How many calories?

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sajgos
sajgos Posts: 4 Member
in Motivation and Support
I would love to hear from other women who are on the shorter side (I'm 5'2) how many calories do you need to stay under to lose weight? I have been averaging around 1,500 calories for a month and haven't seen a weight shift. I'm not very active besides walking (trying to get up to 6000 steps/day) I weight around 165-170. Do I really need to eat fewer calories to lose? What has your experience been? Thanks!

Replies

  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    How do you measure the 1500 calories? I would start there.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Start by getting a food scale. Weigh everything and log it. Then, once you’ve confirmed you are actually eating 1500 calories, you can think about adjusting.
    Most people cannot eyeball portions accurately, and are eating more calories than they think they are.
  • jennacole12
    jennacole12 Posts: 1,167 Member
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    I agree with the food scale and no you shouldn’t need less. I am 122 lbs and 4’11 and am on 1600-1700, granted I am very active. Do you have cheat days or eat extra on the weekends?
  • Kiymeara
    Kiymeara Posts: 55 Member
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    I am also 5’2 and started at my heaviest around 160lbs I’m currently 118. Being in a calorie deficit is a must and sadly for us short girls that gets hard since our base BMI gets pretty low as we lose weight mines around 1100-1200. Adding steps and doing exercises boosts that number a ton but I can tell you right now even with between 15k to 20k steps a day, 20 mins of cardio and strength training I maybe get to 2k total burn in a day, tho I have had a few 22Cal burn days when I add more cardio.

    A scale is great I also highly recommend weighing your food to make sure you know exactly how many cals your eating

    Also a Fitbit Apple Watch or other that counts your daily calories burned is a huge plus

    From there just start reducing to your cals per day
    500 cals under your total burned each day = roughly 1lb on weight loss. It’s not recommended to go under 1200 cals a day for women. I personally am often under 1200 plus that’s a whole separate issue.

    Sorry this was long and I hope it helps!

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    A food scale, it’s your best bet.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    im 5'1, 42 years old, and lose on 1500 cals/day. it is a slow rate of loss, by itself, but a loss. I also workout quite a bit and do not typically eat back many of those calories (on 1500 I am quite satisfied).

    if you are not weighing your food on a food scale and finding accurate database entries, I highly suggest it.

    I have tried to do 1200 and daily miserably because I was always starving and would compensate by binging, and therefore not losing weight.

    I lost 130 pounds doing it this way (maintained for 2 years and then slowly gained some weight when I stopped tracking/working out, so working on getting that back off now)

  • sajgos
    sajgos Posts: 4 Member
    edited February 2021
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    Thanks for all of replies so far. I appreciate the suggestions and support. I don't have a food scale and honestly it's really not something I want. It's hard enough for me to just log everything as it is. I like estimating, I know it's not as accurate, but I don't think I could be off enough that it would make a huge difference. I try to estimate on the high end. Maybe I'm naive?
  • sajgos
    sajgos Posts: 4 Member
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    jennacole12 wrote: »
    I agree with the food scale and no you shouldn’t need less. I am 122 lbs and 4’11 and am on 1600-1700, granted I am very active. Do you have cheat days or eat extra on the weekends?

    I've just been trying to track everything. I have my calories set to 1,300, and I try not to go more than a couple hundred above that daily. Some days I'm a little below. No cheat days or anything like that.
  • LisaGetsMoving
    LisaGetsMoving Posts: 664 Member
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    I'm short 5'3", 63 yrs old, started out sedentary (but now walking daily). I'm averaging around 1400 calories daily. I'm losing 1 to 1.4 pounds per week so far.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
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    sajgos wrote: »
    Thanks for all of replies so far. I appreciate the suggestions and support. I don't have a food scale and honestly it's really not something I want. It's hard enough for me to just log everything as it is. I like estimating, I know it's not as accurate, but I don't think I could be off enough that it would make a huge difference. I try to estimate on the high end. Maybe I'm naive?

    I started and lost weight without a food scale. I estimated and used measuring cups or packages because it's what I had at the time. If you find yourself struggling to lose and wonder why, it might come down to needing that extra tool to log accurately.

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