Calorie goals

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evilpoptart63
evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
edited June 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5'8" 173lbs and I would like to lose between 17-27lbs (I've already lost 43lbs since I had my last baby a year ago!!!) I've been losing at a great pace by eating 1000-1400 cals a day and slowly adding in fitnessblender videos but I'm ready to start lifting weights again. Does anyone know how to figure out my calorie goals so I can still lose weight while lifting?
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  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    what did MFP recommend to you? go through their goal guidelines, set up a deficit of about .5-1lb a week, eat those calories and then factor eat back about half of your exercise calories
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
    edited June 2017
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    How do I know how many calories I burn lifting? I can only find cardio calories. Do I set it to sedentary and add back calories or set it to active?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
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    Yeah, use the Goals wizard and the numbers it gives you. Keep good records of your food and activity for 4-6 weeks. Adjust when/if you don't get the results you expect. It's an experiment only you can run - and good data is the most important thing. If you jump around and don't use set numbers for a period of time, it's a guess at best. All the calculators do is get you in the ball park.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    edited June 2017
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    That's a pretty low calorie goal for your size (I am similarly sized and eat 1800). I'd set your goal to 1lb a week. You can find weight lifting under cardio.
  • julesEMS2016
    julesEMS2016 Posts: 44 Member
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    If you have the funds, you could invest in a tracker like Fitbit and link the two accounts (Fitbit and MFP). I wear my Fitbit all day, including time spent lifting. Fitbit adjusts your calorie goal within MFP according to your overall activity that day.
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    julesEMS2016 wrote: »
    If you have the funds, you could invest in a tracker like Fitbit and link the two accounts (Fitbit and MFP). I wear my Fitbit all day, including time spent lifting. Fitbit adjusts your calorie goal within MFP according to your overall activity that day.

    Sounds perfect! I love that idea! Thank you :) I'll aim for about 500 deficit a day which would put me at a pound a week.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    julesEMS2016 wrote: »
    If you have the funds, you could invest in a tracker like Fitbit and link the two accounts (Fitbit and MFP). I wear my Fitbit all day, including time spent lifting. Fitbit adjusts your calorie goal within MFP according to your overall activity that day.

    fitbits are NOT good estimates of weight lifting. they are supposed to be used for steady state cardio. weight lifting burns very little calories compared to other activities.so with a fitbit your weight lifting calories will be inflated and not accurate. but then again activity trackers are only an estimate as well.
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    julesEMS2016 wrote: »
    If you have the funds, you could invest in a tracker like Fitbit and link the two accounts (Fitbit and MFP). I wear my Fitbit all day, including time spent lifting. Fitbit adjusts your calorie goal within MFP according to your overall activity that day.

    fitbits are NOT good estimates of weight lifting. they are supposed to be used for steady state cardio. weight lifting burns very little calories compared to other activities.so with a fitbit your weight lifting calories will be inflated and not accurate. but then again activity trackers are only an estimate as well.

    *kitten*. Ok. So how do I calculate my calorie goal then?
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
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    Fill out mfp with accurate info. Are you sedentary or lightly active? Or even active? Pick 1 pound to lose until you get to 10-15 pounds to go.

    Lift nd track it under cardio. Eat back your exercise calories. After a month if you aren't hitting the 1 pound lost a week, maybe only eat 50-75% of your exercise calories back.

    Your calories now are a little on the low side now, you'll need to eat a but more if you want to lift.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
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    evilpoptart63 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    julesEMS2016 wrote: »
    If you have the funds, you could invest in a tracker like Fitbit and link the two accounts (Fitbit and MFP). I wear my Fitbit all day, including time spent lifting. Fitbit adjusts your calorie goal within MFP according to your overall activity that day.

    fitbits are NOT good estimates of weight lifting. they are supposed to be used for steady state cardio. weight lifting burns very little calories compared to other activities.so with a fitbit your weight lifting calories will be inflated and not accurate. but then again activity trackers are only an estimate as well.

    *kitten*. Ok. So how do I calculate my calorie goal then?

    Did you read the first two replies?

    All of this is an estimate.

    Set your Goals at "Lose 1 pound per week." Log your food and exercise and get as close to (projected) calories as possible. In six weeks, adjust if they don't make sense. It's your experiment and your data that matter.
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    Ok gotcha. Thank you
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
    edited June 2017
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    ..and I don't think you're going to "burn" as much with a weight session as you think. Log it as 100 calories per 30 minutes to an hour and move on.
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    Ok thank you
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    Alright. It's all set up :) thank you for the input! I set it to 1.5lbs a week because it was giving me a lot if calories. So I'll aim for about 1400 + 100 on days I lift. I was really confused, thanks for clearing that up!!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
    edited June 2017
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    1.5 sounds too aggressive. You have around 25 pounds to lose. If you were to do this correctly, you would set it at 0.5 pounds per week. We are suggesting 1 pound per week because you are just starting and it is the recommendation and it's likely you'll make errors in your logging at first.

    My guess is that 1400 is too low for a 5'8" 173 pound woman. I eat 1600+ Exercise calories to lose, and I'm in my sixties, retired and living a fairly sedentary lifestyle in a tiny condo. I'm 5'8" 142.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    evilpoptart63 wrote: »
    Alright. It's all set up :) thank you for the input! I set it to 1.5lbs a week because it was giving me a lot if calories. So I'll aim for about 1400 + 100 on days I lift. I was really confused, thanks for clearing that up!!

    1650 calories is *not* a lot of calories for somebody of your height and weight.

    Unless you have a history of underreporting your intake (in which case, you'd be better off fixing that), a recommendation to eat 1650 cals/day to lose 1 pound/week when you weigh 173 pounds is completely reasonable.
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    Ok. I just thought it was a big jump. Like I said, the most I eat now is 1400 cals and that is probably less than once a week. Most days I stay under 1200 and I'm losing weight quickly so that sounded like a pretty drastic increase. But I came here for advice so I'll try it and adjust if I need to. Thank you.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    evilpoptart63 wrote: »
    Ok. I just thought it was a big jump. Like I said, the most I eat now is 1400 cals and that is probably less than once a week. Most days I stay under 1200 and I'm losing weight quickly so that sounded like a pretty drastic increase. But I came here for advice so I'll try it and adjust if I need to. Thank you.

    You're welcome!

    The fact that the weight is dropping quickly is actually a pretty good sign that you're logging accurately and that you ought to be eating a little more. When I started logging my calories, I set a goal to lose 1 pound/week. When I instead lost 2 pounds/week, I took that as a sign to increase my calorie intake and slow my weight loss down to the goal rate. 40 pounds later, I'm still convinced that was a good decision.
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    It will probably take a bit of experimenting to find the right balance, I just wasn't sure where to start. I've been losing 2.5lbs a week on average and I love seeing the number on the scale drop and my clothes fit so much lower so increasing my calories that much is scary but I want to look good at my goal weight and I know I look so much better when I lift. I don't want to just be flabby and skinny. So is the 1lb a week recommended because of weight lifting? Or is it just generally better?
  • evilpoptart63
    evilpoptart63 Posts: 397 Member
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    And I'm not logging my meals. I have 550 cals a day in "fuelings" from my weight loss for dummies program so I only have to worry about one meal a day and it's a healthy one.the occasional times I eat 1400 calories is because after so many days of very low calories I don't function well and have to throw in another meal.

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