Advice?

alishaajadee1

This is a long post and I'm sorry, I feel like background information is necessary here. Please help.

When I was in high school, around 17, I discovered Blogilates: workout videos on Youtube. The whole Blogilates community was very welcoming and I was an avid follower of the monthly fitness calendars for around 10 months (March 2014 - November 2014). Nothing seemed to be happening, I wasn't losing weight despite my best efforts. I was using diet tracker My Fitness Pal to keep my calorie consumption at the low 1,200 calories I was allowed each day. Nothing was working.

December in retail means lots and lots of overtime. This was my first job and so I eagerly accepted more overtime to fund my not-very-interesting lifestyle. However, my shifts were very irregular meaning meal times were never at the right time. I work in a shopping centre where the only food options are McDonalds, KFC, Subway and Greggs. For the entire Christmas period, I consumed food from these fast food chains every day. I put on 1 stone.

For context, this is my weight tracking from My Fitness Pal:

March 2014: 8st 12lbs
April 2014: 8st 9lbs
July 2014: 8st 6lbs
August 2014: 8st 7lbs
Feb 2015: 9st 6lbs
April 2015: 9st 3lbs
July 2015: 9st 9lbs
Aug 2015: 9st 8lbs (an entire 1stone1lbs difference from 2014)
Oct 2015: 9st
March 2016: 8st 12lbs
May 2016: 8st 8.5lbs
Aug 2016: 8st 6lbs (the goal weight I put in to MFP)
Oct 2016: 8st 6lbs
Jan 2017: 8st 8lbs

As you can see, my weight has yo-yoed throughout the past 3 years. The summer of 2016 was definitely my healthiest; I was going to the gym 4-5 times a week as well as working retail (same job as 2014). Now I'm back at uni and fitting the gym around my studies is a lot harder and the gym isn't in a convenient place like my home gym is.

I hadn't been using MFP as much recently because this time round I was very happy with my body. July 2014 I was 8st 6lbs but with a lot of baby fat/ chubbiness, August 2016 I was (still am) the skinniest I've ever been.

Tonight, I went on to MFP and put in the food I'd eaten today (2 poached eggs on toast, a tuna sub roll from Greggs, a fruity cereal bar, BBQ rack of ribs with mexican rice) and it told me I was almost 800 calories over what I was allowed (my ribs were 840 calories alone).

My goals on MFP were set to 'Lose 1lb a week' with my goal weight being 8st 6lbs (I'm 8st 8lbs) and my settings were 'Not Very Active' as I changed it during essay season (8 hours sat at a library desk? wow.)

It got me thinking, are my goals right? Should I, a 20 year old female (5ft4) still be eating ONLY 1,200 calories a day? I am mostly happy with my body right now (I'd like to be more toned and maybe lose a bit more of the pouch I have).

I created a new account on MFP and changed the settings thinking that it might help. My new settings were
Weight: 8st 8lbs
Goal Weight: 8st 6lbs
Activity Level: Lightly Active
Goal: Lose 0.5lbs a week

And it told me I was allowed 1,570 calories per day. A quick Google search tells me that the average INACTIVE woman should eat 1,600 - 2,000 calories a day to maintain healthy weight. Should I stop using MFP or edit my goals to benefit me, even if they aren't my true goals?

I'm not entirely sure what I should do.

serindipte

I used a TDEE calculator to determine my maintenance weight and created my own deficit from that rather than leave it to MFP. Then I knew exactly what all my numbers were.

cmriverside

I would eat more than 1200.

alishajade96

serindipte wrote: »

I used a TDEE calculator to determine my maintenance weight and created my own deficit from that rather than leave it to MFP. Then I knew exactly what all my numbers were.

I'm the same person as OP just different account . I did the TDEE and it told me my maintenance calorie goal was 1,093 calories per day which is way less than MFP

kimny72

alishaajadee1 wrote: »

And it told me I was allowed 1,570 calories per day. A quick Google search tells me that the average INACTIVE woman should eat 1,600 - 2,000 calories a day to maintain healthy weight. Should I stop using MFP or edit my goals to benefit me, even if they aren't my true goals?

I'm not entirely sure what I should do.

There is no way to generalize what an average woman needs to eat, there are a million variables. The only way to tell whether the goal MFP gave you will work is to try it for a month or so, see what happens, and tweak if necessary. All the calculators are just estimating - you will only know for sure once you start to see results.

I'm going to be honest and say I don't know any inactive women who can eat 2000 cals to maintain their weight!

I am 5'4", lightly active, my maintenance seems to be @ 1700 cals and whenever I decide to try to take off the last 5 lbs, I'll be eating 1500 to do so.

Remember you should log your exercise calories and eat back some of them as well :drinker:

kimny72

alishajade96 wrote: »

serindipte wrote: »

I used a TDEE calculator to determine my maintenance weight and created my own deficit from that rather than leave it to MFP. Then I knew exactly what all my numbers were.

I'm the same person as OP just different account . I did the TDEE and it told me my maintenance calorie goal was 1,093 calories per day which is way less than MFP

Don't know what calculator you used, but there is no way your maintenance is 1093, unless you are 3 feet tall!

serindipte

alishajade96 wrote: »

serindipte wrote: »

I used a TDEE calculator to determine my maintenance weight and created my own deficit from that rather than leave it to MFP. Then I knew exactly what all my numbers were.

I'm the same person as OP just different account . I did the TDEE and it told me my maintenance calorie goal was 1,093 calories per day which is way less than MFP

That's... not very likely, no. You must have missed a key or had it set to the wrong units.

Try this one:

https://tdeecalculator.net/

alishajade96

serindipte wrote: »

alishajade96 wrote: »

serindipte wrote: »

I used a TDEE calculator to determine my maintenance weight and created my own deficit from that rather than leave it to MFP. Then I knew exactly what all my numbers were.

I'm the same person as OP just different account . I did the TDEE and it told me my maintenance calorie goal was 1,093 calories per day which is way less than MFP

That's... not very likely, no. You must have missed a key or had it set to the wrong units.

Try this one:

https://tdeecalculator.net/

This is the website I used and it shows the data I input too

Edit: I just realised I'm apparently 8.8 lbs!! Wow my bad

serindipte

You put that you weigh 8.8 pounds.

alishajade96

serindipte wrote: »

You put that you weigh 8.8 pounds.

Hahah oops! I just realised that my bad! I edited it on the calculator and it gave me 1,800 calories

kimny72

alishajade96 wrote: »

Edit: I just realised I'm apparently 8.8 lbs!! Wow my bad

LOL! I'm glad it was an easily corrected error!

Look, you can use 20 different calculators and get 20 different answers. It's NOT an exact science. There is nothing wrong with 1500 cals, give it a shot and see what happens. The time you are taking to try to figure out the perfect calorie goal on paper could be used for better things

kimny72

alishajade96 wrote: »

serindipte wrote: »

You put that you weigh 8.8 pounds.

Hahah oops! I just realised that my bad! I edited it on the calculator and it gave me 1,800 calories

So that makes perfect sense. If you are doing exercise, TDEE includes it, but if you use the MFP goal, you are supposed to log exercise and eat back the calories. So if you are burning off 200 cals with exercise, that 1570 will move up close to 1800 anyway.