please help how many cals?!

kellyrichardson503

hi all, i really feel down in the dumps atm as i'm either sts or gain for not real reason, some people say i need to cut my cals, i'm currently on 1430, but mfp say's 1200? i did this thing on a road map link but i'm even more confused! i did this after
TDEE Calculator
Gender Female
Weight 153 Pounds Kilograms
Height Feet 5.4 Inches
Age Years 31
Please choose your daily activity level:
Little or no exercise (ex: desk job)
Light exercise (ex: exercising 1-3 days/week) I CHOSE LIGHT!!!
Moderate exercise (ex: exercising 3-5 days/week)
Heavy exercise (ex: exercising 6-7 days/week)
Daily exercise (ex: exercising 7 days/week and working a physical job)
that gave me 2021 !!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm a busy mum who walks here and there, i try and jog one maybe 2 times a wk, and i also do a buggy fitness thing which involves weights, squats, running with buggy etc so circuits i guess 2 x a wk. i just feel at a complete loss where to go or where i'm going wrong i know iv'e come along way but something isn't right?

please help!! i would be so thankful xxxx

Debbjones

Hello, I am 5'4" and currently weigh 108 pounds, size zero.

When I joined MFP I was obese at 194 pounds, a size 18. I was a "couch potato" and aside form going to work in an office I did little exercise. I lost my weight by cutting back calories and walking. I get out and moderately walk an hour a day and eat around 1000 calories a day. Before the haters out there say I am starving myself... my physician says I am right on target to maintain my goal weight and with this program I have maintained my weight loss for nearly a year.

When I joined I set MFP at little to no activity to make myself feel good when I do get out and move... MFP recommended my daily intake in the beginning to be 1200 calories and as I adjusted my weight down it bumped my recommended calorie consumption to 1330. Personally, because I DO NOT weigh my food I KNOW the calories I log are just an approximate so I ALWAYS attempt to stay under my recommended daily allowance and I NEVER eat back the calories I burn off in exercise.

This works for me, everyone is different and I am not a medical professional (although I work in the medical field) but I suggest you reduce your calorie intake a bit and see what happens.

Great success on your journey!

Hildy_J

Hey supermum!

Everything sounds about right and you are doing GREAT. 2021 less 20% gives you a daily calorie allowance of around 1,600 giving you room to up your calories.

It's usually something to do with food logging... if you're comfortable with opening your diary then people can have a look and see what the stall is due to?

x

kellyrichardson503

yes my dairy i think is open! though try not too take too much notice of the last few days lol i have 5 kids and wev'e been here or there you know lol thanks for your replies xx

Francl27

IMO 1600 calories would be just fine, as long as you weigh your food properly etc. Keep in mind that with MFP you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories.

Faye_Anderson

Keep in mind that with MFP you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories.

If you use the TDEE cut method exercise calories are already included. With only 13lb left to lose I'd suggest TDEE - 20% is too much of a deficit, TDEE - 10% would be better and give you around 1819 calories a day :flowerforyou:

Nikoruo

Well lets see, from what i understand it varies on your height, 1200 may just be good for your height!

On another note, i don't think one should go under 1200 even after exercising. so eat 1200 calories and then if you exercised eat all those back. otherwise, if you've had 1400 calories and say worked out 400 calories off then only eat half back or so.

Glancing through your diary, are you drinking a lot of water? Because a lot of that can be flushed away with simply 8 cups of water a day (pure water or with mio or something, not pop)

Then watch your sodium (Helps hold water! means more lbs), watch your fats (they add calories too from what i understand) and i'd say watch your carbs but they seem to be pretty good.

Try eating less more often! I find it works great for me and keeps my body alert and working. essentually your looking at a handful of food every 2 hours or so in your day. Whether you are hungry or not has nothing to do with it! make 3 meals (breakfest/lunch/dinner) approximately 200calories each and then each snack between 100 calorie each (6 snacks). Then from there work up to how many calories you need in the day.

