5'1 Ladies- what are your maintenance calories?

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  • maruby95
    maruby95 Posts: 204 Member
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    @summerskier can you post a link to the thread with that spreadsheet? I am totally geeking out!
  • bribucks
    bribucks Posts: 431 Member
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    CoachJen71 wrote: »
    brianneangell08 wrote: »
    This thread has been really helpful. I've been super discouraged because my tall husband, who is on a bulk, gets to eat 3,000 cal a day and then complains that he's too full. :neutral:

    I hear ya! Hubby and I can go on the same hike, and while he needs thousands of cals to refeed and can't eat them all, I am pouting over my sad salad or telling myself that my Halo Top will eventually ease my hunger. Being short and cute has its drawbacks!

    YES! We went on a longer walk than we intended last night ... I checked my fitbit and was so happy that I had burned enough calories to "afford" a drink at the bar. Meanwhile husband is pouting because he burned too many calories!
  • OregonMother
    OregonMother Posts: 1,566 Member
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    b3achy wrote: »
    5'3" / 52 yo / female - currently maintaining around 122-125lbs (since Jan 2017).
    Maintenance without exercise ~ 1300 calories (though the calculators say I can be at ~1375).
    Maintenance with exercise ~ 1600 calories (though the calculators say I can be at ~1776).
    My exercise: At least 2 days of stand up paddleboarding (at least an hour at touring speeds), 2 days of weight lifting, and one day of random activity (gardening, housecleaning/projects, etc)...for at least a 2100 calorie/week burn.

    Oh, paddleboarding! That is something that I really want to do. Is it as great of a core workout as I think it would be? Balance and all that?

    b3achy wrote: »
    You know what irks me the most is all the RDA listings on food that talk about a 2000 calorie/day diet as being the 'average'...what a crock (and no wonder so many people are obese in the US, if they think that is the 'average')!! It might be average for guys, but I know very few women (except for extremely active, extremely young (20's and under), or tall ladies) that get even close to 2000 calories / day. The only time I can get even close to 2000 calories is on my race days, and even then, I think I only get about 1800-1900 calories.

    I agree that the 2000 calorie average is crazy. Just for kicks, I figured out how many calories my 6 foot husband and 6 foot teenager need per day to maintain their current weights. My husband's calculation (because he works from home and only irregularly exercises) was about 1800. My teenager's was higher, but this summer the only exercise he's been getting is walking down the stairs from his room to the kitchen to grab a snack every two hours. :smirk:

  • kcmsmith0405
    kcmsmith0405 Posts: 259 Member
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    http://eatmore2weighless.com/weight-loss-calculator/ Try a calculator like this one that you can put your activity level into.

    There are tons of them out there just type in TDEE calculator.
  • SummerSkier
    SummerSkier Posts: 4,799 Member
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    Here is the one from a thread on this maintenance forum. I can't find the subject again but it was on here with some other info.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7gGXXQIy4R4ejRRNkZHZHFDOW8/view
  • leejoyce31
    leejoyce31 Posts: 794 Member
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    I'm 5' 1.5" 47 years old and maintain a very low weight around 1500-1600 calories doing walk away the pounds 4-5 days a week.
  • Kenda2427
    Kenda2427 Posts: 1,592 Member
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    Yes it does suck to be short then add in age and being female and we really get the *kitten* end of the stick. I am barely 4'11", 52 yrs old and currently weigh 122. I was 113.8 Easter weekend and then due to numerous bad situations I promptly gained 10 bloody pounds. I can put in on in a heartbeat but takes forever to get it back off.
    For me to lose I have to stick to 1000 calories, I can maintain at about 1200 if I am exercising daily. I hate it, I get hungry and cranky because it doesn't take much to use up 1200 calories.
    I am getting back on track again and hope to get to 110-113 for maintenance. I would like to be back to 105-108 but I can't maintain it. It requires far too few calories and far too much exercise time.

    Us little folk all share this dilemma.
  • BlessedBeyondMsr
    BlessedBeyondMsr Posts: 65 Member
    edited August 2017
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    I am very happy to find this thread! I have been trying to find some friends on MFP that are like minded and consistent with workouts and would've never thought of height!
    I am 5'0", 46 yo. Met my goal weight of 105 about 6 months ago, but gained some of it back after a medication change and trying to re-lose those lbs. I currently weigh 111 lbs.
    This is very helpful. Thank you
  • tlanger251
    tlanger251 Posts: 86 Member
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    BadBitchIncorporated wrote: »
    Thank goodness I am not alone. I am 5'3 and struggling to lose 25-30 pounds. In order to lose weight, I have to eat a ridiculously low amount of calories - usually no more than 1200. This is with or without exercise, and I have to deal with a great deal of hunger. I can maintain if I stay below 1500, but losing weight has been extremely difficult. I constantly get advice to eat more calories because I am not eating enough, but I can't seem to make people understand that I cannot do that. Advice???

