What are your stats and maintenance calories?

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  • tanasta2
    tanasta2 Posts: 19 Member
    edited February 2019
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    My maintenance is 3000-3200. 5'11, 160 lbs (lean)-170 lbs (bulked up), lifting weights 4 times a week, little cardio. You will probably need much less depending on your height, frame, muscularity, activity level, etc.
  • RobertWorkingOut
    RobertWorkingOut Posts: 20 Member
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    5, 10 and just got to 150lb. Right now 1900 calories a day but doing 30-60 minute workouts 5-6 times a week so the calories will most likely increase. Looking for friends for motivation as I have just gotten back into this and new to this app. 😃
  • Tolstolobik
    Tolstolobik Posts: 78 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    As others have said, the stats will vary by individual. I’m petite, 5’2, and have a desk job but still maintain at around 1900 calories when I’m lightly active. My current weight range is 122-126 but that’s slightly higher than where I was maintaining for the last few years, my activity level has dropped and weight has crept up a little due to job changes and more business travel and winter...

    If you can, I think an activity tracker like a FitBit is a great tool to help people successfully maintain. I know my average calorie burn and can track trends when I’m more or less active so I can adjust my intake accordingly, as often as I need, rather than just picking a number from a calculator and going with that as a static indicator.

    Do you find Fitbit's calories burned accurate? I own a Zip. I average 12-14,000 steps/day. It says I burn 1900-2000. Should I trust that number?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    Tolstolobik wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    As others have said, the stats will vary by individual. I’m petite, 5’2, and have a desk job but still maintain at around 1900 calories when I’m lightly active. My current weight range is 122-126 but that’s slightly higher than where I was maintaining for the last few years, my activity level has dropped and weight has crept up a little due to job changes and more business travel and winter...

    If you can, I think an activity tracker like a FitBit is a great tool to help people successfully maintain. I know my average calorie burn and can track trends when I’m more or less active so I can adjust my intake accordingly, as often as I need, rather than just picking a number from a calculator and going with that as a static indicator.

    Do you find Fitbit's calories burned accurate? I own a Zip. I average 12-14,000 steps/day. It says I burn 1900-2000. Should I trust that number?

    It’s been accurate for me but you can test it for yourself if you log accurately, you should know how much you’re burning, and therefore how much of a deficit you’re in. Does your weight pattern match the deficit you believe you are creating over a period of 4-6 weeks or more?
  • Tolstolobik
    Tolstolobik Posts: 78 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Tolstolobik wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    As others have said, the stats will vary by individual. I’m petite, 5’2, and have a desk job but still maintain at around 1900 calories when I’m lightly active. My current weight range is 122-126 but that’s slightly higher than where I was maintaining for the last few years, my activity level has dropped and weight has crept up a little due to job changes and more business travel and winter...

    If you can, I think an activity tracker like a FitBit is a great tool to help people successfully maintain. I know my average calorie burn and can track trends when I’m more or less active so I can adjust my intake accordingly, as often as I need, rather than just picking a number from a calculator and going with that as a static indicator.

    Do you find Fitbit's calories burned accurate? I own a Zip. I average 12-14,000 steps/day. It says I burn 1900-2000. Should I trust that number?

    It’s been accurate for me but you can test it for yourself if you log accurately, you should know how much you’re burning, and therefore how much of a deficit you’re in. Does your weight pattern match the deficit you believe you are creating over a period of 4-6 weeks or more?

    Thank you for sharing your experience. I need to do a fair test (keeping calories eaten more or less the same) to see my weight trend over the span of several weeks and not just a week or two. Do you find it beneficial to link your Fitbit with MFP or do you just use Fitbit's numbers?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,055 Member
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    Tolstolobik wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Tolstolobik wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    As others have said, the stats will vary by individual. I’m petite, 5’2, and have a desk job but still maintain at around 1900 calories when I’m lightly active. My current weight range is 122-126 but that’s slightly higher than where I was maintaining for the last few years, my activity level has dropped and weight has crept up a little due to job changes and more business travel and winter...

    If you can, I think an activity tracker like a FitBit is a great tool to help people successfully maintain. I know my average calorie burn and can track trends when I’m more or less active so I can adjust my intake accordingly, as often as I need, rather than just picking a number from a calculator and going with that as a static indicator.

    Do you find Fitbit's calories burned accurate? I own a Zip. I average 12-14,000 steps/day. It says I burn 1900-2000. Should I trust that number?

    It’s been accurate for me but you can test it for yourself if you log accurately, you should know how much you’re burning, and therefore how much of a deficit you’re in. Does your weight pattern match the deficit you believe you are creating over a period of 4-6 weeks or more?

