Stay at home mom activity level

minstine

I had my physical activty on light and that put me at about 1200 calories a day. I can not survive on that?! I had headaches,heartburn and nausea after a couple of days. I am a stay at home mom of 4 boys ages 12,9,5,14 months. Now i have it at moderate and it allows me 1870 calories. Even that is hard sometimes... But i think it sounds kinda high. I only have 10 pounds to lose. Anyone lose that amount of weight with that high of calories?

OliveGirl128

What are your current stats? Your age/height/current weight can really change your calorie requirements. Also, with only 10lbs to lose you should only be aiming to lose .5lb a week.

minstine

I'm 35
5'6
131 pounds

I was always 115 to 120 before my children. And i have a big stomach so even if BMI says I'm ok I'm not... Lol

malibu927

Yeah, change your goal to half a pound a week and you'll get more calories. Lightly active sounds good.

kenziegirly

Im also a stay at home mom that wants to lose 10 pounds and my calorie goal is the same. Its SUPER hard to stay under 1200. But recently ive tried drinking a bunch of water before and after I eat and it helps a lot. I workout every other day. Smoothies and protein bars help keep you full too. Or for breakfast you can make oatmeal with protein powder and almonds. That is yummy and good for you.

toxikon

FYI, you can customize your calorie goal to whatever you want, you don't need to use one of MFP's pre-made settings.

You could always see how you feel at 1400 or 1600 calories, you don't need to jump right from 1200 to 1800.

OliveGirl128

minstine wrote: »

I'm 35
5'6
131 pounds

I was always 115 to 120 before my children. And i have a big stomach so even if BMI says I'm ok I'm not... Lol

We're really similar! 38 here, 5ft, 6 in and 126lbs. With your stats you should only be aiming for .5lb a week loss, since you're already at the lower end of a healthy bmi. And yeah, 1,200 ish is going to be where your intake is, without exercise factored in. With a lower weight to begin with you need less calories to support your body, and then you're adding a deficit to that as well.

I'm in a small cut right now to adjust my maintenance range down a bit, (my range changes seasonally ), and I'm doing 1,200 to lose .5lb a week. After I lose the 4lbs I want gone I'll only have a maintenance calorie intake of 1,500-1,600. I'm also a homeschooling stay at home mom of 3 kiddos. I always go by sedentary though because while I'm active at times, I don't do intentional exercise besides a bit of sporadic walking.

CattOfTheGarage

It can vary massively. Why not get a pedometer? If you have a rough number of steps it will make it easier to pick the correct activity level.

JackieMarie1989jgw

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

It can vary massively. Why not get a pedometer? If you have a rough number of steps it will make it easier to pick the correct activity level.

I agree with this!
I have the Pacer app (free) on my phone. It considers <3000 steps to be sedentary, 3k-6k to be lightly active, 6k-10k active, and >10k highly active. Different apps may vary a bit in what they call "lightly active" but that's a good guesstimate.
I have my activity level set to "lightly active". The app counts my steps all day, and if I go above 6k steps into the active range, I allow myself to eat back *some* of those calories (Pacer also estimates what your calorie burn was, and it syncs with your myfitnesspal account). I make sure I get at least 3k steps a day, since I'm eating at the lightly active level I need to at least move at that level. Hitting 3k steps is pretty easy, you probably hit that no problem chasing your kids around. For reference, as an ER nurse I get 8k-12k steps in a 12 hour shift, on my feet basically the whole time. 3k can be acheived in a 30 minute walk.

The only downside is you have to be carrying your phone on your person for the phone apps. If that's too annoying you could look into fit bit, or a cheap pedometer will do the trick too. Then you can really gauge your activity level for sure.

I also agree with others that you should set your goal to half a pound of weight loss a week since you don't have much weight to lose. It will make the experience much more pleasant for you. Sorry this was so long winded...Good luck!

CattOfTheGarage

You could use something like Pacer for a week or so to get a snapshot of how active you are, if you don't want to shell out for a pedometer. Though the simple ones are pretty cheap.

gerla_k

I'm a stay at home mom of two kids and my profile is set lightly active. According to my Fitbit I average daily 12k+ steps .

minstine

Thanks for the thoughts. I do have a pedometer on my phone and its usually around 8000 a day. So i think I'll maybe try 1400 to 1500 calories a day. And try and eat more protein.

Lounmoun

You could log what you ordinarily eat for a week or so and then subtract 250 calories from that to get a calorie goal that should be fairly reasonable for you.
To get a goal from MFP with only 10 lbs to lose you should probably set your goal for .5 lb per week.
If you are on your feet a lot you may be more active.
You are supposed to log and eat some exercise calories so if you do things beyond your normal activity keep that in mind.

You might look at doing more strength training instead of just trying to get to a lower number since you are at a healthy weight.

minstine

Yea that's a good idea to just subtract 250 from my average diet because i pretty much eat the same things.