 3 and a half months now and I've lost 16 lbs in this time (a bit faster rate during last 1 month - daily activity level increased). I'm planning to increase my calories now to 1400-1500 since I'm in healthy BMI range now, so slower loss would be wiser.

lizwooshy

Im 142 (SW 174) 5'5, and I eat minimum 1400 calories a day. Usually closer to 1500-1700. But I am fairly active, and I am also at the point where I'm aiming for slow loss with sustainable habits. For me, 1250 calories would not be sustainable in the long run.

chellekoren

So I'm in same boat as you. Mfp tells me 1250 or so. I put in 1400 and am committed to exercising 4 days a week minimum, two of which hiit. I'm two weeks in. The first week I was starving by the end of the week at 1400 so starting back on the wagon at 1200 would have been brutal. I plan on seeing how much I lose after this week to decide how much to cut back going forward in the hopes that I will be more accustomed to less.

LittleChipin

MFP suggests 1480 calories a day but that seems like a lot of food for me. And I haven't weighed myself since I started a week ago. I haven't hardcore worked out in awhile, college and work keep me too busy.

Christine_72

stephanie9781 wrote: »

MFP suggests 1480 calories a day but that seems like a lot of food for me. And I haven't weighed myself since I started a week ago. I haven't hardcore worked out in awhile, college and work keep me too busy.

1480 calories isn't really a lot of food. MFP gave me that number too when i was 150lbs, I lost weight fine.