    Thank you for sharing your experience. I need to do a fair test (keeping calories eaten more or less the same) to see my weight trend over the span of several weeks and not just a week or two. Do you find it beneficial to link your Fitbit with MFP or do you just use Fitbit's numbers?

    Tracking carefully over a month or so and calculating in weight gain/loss (pounds x 3500 = approximate cals) ought to be close enough for a decent evaluation, without eating the same daily.
  • Tolstolobik
    Tolstolobik Posts: 78 Member
    edited March 2019
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    Tracking carefully over a month or so and calculating in weight gain/loss (pounds x 3500 = approximate cals) ought to be close enough for a decent evaluation, without eating the same daily.[/quote]

    Excellent advice! Thank you!
  • Tolstolobik
    Tolstolobik Posts: 78 Member
    edited March 2019
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    A question- If I mostly do walking/jogging based exercise(I do occasional bodyweight exercises as well), do I set my activity level to "Not Very Active", enable negative calorie adjustments and let Fitbit feed the step count into MFP? Will this give me a good general idea of my TDEE?
  • mk2fit
    mk2fit Posts: 730 Member
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    I am 60, female, 5'7" and have been in maintenance for well over 3 years. I stay within 3 or so pounds in the mid to upper 110s. I have always kept my activity set to sedentary for no other reason than I know what MFP is going to do. MFP thinks I should only eat 1540 calories/day. Going with TDEE and all that jazz, I set myself to 1800. In real life, I probably eat 2000-3000 most days.

    I do run for an hour most days, weather permitting. I walk a lot with my husband and dog every day. When the weather is bad, I work out on my elliptical or "bounce" to cardio and/or strength videos on youtube.

    It did take me several months to find my happy place in maintenance so don't give up! Some of us overshoot and keep losing, others bounce back up and find themselves having to lose again. One of the not so great things about MFP is once you get to maintenance, it is tough to find the encouragement you need.

    Good luck!
  • Tolstolobik
    Tolstolobik Posts: 78 Member
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    mk2fit wrote: »
    I am 60, female, 5'7" and have been in maintenance for well over 3 years. I stay within 3 or so pounds in the mid to upper 110s. I have always kept my activity set to sedentary for no other reason than I know what MFP is going to do. MFP thinks I should only eat 1540 calories/day. Going with TDEE and all that jazz, I set myself to 1800. In real life, I probably eat 2000-3000 most days.

    I do run for an hour most days, weather permitting. I walk a lot with my husband and dog every day. When the weather is bad, I work out on my elliptical or "bounce" to cardio and/or strength videos on youtube.

    It did take me several months to find my happy place in maintenance so don't give up! Some of us overshoot and keep losing, others bounce back up and find themselves having to lose again. One of the not so great things about MFP is once you get to maintenance, it is tough to find the encouragement you need.

    Good luck!

    Thank you so much for your encouragement and sharing what you do to maintain!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,055 Member
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    Tolstolobik wrote: »
    A question- If I mostly do walking/jogging based exercise(I do occasional bodyweight exercises as well), do I set my activity level to "Not Very Active", enable negative calorie adjustments and let Fitbit feed the step count into MFP? Will this give me a good general idea of my TDEE?

    You could do that. Fitbit estimates are close to accurate for most people (but can be off for some - not the fault of the device, but rather the nature of statistical estimates, which is what it's doing).

    If you've been calorie counting, take the total amount you've lost in pounds, multiply it by 3500 (approximate number of calories in a pound), divide the result by the number of days in the time period, and add your average daily gross intake to that number = your approximate TDEE over the time period. If that's reasonably close to what your Fitbit says your TDEE is, you're probably fine with synching the Fitbit to MFP and eating those calories.
  • Tolstolobik
    Tolstolobik Posts: 78 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Tolstolobik wrote: »
    A question- If I mostly do walking/jogging based exercise(I do occasional bodyweight exercises as well), do I set my activity level to "Not Very Active", enable negative calorie adjustments and let Fitbit feed the step count into MFP? Will this give me a good general idea of my TDEE?

    You could do that. Fitbit estimates are close to accurate for most people (but can be off for some - not the fault of the device, but rather the nature of statistical estimates, which is what it's doing).

    If you've been calorie counting, take the total amount you've lost in pounds, multiply it by 3500 (approximate number of calories in a pound), divide the result by the number of days in the time period, and add your average daily gross intake to that number = your approximate TDEE over the time period. If that's reasonably close to what your Fitbit says your TDEE is, you're probably fine with synching the Fitbit to MFP and eating those calories.

    Thank you for your helpful advice Ann! Your posts are very insightful and inspiring!

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