How much should I be eating per day? Confused!

kaygbean

I'm getting really tired of using all these online calculators to try and figure this out because every calculator I try gives me different numbers and I keep reading different things, so my brain is just confused

I'm basically just wondering how much calories I should eat per day, specifically what I should eat on work out days and then what I should eat on rest days.

My stats are: 5'4, 21 years old, and currently 140 pounds. I'm looking to lose around 10 more pounds or so.

When I work out I usually run (anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes) or I use the elliptical from 45-60 minutes. I typically workout 5 days a week. The rest of the time I'm not working out I'm at school, work, sitting in class, studying, etc etc. Which is what my rest day consists of.

Can someone pleaseee tell me how much I should be eating on those days? I'm not sure if I should go off my BMR and add exercise or use my maintenance and subtract the 500, but then my maintenance is different on different sites so I'm just all around confused.

I'd appreciate the help

moveyourself

I just feel it out, honestly.
I have a difficult time going by a set number, because my appetite fluctuates everyday.
all I know is that I can't go above 1200.. I get so full even if I eat 1000. I guess I just have
a small stomach.
some days I eat 800, other times (like if I am really hungry all day) 1100.. once in a blue moon, above that.
It's always changing for me.

I guess I would suggest going with how you feel.
I'm not an expert, but I just feel like those BMR calculators can be crap. It doesn't work for everyone.

Cindyinpg

I'm getting really tired of using all these online calculators to try and figure this out because every calculator I try gives me different numbers and I keep reading different things, so my brain is just confused

I'm basically just wondering how much calories I should eat per day, specifically what I should eat on work out days and then what I should eat on rest days.

My stats are: 5'4, 21 years old, and currently 140 pounds. I'm looking to lose around 10 more pounds or so.

When I work out I usually run (anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes) or I use the elliptical from 45-60 minutes. I typically workout 5 days a week. The rest of the time I'm not working out I'm at school, work, sitting in class, studying, etc etc. Which is what my rest day consists of.

Can someone pleaseee tell me how much I should be eating on those days? I'm not sure if I should go off my BMR and add exercise or use my maintenance and subtract the 500, but then my maintenance is different on different sites so I'm just all around confused.

I'd appreciate the help

Have you tried just using the MFP numbers? Set your goals for .5lb a week and eat back your exercise calories.

Mama530

Make one healthier choice regularly. If that doesn't get you to your goal, make an additional regular choice. If that doesn't provide desired results, keep making new choices until your desired lifestyle matches your desired results.

kaygbean

I'm just not really sure what to set my activity level at...

wwritza

There are two option to find our how many calories you burn / day including your workouts. If you multiply your weight in pounds by 12 that should give you a pretty good idea of how many calories your body uses in one day to maintain itself with light activity. It's not your BMR (basal metabolic rate), BMR only calculates how many calories your body is using to maintain itself if you just lay in bed all day long. Then take what you have calculated and add the amount of calories you burn during your workouts (you can use fitness pal to write down how much of what kind of exercise you did and it should give you a pretty good idea of how many calories you have burned or if you are using some kind of machine, eliptical for example, it should show you the calories there too). And that should help you figure out how many calories your body burnt in one day.
The second and maybe faster option would be to go online ( i know you said you are tired of that but this one works) and calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) it calculates about how many calories you burn / day including workouts. There are 4 different formulas you can chose from so you will find that with different formulas there are going to be slight differences in the numbers you get. The idea is though that it is not a precise science and no one can tell you an exact number to the point and you don't even need to know that in order to find out how many calories to eat every day in order to lose weight.

What I would do, I would calculate my weight times 12 ( yours would be 140 X 12 = 1680) and that would be the max. number of calories you should eat / day in order to maintain your current weight. Then I would eat anywhere under that number to lose weight. You don't even really need to bother adding your exercise to the problem unless of course you want to eat more than that.
The first advice "moveyourself" give you here it's totally not a good one because if you eat under 1200 calories / day for 3 consecutive days your body goes into starvation mode meaning your metabolism will slow down so your body will burn as little fat as possible, besides that your body will actually start eating your muscle mass instead of the fat so you will still see some weight loss (not that much though) but your fat % will not go down. The first sign that tells you your body is in starvation mode is you don't feel hungry anymore (like the girl above who is in that state) You have to stay under 1680 cal. but over 1200 in order to experience a fast, healthy and efficient weight loss.
Consider this:
a 500 cal deficit / day means 1 pound lost / week
a 750 cal deficit / day means 1.5 pounds lost / week and
a 1000 calorie deficit / day means 2 pounds lost / week so if for example you eat 1200 cal / day (your minimum) and you don't exercise that day it means you have a 480 cal deficit (1680-1200=480) that day so if all days in a week were like that you would lose approximately 1 pound that week. If you burn 500 cal with your exercises that would be a deficit of about 1000 cal/ day (1680 plus your workout 500 = 2180 calories burned that day minus 1200 calorie intake = 980 calorie deficit)so you would lose about 2 pounds that week.

Let me know what you think or if you have any other questions.
Good luck!

albertine58

I'm a student too- here's the way I see it (and it's been echoed 10000x on the forums)
Set your MFP "activity level" to what your normal life is WITHOUT exercise. I I sit in class all day and study a lot, so I put sedentary. Then, I track my exercise separately. I have my goal cals set to 1400 without exercise. Then you can eat back your exercise calories if you choose to- but be careful not to overestimate your calorie burns, if you're going to eat them back. Many workout machines etc. will say you burn more than you do! I'd suggest that you either don't eat them ALL back, or subtract 20% from what you track...but advice varies on this. I use a FitBit which is obviously not precise either, nothing is, but I've been using it for long enough and comparing it to other things that I more or less "trust" the calorie burn estimates it gives me.

If you set your activity level to "very active", it's going to build in eating those calories from your workouts back. Then if you track exercise on top of it, it's like double-tracking- and double-eating, if you eat them back! not good. best of luck to you! Because you don't have a lot to lose (you're already a healthy weight), I would set your goal to 1 lb a week, maybe 1.5 at the most. It'll probably give you close to 1400 as a goal, like I have.