1500 calories and gaining weight

teddysashabear
teddysashabear Posts: 4 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm an 18 year old 115 pound female who is 5 feet tall. I'm trying to lose weight, but there are some weeks where I dont care about what I eat. I noticed that if I ate more than 1500 calories I would gain weight. 1500 isn't a lot, so I'm wondering if that's normal.

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
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  • JessicaMcB
    JessicaMcB Posts: 1,503 Member
    You are short so your calorie margin to lose/maintain/gain will be smaller, but how are you measuring your intake? If you aren't using a food scale set to grams for all solids then there is also the potential that you are eating more calories than you think.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited November 2016
    You are short and don't weigh much. Your maintenance is likely 1500 calories or under if you aren't active. Now couple that with not caring some weeks, and possibly eating a good number over 1500, and you are looking at weight gain. Unfortunately, the shorter and smaller you are the stricter you need to be with your calories because you don't have much room to play.
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    Do you weigh your food? If not, you are probably going WAY over on your caloric intake without realizing it.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,430 MFP Moderator
    teddysashabear wrote: »
    I'm an 18 year old 115 pound female who is 5 feet tall. I'm trying to lose weight, but there are some weeks where I dont care about what I eat. I noticed that if I ate more than 1500 calories I would gain weight. 1500 isn't a lot, so I'm wondering if that's normal.

    There is the problem. Your average intake is probably over 1500. Being slim makes things harder. If you don't care about weight so much, why not concentrate on a good lifting program and trying for a recomp to see if you can increase some muscle and cut body fat.
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  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Noel_57 wrote: »
    Not even if you were bedridden would you gain weight eating 1500 calories. It looks like you are new here and have not used the MFP tracker? Accurate counting is mandatory, especially when you have so little to lose.

    At her current stats, she could gain on 1500 calories if she is sedentary (more active than bedridden) according to Mifflin St Jeor BMR calculations, depending on which side her personal metabolism variation falls. It shows her sedentary TDEE at 1468 and BMR at 1223.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,184 Member
    Noel_57 wrote: »
    Not even if you were bedridden would you gain weight eating 1500 calories. It looks like you are new here and have not used the MFP tracker? Accurate counting is mandatory, especially when you have so little to lose.

    At 5 feet tall and 115 pounds she could certainly gain at 1500 if she is not very active.

    OP, you are at a healthy weight. If you really want to get down in the lower end of your weight range you are going to have to be very meticulous about your logging. Being more active will help too.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    Are you guys factoring in her age? The site I used (scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) calculated a TDEE of 1631 cals/day if sedentary - and those formulas are usually underestimates for teenagers.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    edited November 2016
    The calculator I used just told me you need to eat 1200 calories to lose weight and only 1345 to maintain if you are lightly active (do not exercise a lot). If you exercise a bit more you can eat 1590calories, but I don't think that applies since you are gaining. You might need to drop to 1200. How much are you trying to lose? Your BMI is right in the middle of what is considered healthy for your height. The most you can lose without being considered underweight is about 20lbs. You may also consider strength training exercises in case you just need to tone, rather than lose weight. If you go down to the minimum healthy weight for your height, which is about 95lbs, you can only eat 1200-1300calories to stay there unless you start exercising daily or often.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited November 2016
    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    Are you guys factoring in her age? The site I used (scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) calculated a TDEE of 1631 cals/day if sedentary - and those formulas are usually underestimates for teenagers.

    That page must be using the Harris Benedict equations, which is weird because their other calculator uses the Mifflin St Jeor.
    (http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/)

    You are right about her being a teenager, though, so I used a children's calculator and it gave me 1550 for sedentary maintenance. Depending on her personal variation, it's fairly easy to underlog by 50 calories or more even for the most avid calorie counter doing it by grams. So if she is trying to maintain her weight but is gaining, she needs to be as precise as possible to see how much her TDEE actually averages.

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  • Jeannie3099
    Jeannie3099 Posts: 61 Member
    I would say that stress could be a factor. I am much older than you and work out about 45 minutes to an hour a day. On 1,500 calories I don't lose and I count my calories very well and eat a balanced diet. I lose on 1,200 which I am told is not healthy. OH well...
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