This is all in my opinion of course, i've had success on it myself. goodluck though!

_SABOTEUR_

OP, how long have you been static or gaining for?

Do you weigh all of your food?

How do you get the info on your calories burned and do you eat back all your calories?

What exercise do you perform?

Do you have any medical conditions that would make you retain water or weight or effect your BMR?

Have you been static/gaining during your TOM but losing in the rest of the month?

LiftAllThePizzas

Well lets see, from what i understand it varies on your height, 1200 may just be good for your height!

On another note, i don't think one should go under 1200 even after exercising. so eat 1200 calories and then if you exercised eat all those back. otherwise, if you've had 1400 calories and say worked out 400 calories off then only eat half back or so.

Glancing through your diary, are you drinking a lot of water? Because a lot of that can be flushed away with simply 8 cups of water a day (pure water or with mio or something, not pop)

Then watch your sodium (Helps hold water! means more lbs), watch your fats (they add calories too from what i understand) and i'd say watch your carbs but they seem to be pretty good.

Try eating less more often! I find it works great for me and keeps my body alert and working. essentually your looking at a handful of food every 2 hours or so in your day. Whether you are hungry or not has nothing to do with it! make 3 meals (breakfest/lunch/dinner) approximately 200calories each and then each snack between 100 calorie each (6 snacks). Then from there work up to how many calories you need in the day.

This is all in my opinion of course, i've had success on it myself. goodluck though!

OP, whatever you do, be sure to do none of these things.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

OP, how long have you been static or gaining for?

Do you weigh all of your food?

How do you get the info on your calories burned and do you eat back all your calories?

What exercise do you perform?

Do you have any medical conditions that would make you retain water or weight or effect your BMR?

Have you been static/gaining during your TOM but losing in the rest of the month?

^All good questions

Francl27

Well lets see, from what i understand it varies on your height, 1200 may just be good for your height!

On another note, i don't think one should go under 1200 even after exercising. so eat 1200 calories and then if you exercised eat all those back. otherwise, if you've had 1400 calories and say worked out 400 calories off then only eat half back or so.

Glancing through your diary, are you drinking a lot of water? Because a lot of that can be flushed away with simply 8 cups of water a day (pure water or with mio or something, not pop)

Then watch your sodium (Helps hold water! means more lbs), watch your fats (they add calories too from what i understand) and i'd say watch your carbs but they seem to be pretty good.

Try eating less more often! I find it works great for me and keeps my body alert and working. essentually your looking at a handful of food every 2 hours or so in your day. Whether you are hungry or not has nothing to do with it! make 3 meals (breakfest/lunch/dinner) approximately 200calories each and then each snack between 100 calorie each (6 snacks). Then from there work up to how many calories you need in the day.

This is all in my opinion of course, i've had success on it myself. goodluck though!

OP, whatever you do, be sure to do none of these things.

Yeah, terrible advice.

kellyrichardson503

OP, how long have you been static or gaining for?

Do you weigh all of your food?

How do you get the info on your calories burned and do you eat back all your calories?

What exercise do you perform?

Do you have any medical conditions that would make you retain water or weight or effect your BMR?

Have you been static/gaining during your TOM but losing in the rest of the month?

right sometimes i weigh my food all depends what it is, but tbh if i'm having rice or chips say i would weigh so i know how much i'm having i try stick to 100g if i want more i do add it in.
the exercise i do is running/jogging for about 45 mins a time, walking with the double buggy, and buggy fitness which is like circuit training, i just type it into the mfp exercise so i'm going by that when it say's how many calories burned.
i don't think i drink enough water if i'm honest, when i try i cant stop weeing i don't think i have any reason to retain water but maybe i do just because i don't drink enough?
my sts happens a lot, or i gain and i can be really good and gain i'm just at the point now where its really getting to me, in the sense its making me feel depressed especially as people keep telling me i should cut my calories? i find it hard sometimes to keep within 1430, its so hard anyway let alone having kids lol i feel a sense of relief happiness when i lose, which is so slow or i gain then i just wanna cry i really do!!

