1540 calories per day
kimtpa1417
Posts: 461 Member
This seems like alot of calories to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I do cross fit for 1 hr 3 to 4 times a week. I also walk a couple miles a day 3x a week. Should I lower them?
6
Replies
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No.
I'm 5'9, 42 years old, and losing on 1860.3 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »This seems like alot of calories to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I do cross fit for 1 hr 3 to 4 times a week. I also walk a couple miles a day 3x a week. Should I lower them?
Calories will mostly be based on your age, weight, height, and weight loss goal. Activity level is usually more of a supplement.
If you tell us your stats, we'll be able to help you more.2 -
How tall are you, how much do you weigh now, how much do you want to lose in total.......not enough information to answer your question.
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Nope. Seriously get a food scale it is less than you think it is. Trust the process.6
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If that is the calculation that MFP made for you, stick with it for 6 weeks and check your results. The reason for sticking with it over several weeks is to get through the hormone-related water retention swings and get a sense of actual scale trend.2
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Do you have 50-75 lbs to lose? That's a pretty aggressive goal rate of loss. More stats would be helpful to know whether this is reasonable or not - in addition to height, weight, age... what activity level did you choose, and are you planning to eat back exercise calories that you would log? Did you factor the cross fit and walks into the selection of the activity level?1
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The only way to know for sure is to track your calories and weight for a few weeks and see what happens. Lots of people *could* lose weight at 1540 - I'm currently losing a pound a week on about 2100 - but whether that's too much or not enough for your goal really depends on your specific body and lifestyle.1
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No. Why would you lower them? Why not eat at that level and see what happens? Do you think that MFP is just making up the goals for the hell of it or do you think that there is at least a modicum of logic involved in calculating them?9
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kimtpa1417 wrote: »
And you want to reduce your intake further.
Bad idea.
Unless you feel that the exercise isn't burning any calories, you'll do well to eat some of them back.10 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »This seems like alot of calories to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I do cross fit for 1 hr 3 to 4 times a week. I also walk a couple miles a day 3x a week. Should I lower them?
That means your estimated maintenance calories are around 2,290 which isn't particularly unusual.2 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »This seems like alot of calories to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I do cross fit for 1 hr 3 to 4 times a week. I also walk a couple miles a day 3x a week. Should I lower them?
What do you have your activity level set to? How tall are you? Current weight? Lots goes into play when calculating calories. This isn't an exponential amount though, it's most likely accurate.0 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »
What does FitBit say your average total calories burned are?
Why do you think it isn't estimating accurately?0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »kimtpa1417 wrote: »
What does FitBit say your average total calories burned are?
Why do you think it isn't estimating accurately?
Because an hour of bootcamp will average about 200 calories burned. I use to go to OTF and did 1 hr of bootcamp and wore a chest strap monitor and would burn 550 to 700 calories per hr0 -
Eating less calories is not always better. I'm 5'4" and I'm eating around 2000-2100 calories on the days I exercise.4
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Too many variables to say but that seems right if you're that active. Why don't you just see how it goes for 3-4 weeks and then you'll be able to make a better decision based on your results.2
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kimtpa1417 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »kimtpa1417 wrote: »
What does FitBit say your average total calories burned are?
Why do you think it isn't estimating accurately?
Because an hour of bootcamp will average about 200 calories burned. I use to go to OTF and did 1 hr of bootcamp and wore a chest strap monitor and would burn 550 to 700 calories per hr
This is confusing. Are you saying you don't eat back your exercise calories because you think FitBit is underestimating your calorie burn on exercise. That doesn't make any sense. If anything it's a very safe, conservative estimate and could easily be eaten back. Am I missing something?6 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »kimtpa1417 wrote: »
What does FitBit say your average total calories burned are?
Why do you think it isn't estimating accurately?
Because an hour of bootcamp will average about 200 calories burned. I use to go to OTF and did 1 hr of bootcamp and wore a chest strap monitor and would burn 550 to 700 calories per hr
So it seems your Fitbit underestimates your calorie burn by 64 to 70-some percent, and you don't think you should even eat back the lower number? Your deficit is already quite aggressive, and eating lower than that goal will result in even more lean mass lost. You should consider lowering your goal to 1 pound per week, and eating back the Fitbit estimate. By those numbers, you'd actually still likely lose 1.5/week, and could adjust your calories up from there.2 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »kimtpa1417 wrote: »
What does FitBit say your average total calories burned are?
Why do you think it isn't estimating accurately?
