1200 calories a day??

Munchkin300380

Hello all. I’m 39, 5ft 1 and 9stone 8. I do lots of exercise (3 x bootcamp, 3 x short run and 7x yoga a week plus ave 1400 steps a day)
MFP has worked out my calories for weight loss as 1200. If i use this as a base but include exercise in my calorie adjustment will that be ok??
My fitness instructor says 1700 but I am a small person!! Thanks all xxx

cathipa

How much did you tell MFP you wanted to lose? You are currently just above a normal BMI for your stats and you are active so you should be consuming more. Since you are so close to a normal BMI aim for a goal of 0.5-1 pound a week. MFP also assumes you will eat back some (if not all) of your exercise calories so your fitness instructor may be closer to your calorie goal than you think.

Also are you only getting 1400 steps a day or is this missing a 0?

Joanna2012B

MFP gave me 1300 I am 5'3" and am very active. I wanted to chew my own arm off...so I upped my calories to 1800 and was still losing. Although, most fitness instructors aren't trained registered dieticians I would have to agree with them. If I am correct 1200 is what an older sedentary woman needs to just survive.

sijomial

MyFitnessPal is a calculator but you control the outcome by the selections you make plus your stats.
Choosing a fast rate of loss has a huge impact on your calories.

You may be short but you exercise a lot and that exercise needs energy (calories).

Your steps sound very low - did you mean 14,000 or 1,400? That makes a big difference to the activity setting you select (which is entirely separate from exercise).

tinkerbellang83

Munchkin300380 wrote: »

Hello all. I’m 39, 5ft 1 and 9stone 8. I do lots of exercise (3 x bootcamp, 3 x short run and 7x yoga a week plus ave 1400 steps a day)
MFP has worked out my calories for weight loss as 1200. If i use this as a base but include exercise in my calorie adjustment will that be ok??
My fitness instructor says 1700 but I am a small person!! Thanks all xxx

That 1200 doesn't include the calories from your exercise (MFP uses the NEAT calculation) it is likely that your Fitness Instructor is using the TDEE calculation method. They should more or less work out the same once you log exercise calories in on MFP and eat them back.

At your stats, someone doing Moderate Exercise when calculating TDEE is around 1900 calories per day, so at 1700 calories you'd be in a 200 calorie deficit, which is about as much of a deficit as you'd need to be in because you're only slightly over the top end of the healthy BMI range for your height.

The NEAT Method at Maintenance for your stats / 14000 steps per day (again presuming there's a 0 missing) would be around 1950 calories (BMR x 1.6 Active Level).

For the weight you're currently at you should only be aiming for 0.5lbs loss per week, which would deduct 250 calories from your Maintenance, which puts you at 1700 cals + any intentional exercise (stuff outside of your steps).

Presumably you got 1200 calories because you've chosen the incorrect activity level and/or a higher rate of loss than you should be sustaining.

Duck_Puddle

Munchkin300380 wrote: »

Hello all. I’m 39, 5ft 1 and 9stone 8. I do lots of exercise (3 x bootcamp, 3 x short run and 7x yoga a week plus ave 1400 steps a day)
MFP has worked out my calories for weight loss as 1200. If i use this as a base but include exercise in my calorie adjustment will that be ok??
My fitness instructor says 1700 but I am a small person!! Thanks all xxx

Yes. As long as you add in your exercise and eat those calories it will be fine. I would imagine you’ll end up eating 1700+ with all the exercise you do.

My base calories are also 1200 (I’m just a bit taller and a bit older than you). I’m training for a marathon. I add in my workouts, eat the exercise calories and lose a bit less than 1 pound a week (which is exactly as projected). FWIW-I’m currently eating about 2k calories a day (this changes with my running/workout volume) while “on 1200”.

It’s a problem if you don’t add your exercise in and/or don’t eat those calories.

Duck_Puddle

What is your activity level not including any of the exercise you do? Meaning how many of those 14k steps come from your runs?

You are very active as a person.

Your mfp setting should reflect how much activity you do not including any exercise you intend to log.

My example again-I’m currently averaging 29k steps a day. I am set as sedentary (correctly) because 25k of those steps come from my runs (which I log separately).

You should not be eating 1200 calories total. No question. But I don’t think you’re intending to do that. Your base calories should be set based on your activity level not including any exercise that you will log separately.

If you are not active aside from all of your exercise, you don’t want to set yourself up as such-and then add exercise on top of that.

If you are active aside from your exercise, do set yourself up that way. And add exercise on top of that.

I would expect with the level of exercise that you’re doing-if you’re set at 1200 and you log your exercise - you’ll be eating more than 1700/day.

If you set yourself as some kind of active and then add your exercise on top of that, you could be eating 2000+/day. That might be closer to (or above) maintenance.

So be sure that what you’re setting is your activity level not including any exercise that you plan to log.

Go_Deskercise

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.