i really appreciate your help x

kellyrichardson503

or people keep telling me i should just be happy with where i'm at!!!! but i'm not! ok iv'e had 5 kids i'm not expecting too look amazing or like out of a magazine! but i just wanna get back to about 10 st, i cant see why that's not acheievable? x

ScarletShopaholic

I think you look amazing and have done really well, sometimes we just plateau, it's like everything in life, at times things suck. But if you log everything everyday, eat your exercise calories - if not all at least half and drink more water you may see some results. Good luck

tamadrummer001

Make sure you weigh everything.
Drink water, drink water, drink water, drink water, drink water!!!!!!! And if I didn't mention it, drink water!!

I know it sounds crazy but if you want to eat more, you have to exercise more. As an example, I wear the bodymedia fit calorie/activity burn calculator thing on my arm all day every day! 24h a day except when in the shower. Yesterday I went to a family reunion and went out to eat with the fam, ate like crap for the entire day! Total caloric intake was like 3500kcal of JUNK but because I knew it was going to be a garbage day I was able to manage my caloric burn and my day was at 4400 cals burned.

Today is my rest day, I will still eat my normal 2200-2400 cals but I will not be exercising at all. We are going to go to the grocery store and since I am an RN and work nights, Ill be up all night at work so I will still burn 3400 or so calories but I have learned what my body needs to burn fat and put on muscle. I don't require huge portions of food to put on muscle but I have to have about 2200 average a day. I get weighed in at the doc each week on a fancy scale that measures body fat, lean muscle mass, total fat mass, and total water mass in the body and gives the proportions of each. In the begining 8 weeks ago I was not eating enough and I was actually adding fat and losing muscle and yes losing some weight but it wasn't going as well. In the past 2 weeks, I have flipped on its head and done really well. I have 2 appts left with this doctor and I will be done with getting weighed in.

Do yourself a favor, up your exercise, adjust your settings in MFP to reflect it, eat the way it tells you to eat and drink tons of water. Yeah you have to pee, but so what. You want to get rid of fat and the water aids in flushing out the fat, and actually pulls the retained water out of storage too since your body wont be holding water so much.

melaniecheeks

If you're at or near a healthy weight, then the last few pounds will be slow.

You've a lot of takeaway stuff in your diary - subway, KFC, McDonalds, Chinese etc. The sodium in those is really high, and will cause you to retain water.

The quick add calories - what are they? I use the notes section to record what it was if I ever use quick add.

The exercise burns seem a little high - MFP is just an estimate, it's not that accurate.

kellyrichardson503

thanks for all your replies yes sometimes some kind of fast food stuff, which is hard at times to not have when i don't have a lot of choice i'm gonna really try so hard to drink more this wk and see what happens! if i cant go by mfp in how many calories burned then what do i use? what is this arm thing? x

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

When you get to the last little bit you might find that you need to be more accurate with your calorie counts. That's about the time I stalled out. I did two things-- I took a maintenance break and I started using my food scale for everything. Also make sure you're using the most accurate database entries. The ones without an asterisk have been checked against the usda database. You can usually find those by adding "raw" to whatever you're typing into the search field. Example: "whole raw egg" instead of "egg." Make sure you enter your own recipes instead of using generics or other people's recipes from the database. Your lasagna is going to be a lot different than mine, for example.

That would be the first thing I'd do before you consider changing your calorie goal.

kellyrichardson503

thank you!!! i do try my best with trying to keep on top of the data base as such lol i scan most things and i try to make my own recipes again when have chilli or something...i just ordered myself a watch that counts cals and that stuff hopefully that might help with the adding in the cals lol thank you x

kellyrichardson503

oooh also the quick added calories are the one's where i roughly know how much, is in something but not enough time, to add it in lol x