Calorie amount

amberellen12

When I put my stats in a calorie counter app... female,60,5’6” weight 125, calories 1386 to maintain.

Now I’m not 125 lbs I’m heavier. My thinking is that if I eat what a person at that weight should eat daily then my weight should go down to there plus when I get to that weight I don’t have to go on a maintenance plan cause that’s what I’ve been following all along.

Please share your thoughts.

fitoverfortymom

I've seen a few people post that they pick a calorie deficit = to their goal weight calories. Closer to goal weight, the loss will get very, very slow. If you don't have a lot to lose, this might be a good approach. If you have 50+ lbs to lose you could probably eat more and still lose and save that low calorie amount to when you're closer to goal.

ETA: You'll still want to eat some of your earned exercise calories back or else you'll drop below the # of calories you really need to get necessary nutrients, etc.

Poisonedpawn78

amberellen12 wrote: »

When I put my stats in a calorie counter app... female,60,5’6” weight 125, calories 1386 to maintain.

Now I’m not 125 lbs I’m heavier. My thinking is that if I eat what a person at that weight should eat daily then my weight should go down to there plus when I get to that weight I don’t have to go on a maintenance plan cause that’s what I’ve been following all along.

Please share your thoughts.

This is definitely a valid strategy with a bit of a caveat.. as you get closer to that goal weight its going to slow down a lot.

To get an idea of what i mean.. take the same stats but 10 lbs heavier. Note the difference in calories given and divide that into 35000 to get how many days at that pace it will take.

DaniCanadian

I tried that and my calories were only about 100 above where I’m at to lose .5lbs per week. It also messed with the amount I got when logging exercise (and I already only eat 50% of those back) , so I just switched it back to my current weight. If that’s an approach you want to try though, I don’t see anything wrong with it that’d stop your progress.
My stats: I’m 5’3, 146lbs and my goal is 125. I’m short, so I won’t have huge maintenance calories at my goal which is probably why it only went up by 100 when I tried this method.

heybales

Ditto to above - but put in weight 10 lbs lighter so the slow to a crawl loss doesn't occur when approaching goal weight.

Which means when you get to goal weight - remember to increase the logged weight.

Other potential benefit - when you correctly log workouts so you eat more when you do more - the calorie burn is less than reality since it's weight based too.

Only problem is not getting to log your actual weight on MFP - but you may use a trending app for that anyway.

amberellen12

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

I've seen a few people post that they pick a calorie deficit = to their goal weight calories. Closer to goal weight, the loss will get very, very slow. If you don't have a lot to lose, this might be a good approach. If you have 50+ lbs to lose you could probably eat more and still lose and save that low calorie amount to when you're closer to goal.

ETA: You'll still want to eat some of your earned exercise calories back or else you'll drop below the # of calories you really need to get necessary nutrients, etc.

Good point! I have less than fifty to lose. I’m thinking more of getting into the habit of eating that amount. I don’t find it hard to hit that amount each day as most of my calories are made up of fresh veg and fruit. With meat only several times a week... coronary concerns. Starch and grain, beans and seeds making up the rest. Trying hard to stay away from added sugar foods and all processed foods.

amberellen12

This is definitely a valid strategy with a bit of a caveat.. as you get closer to that goal weight its going to slow down a lot.

To get an idea of what i mean.. take the same stats but 10 lbs heavier. Note the difference in calories given and divide that into 35000 to get how many days at that pace it will take. [/quote]


I get it! Will keep that in mind as I get closer to goal weight.