    I have lost 23 pounds eating 1000 calories a day.. CW is 121 (121.4 actually, haha) I do the keto diet and I'm not hungry for more than 1000/1050 calories.. if you don't want to do something as extreme as keto, just make sure you eat fat with every meal. it will keep you full for 5 hours.
  • tlanger251
    tlanger251 Posts: 86 Member
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    SummerSkier wrote: »
    great thread. I have to say I cringe whenever I see folks act like it is a LAW that you cannot eat under 1200. I am 58 almost 59. 5'2 but lately I think I have shrunk a little bit. I am a math major so I am always keeping track of a zillion things. The most important thing IMHO we have to remember is that there are way too many variables to be able to mimic anyone else's success or failure. I started at 131 and have been strict about 1050 total cal or less per day. I added CT5K from the start to get more exercise but I do NOT eat any of them back. My loss rate for the first 15 lbs has been 1.5 lbs per week but I can see it slowing for the balance to get to 105 down to about 1-1.2 lbs per week even with significant exercise.

    Variety is also important because I just don't trust all those "calorie counts". So if you have a favorite treat you are eating a lot, what happens if instead of 100 it's really 150? You are hosed when you are short and don't even know it!

    I downloaded from another thread on here a excel spreadsheet which keeps track of your TDEE. The more data you put in it the more info you get. Right now it is calculating my TDEE (which is BMR + exercise etc) at 1900. The more weeks of data it gets the closer it will be. I plan on using it when I hit maintenance to continue to see what my calorie intake goals needs to be.

    I have starved myself before and 1050 is definitely NOT starving myself. I have energy to work out and I only find myself hungry occasionally. However, what is a diet if you are never hungry? LOL.

    My plan once I do hit my weight goal is to gradually add calories and not just try to jump up to 1900 or whatever the file says my TDEE should be all at once, but being a shorty, adding 100 cals at a time and watching for a few weeks should provide some data.

    I do know that the exercise calories which my fitbit sends over to MFP are a little inflated and I would not lose weight at all if I ate them all back but I watch and keep track and hopefully over time I can figure out exactly what is correct for me!

    Here is a snap of the spreadsheet. Good luck everyone and keep up the conversation. It makes me feel better to know I am not the only one....

    chgjiydn9sti.png

    I hate it when i push the MFP button "complete this entry" at the end of the day when i'm done eating, only to get a lecture from MFP that it's unhealthy to eat under 1000 calories. Sometimes I go back and adjust my serving size -haha.. i'll change 1.2 ounces of cheese to 1.5 so it pushes me over 1000 calories.. just to avoid the lecture and also so that MFP will tell me how much i'll weigh in 5 weeks.
  • SummerSkier
    SummerSkier Posts: 4,799 Member
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    tlanger251 wrote: »
    I hate it when i push the MFP button "complete this entry" at the end of the day when i'm done eating, only to get a lecture from MFP that it's unhealthy to eat under 1000 calories. Sometimes I go back and adjust my serving size -haha.. i'll change 1.2 ounces of cheese to 1.5 so it pushes me over 1000 calories.. just to avoid the lecture and also so that MFP will tell me how much i'll weigh in 5 weeks.

    Yeah - they should have special dispensation for folks over a certain age or under a certain height. And I like the in 5 weeks thing also. Of course I had to document the #s to see how close it would be. Sad to say that even with eating no exercise calories back the algarythm is running about 1-4 pounds off and has only been too heavy twice. I honestly do not think the BMR of 15 cal per pound to maintain is accurate for us smallies. My losses each week so far not counting any activity and just doing a delta to see if I have a 3500 debit are close. So that means I am probably running a BMR a lot less than 15 cal per pound.

    I tried unlinking the exercise to see if the in 5 weeks would be more accurate but then it was way off the other way.

    What I really want to research is ways to increase our metabolism so that as we age we do not slow down but get more energy. It's not really about being able to eat more (altho that would be nice) but about feeling stronger.
  • BlessedBeyondMsr
    BlessedBeyondMsr Posts: 65 Member
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    A Petite Maintainers group like this would be awesome
  • BlessedBeyondMsr
    BlessedBeyondMsr Posts: 65 Member
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    Awesome, thank you!
  • BlessedBeyondMsr
    BlessedBeyondMsr Posts: 65 Member
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    I did try to join..said my reason for requesting to join was 8 characters too long...tried to shorten it and not sure if it went through.

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