Is my calorie goal too high?

ChelleTrell

I am 5’1” and currently weigh 137lb. I also have a digital scale that says my BMR is 1,331.

When I first signed up for MFP 3 months ago I set myself as “not active” with a goal of losing 1lb/week and my calories were set to 1,200

Recently I have changed my goal to lose .5lb/week which changed my calorie goal to 1,360.

I also noticed MFP suggests “not active” for people who work sedentary jobs. I manage retail so I am on my feet 8 hours a day at least. I walk to/from work everyday (10 min each way). Am I considered “lightly active”? I also began working out on average 30 minutes a day 6 days a week. Would I be considered “lightly active” now that I exercise?

If I change my profile to “lightly active” my goal changes to 1,550 which sounds like a lot to me. Or maybe it just sounds like a lot since I was eating around 1,200 for quite some time?

So I suppose I have 2 questions. Should I consider myself lightly active? And does 1,550 calories sound about right? I understand all of these numbers are just estimates, I just wanna make sure I am on the right track.

Thanks for any input you might have!

TavistockToad

how much have you lost in what time frame eating 1200 and then 1360?

the goal is always to eat as much as you can while still losing weight!

tinkerbellang83

Your BMR is likely lower than above (I calculate at roughly 1280).

Your multiplier for Sedentary (or not active as you put it) is 1.25 x BMR, which is for maintaining weight.

If you are set to 0.5lbs per week loss that's 250 calorie deficit (1lb is equivalent to 3500 cals/7 days x 0.5)

You are at the very least lightly active if you're in retail, lightly active is if you do around 5000 steps per day outside of intentional exercise.

So yes 1550 is fine if you're set to 0.5lb per week/lightly active. You will need to be especially accurate with such a small deficit because you have little margin for error.

ChelleTrell

TavistockToad wrote: »

how much have you lost in what time frame eating 1200 and then 1360?

the goal is always to eat as much as you can while still losing weight!

I didn’t have a scale when I first started 3 months ago but since 5/22 I have lost 4.2lbs focusing on the 1,200 calorie goal. I only recently switched to 1,360 calories on Monday 7/2. I weigh myself once a week on Monday mornings so I have yet to see what this last week has done for me.

tinkerbellang83

ChelleTrell wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

how much have you lost in what time frame eating 1200 and then 1360?

the goal is always to eat as much as you can while still losing weight!

I didn’t have a scale when I first started 3 months ago but since 5/22 I have lost 4.2lbs focusing on the 1,200 calorie goal. I only recently switched to 1,360 calories on Monday 7/2. I weigh myself once a week on Monday mornings so I have yet to see what this last week has done for me.

One week isn't enough time to see the effects of your change, you'll need to give it a couple of weeks.

If you lost just over 4lbs in around 7 weeks, you're losing about 0.6lbs per week on your previous calorie allowance, which is most probably down to inaccurate logging - either underestimating your food intake or overestimating exercise. So you need to be wary of your logging now you have set yourself up correctly.

ChelleTrell

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

You are at the very least lightly active if you're in retail, lightly active is if you do around 5000 steps per day outside of intentional exercise.

So yes 1550 is fine if you're set to 0.5lb per week/lightly active. You will need to be especially accurate with such a small deficit because you have little margin for error.

Thanks for the info! Good to know 1550 isn’t too high for the goals I’ve set. I assume this means it’s okay if I eat under 1550 as long as I’m still eating over 1200 and eating back some exercise calories? Ill admit shooting for 1200 wasn’t terrible. 1360 feels more comfortable but at this point in my journey 1550 just feels weird.

tinkerbellang83

ChelleTrell wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

You are at the very least lightly active if you're in retail, lightly active is if you do around 5000 steps per day outside of intentional exercise.

So yes 1550 is fine if you're set to 0.5lb per week/lightly active. You will need to be especially accurate with such a small deficit because you have little margin for error.

Thanks for the info! Good to know 1550 isn’t too high for the goals I’ve set. I assume this means it’s okay if I eat under 1550 as long as I’m still eating over 1200 and eating back some exercise calories? Ill admit shooting for 1200 wasn’t terrible. 1360 feels more comfortable but at this point in my journey 1550 just feels weird.

I'd try to stick to one figure for 4-6 weeks, then look at your average weight loss over that time and adjust accordingly. Are you using a food scale?

ChelleTrell

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

I'd try to stick to one figure for 4-6 weeks, then look at your average weight loss over that time and adjust accordingly. Are you using a food scale?

Yepp, I got a food scale 3 weeks ago and I also have an Apple Watch.

HeidiMightyRawr

Your BMR is the minimum your body requires to survive and maintain it's basic functions, assuming you were in a sleep/coma like state. You should always aim to eat more than this, while still maintaining a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight. The deficit comes from your maintenance calories, which is what you require to maintain taking your activity into account (TDEE)

Regarding your activity, you have two ways of doing this.

MFP is set up on the basis of your activity being what you do regularly (not including workouts) and then you log any workouts additionally and eat those calories back as well, to maintain the chosen deficit. So that's the first way you can do this. Given your job I would definitely enter at least lightly active, possibly active depending on how much you move about throughout the day. There is no way you are sedentary, that's more for people who sit down all day.

The other way is if your exercise is consistent, you can enter active or very active and this will take into account your workouts too. In that scenario you don't log or eat back exercise calories. This is what I choose.

From what you've said, I don't think 1550 is too high. If you're getting the progress you want from that as well, by all means keep at it. You'll soon find out whether it's a good amount or not and IMO if you can eat more and still get the same progress, why wouldn't you?

ChelleTrell

HeidiMightyRawr wrote: »

From what you've said, I don't think 1550 is too high. If you're getting the progress you want from that as well, by all means keep at it. You'll soon find out whether it's a good amount or not and IMO if you can eat more and still get the same progress, why wouldn't you?

Thanks for your insight! I think I’ll stick to 1,360 as I am comfortable with that number and still feel like I can eat what I want while still losing.