How active would you say i am? calories do i need?

Ulwaz

im 21, female, 5 foot 10 inches
53kg (underweight)

Using myfitnesspal its telling me to maintain my weight i need 2200 calories per day, Ive put my activity as active which is this description (Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman), im a nutritional support worker in a hospital, work 40 hours a week on my feet a lot, walking on and off the wards, pushing trolleys, so its a really active job

I also spend 30-60 minutes on my exercise bike per day, so when im burning the calories should i be eating them again since im trying to gain weight?
This is my food diary for today, is it enough? healthy? what else could i add/change?
Please look at my food diary

How much should i weigh? what UK size would i be?
So should i be eating more than 2200 calories if i want to gain some weight?

Any help/advice would be great?

healthybodyhealthylife

Hi there

I think MFP is underestimating your maintenance calories. I am 5"2.5 and weight 61kg and my maintenance calories are 2200 calories and I'm not as active as you! Try this calculator instead: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

uncharted01

if i'm not mistaken, if you set your activity level to active, you do not eat your exercise calories back.

if you wanted to log your exercises, you could either:
a) leave your level as active and zero out the calories
OR
b) don't set your activity level as active and log your exercises with the correct calories burned.

if you go with option b, you would eat back your exercise calories.

hope this helps!!! :flowerforyou:

Ulwaz

That wouldnt make any sense since your activity level is determined by what your job is, which is an active job and i do the cardio as extra when im at home? so i should be eating the calories back as far as im aware since my net calories if under 2000 is too low

Ulwaz

so how many calories should i be aiming for do you think?
thanks for your reply

MinnieInMaine

if i'm not mistaken, if you set your activity level to active, you do not eat your exercise calories back.

if you wanted to log your exercises, you could either:
a) leave your level as active and zero out the calories
OR
b) don't set your activity level as active and log your exercises with the correct calories burned.

if you go with option b, you would eat back your exercise calories.

hope this helps!!! :flowerforyou:

I respectfully disagree. In some cases this is true as some folks do include their exercise in their activity level and say they are active. However, since the OP's actual day-to-day IS active AND she's underweight, she should definitely eat back exercise calories.

According to the BMI (which I'm not crazy about but it's a starting point) a healthy weight range for your height would be 130-170.

ETA: For daily calories, I think you can trust what MFP gives you for daily goal. I checked a couple of online calculators and they come up with roughly the same number (around 2200) per day just including your work activities.

lrmall01

if i'm not mistaken, if you set your activity level to active, you do not eat your exercise calories back.

Can you explain where you are getting this from? I was under the impression that if you use MFP to set your calorie goal, it always expects you to log and eat back exercise calories.

This article mentions nothing about activity levels impacting exercise calories: http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

sijomial

if i'm not mistaken, if you set your activity level to active, you do not eat your exercise calories back.

if you wanted to log your exercises, you could either:
a) leave your level as active and zero out the calories
OR
b) don't set your activity level as active and log your exercises with the correct calories burned.

if you go with option b, you would eat back your exercise calories.

hope this helps!!! :flowerforyou:

Sorry but you are mistaken. Activity level setting is to estimate the calories burned in your job and general lifestyle. Exercise is on top of that when using the MFP method. Think you are confusing the TDEE +/- percentage method whereas the OP is following MFP settings.

So to answer the calorie question - MFP is calculating you need 2200 plus exercise calories just to maintain weight.

lrmall01

so how many calories should i be aiming for do you think?
thanks for your reply

Just do what MFP tells you to do. Trust it until you are confident it isn't working.

If you don't want to log exercise then you could use an alternative calculator that would include exercise activity but the MFP calculator is fine if you log and eat the calories back.

lrmall01

Hi there

I think MFP is underestimating your maintenance calories. I am 5"2.5 and weight 61kg and my maintenance calories are 2200 calories and I'm not as active as you! Try this calculator instead: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

Did you include exercise activity in the calculator you linked? The 2200 suggested for the OP excludes exercise.

I think you are comparing apples to oranges, unless you are saying you don't exercise and still need 2200 to maintain.

uncharted01

oops! sorry for my bad advice and thank you to those who corrected me! you learn something new everyday!

GingerLolita

You need to have a net calorie intake of over 2200 calories to gain weight. Net calories = calories eaten - calories burned by exercise. So yes, you need to eat all your exercise calories back.

Ulwaz

thanks for all the responses guys