Because an hour of bootcamp will average about 200 calories burned. I use to go to OTF and did 1 hr of bootcamp and wore a chest strap monitor and would burn 550 to 700 calories per hr
You are saying FitBit is measuring your boot camp burn at 200? It's not great at accurately picking up and measuring non step based activity but if you enter it as exercise, either in FitBit or MFP, it should give you an estimate that is reasonable, which would then be factored into your full day calorie burn and that's what is used to then calculate the exercise adjustments between the two systems.
Back to your original question, I'm 5'2 and 118 and my TDEE according to FitBit and results is about 2200, so if I were eating 1500 cals/day I would lose more than 1 lb/week. The estimates you are getting, considering you are taller and heavier, don't seem outrageous to me at all.2 -
kimtpa1417 wrote: »This seems like alot of calories to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I do cross fit for 1 hr 3 to 4 times a week. I also walk a couple miles a day 3x a week. Should I lower them?
Just try it for two weeks and see if you are going up or down on the scale and adjust your intake from there but thats definitely not too many calories.1 -
No, don't lower it. If anything raise it, especially if you are not eating your exercise calories.1
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I'm 5'3 and I've mostly been eating 1700 calories, and I've been losing. However, I'm not trying to lose 2 pounds a week because I don't have much to lose. I'm more into 0.5 to 1 pound instead.1
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Sounds about right to me.
I am around 5 in shorter than you and my losing calories were 1460 so 1560 doesn't seem too high for you.0 -
mrsnattybulking wrote: »Too many variables to say but that seems right if you're that active. Why don't you just see how it goes for 3-4 weeks and then you'll be able to make a better decision based on your results.
When some of us get here, we are gung ho and want to be super precise, and we want it done yesterday...lol. This place while not perfect gives us tools to change out of a pattern we have long become use to.
OP...just trust the process.3 -
Eat at 1540 plus most of your exercise calories that day to lose close to your goal loss per week. After 4 weeks, readjust. I would not aim for more than 1.5lb a week loss.0
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You should lose weight I have the same calorie goal I'm 5'8 started at 179 want to lose 40 pounds and I'm pretty active and i lose 2-3 pounds every week
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I will chime in.....
So, I estimated your age to be 28. It does make a difference, but not a huge difference. So, using a TDEE calculator (which is a little bit different from the way the MFP does things....) your "numbers" look like this:
Basal Metabolic Rate 1,672 calories per day
Sedentary 2,006 calories per day
Light Exercise 2,299 calories per day
Moderate Exercise 2,592 calories per day
Heavy Exercise 2,884 calories per day
Athlete 3,177 calories per day
So, for a 28yo woman who is 5'8" and weighs 197lbs......a starting point - based on your level of Physical Activity - looks like the above. And, that is for maintenance. So, you would have to adjust according to your plans (clearly, to loose weight....).
Again, the above numbers are a starting point. They come from a formula that is generic. You would need to play with this to determine your actual numbers. I can not stress that enough.
So, it seems like your are pretty active. So, your "Physical Activity Level" would likely be Moderate Exercise? So, assuming that to be accurate, to maintain you would - according to these numbers - be eating about 2,600 Calories a day. Something like that. You would need to play with this to determine your real numbers, but it will likely be something close to that.
So, if you wanted to get a bit aggressive and reduce your Caloric Intake by 500 Calories a day, you would be looking at roughly 2,100 Calories a day to loose one pound a week.
So, based on that if you are eating 1,540 Calories a day you are under-eating.
If I guessed your Physical Activity Level incorrectly and you are really Light Exercise (2,299 for maintenance) then you would need to eat 1,799 Calories every day to loose 1lb a week (assuming the somewhat aggressive approach).
You are still likely under-eating......
I may have missed this, but has anyone asked this question:
Are you loosing weight? Or, are you stuck?
EDIT: MFP has a different approach to doing this...it is broken down into components. That is why people suggest that you partially 'eat your workout calories back'. When I first started in this forum I was totally confused by that suggestion. Then I looked into how MFP does things and things made much more sense. So, the GENERAL suggestion is to eat half of your 'exercise calories' back. I much prefer using a TDEE calculator. But that is just me. We are in an MFP forum, right? I try not to foget where I am....0 -
I'm 5'6, 37 years old, and have 10-15 lbs to lose. I do HIIT for an hour 2 times a week and lift heavy 3 times a week. My calories are set at 1650 (to lose 0.5 lbs per week) and I eat about 1/2 of my exercise calories back. I'm steadily losing following those set calories.1
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