Formula to figure maintenance calories

DianaGabriela2013

Hi all,
I may be getting a little ahead of myself but I'd like to know what is in store for me calorie wise. The last time I lost weight I had 2 back to back pregnancies so I never experienced maintenance and didn't see how many calories worked for me.

Is there a certain formula that one can use to determine?
Height is 5'4. Weight that I would like to maintain is 120-125.

My job is not active but I have 4 kids six and under. I'm constantly on the go when I get home from work just taking care of them and cooking and cleaning in between... BUT that leaves me no time for actual dedicated time for exercise. Not sure if this qualifies me as sedentary or lightly active.

Anyway If anyone has a calculation I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

cmriverside

Set your Goals here (under goals) to maintain and set your weight to 120. The site will spit out your maintenance numbers, then you can reset to your current goals.

cwolfman13

You can just switch your goal to maintain on this site...it will calculate an estimated maintenance level and you just adjust as necessary from there.

TavistockToad

Use the real world data you collect from losing weight. So if you lose a pound a week on 1500 cals then you know maintenance will be around 2000 cals.

Formulas will only give you estimates.

sijomial

This site uses a formula - so if you have been using this site's numbers and eating back exercise calories (when you manage to squeeze some in) set to maintain weight.

If you have been using a TDEE calculation then they also use one of the mainstream formulas.

Or from your own data if your logging is consistent add up all your calories eaten in last four weeks, add 3500 for each pound lost. Divide by 28 to give you your TDEE corrected for your own particular logging inaccuracies.

But even the last may still require fine tuning over an extended period of time.

As for your activity setting then "always on the go" and sedentary clearly aren't a match. But that activity setting just gave you a start point - you now have real data and results to go on.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Compare a whole bunch of BMR/TDEE formulas at:

http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Most commonly used is "Mifflin St. Jeor."

AnnPT77

TavistockToad wrote: »

Use the real world data you collect from losing weight. So if you lose a pound a week on 1500 cals then you know maintenance will be around 2000 cals.

Formulas will only give you estimates.

^^^^ This. Track carefully while losing, calculate. Obviously, a lighter you will maintain on fewer calories than a heavier you, and there may be other body comp changes along the way, so your last month or so of loss will be most definitive.

Even early on, you can use your real-world results (after the first couple weeks of whacky water weight fluctuation), compare it to MFP's estimates (at varying activity settings if necessary), and figure out how far off the estimates are for you percentage-wise, and/or what activity level fits your results best. Then just assume the same adjustment % or activity level setting at goal weight to estimate maintenance.