Help! How many calories should I eat?

rebeccastacey91

Hi all,

Ok, I am a 23 year old female, 5'4 or 164cm, 138lb or 63kg and I train 45 minutes of moderate cardio 3 times a week and I also do 1hr-1.5hrs weight training 3 times a week.

Now the problem I am having is that I'm not sure how many calories I should eat. I cut back to 1200 for about two weeks then did some research, realized it was bad and increased it. At the moment I'm all over the place.

I want to shred fat, as much as I can and not at a snails pace. How many calories should I be eating to do this and should I eat back all calories burnt. If I do eat back calories burnt, how do I know how many calories I'm burning during weights training?

Thanks guys! Xx

rebeccastacey91

Bump

Smatchimo

So according to the stats you've posted for yourself, your BMR is 1448 calories. That's what you would burn if you just stayed in bed all day and did nothing. Whatever it is you do that increases your heart rate will also increase that calorie burn. It may be a little, it may be a lot. It really just depends on what the activity is. Do you wear a heart rate monitor while you work out? Those generally will give you a pretty good estimate of what you're burning when you exercise. I find the estimates MFP spits out are pretty far off a lot of the time. Also, to get a baseline you could wear a monitor for 24 hours on a normal day and that should tell you pretty accurately what you burn on average. Not all heart rate monitors are created equal. I use a Polar FT7, and I find it pretty reliable.

As a rule of thumb, 3500 kcal is a pound, so if you have a deficit of 500 calories a day, you should lose about a pound a week. This is, by no means, a hard and fast fact, but if you let it play out in the long term your average will be about that.

It also tends to be easier to hold on to muscle and target fat if you aim to lose weight a little more slowly. You could go for a 1000 cal a day deficit and lose 2 pounds a week, but at your weight you'd likely end up losing a good deal of those pounds in muscle, and you'd probably be in a pretty sketchy low calorie zone.

What are your goals? I'd suggest aiming for a 1 pound a week loss or so (500 calorie a day deficit). But, I think everyone knows themselves best and setting your own goals is the ultimately the way to go.

Hope this helped a little.

rebeccastacey91

So according to the stats you've posted for yourself, your BMR is 1448 calories. That's what you would burn if you just stayed in bed all day and did nothing. Whatever it is you do that increases your heart rate will also increase that calorie burn. It may be a little, it may be a lot. It really just depends on what the activity is. Do you wear a heart rate monitor while you work out? Those generally will give you a pretty good estimate of what you're burning when you exercise. I find the estimates MFP spits out are pretty far off a lot of the time. Also, to get a baseline you could wear a monitor for 24 hours on a normal day and that should tell you pretty accurately what you burn on average. Not all heart rate monitors are created equal. I use a Polar FT7, and I find it pretty reliable.

As a rule of thumb, 3500 kcal is a pound, so if you have a deficit of 500 calories a day, you should lose about a pound a week. This is, by no means, a hard and fast fact, but if you let it play out in the long term your average will be about that.

It also tends to be easier to hold on to muscle and target fat if you aim to lose weight a little more slowly. You could go for a 1000 cal a day deficit and lose 2 pounds a week, but at your weight you'd likely end up losing a good deal of those pounds in muscle, and you'd probably be in a pretty sketchy low calorie zone.

What are your goals? I'd suggest aiming for a 1 pound a week loss or so (500 calorie a day deficit). But, I think everyone knows themselves best and setting your own goals is the ultimately the way to go.

Hope this helped a little.

I think I'm going to have to invest in a Fitbit or something.

So on average (very rough average) a women's daily intake is around 2000 cal, I consider myself moderately active if not a little more and am now trying to eat around 1500-1600 cals a day after training. Now I'm happy with that amount of food but would that be way under or too much considering I burn just under 400 cals doing cardio (according to MFP).

I'm aiming to shred fat before beginning resistance training to put on some muscle.

Smatchimo

A fitbit won't actually track your heart rate, so it really only gives you information if you're on the move (ie. not of much use if you're lifting weights or something like that). Even then, a heart rate monitor will give you much more accurate calorie burns, because it tracks your actual exertion levels, not just estimates based on distance, speed and steps. It's kind of a gradient though, a heart rate monitor is by no means exact, but is more accurate than a fitbit.

For me, I usually just shoot for eating around my BMR and don't "eat back" my workout calories. If you eat about 1600 calories a day, and do some strenuous exercise 4-6 days a week, you're probably on a good track. I think the best route is generally to set a baseline (1600 calories a day for example) and stick with it for a few weeks. See what happens and adjust accordingly. Also, early on trust the tape (or the mirror or just how you feel) over the scale, especially if you are adding weights into the mix. I saw nothing change on the scale for about 2 weeks, then a pound every couple days came off, then nothing, etc. My body is constantly changing for the better in ways the scale can't measure, however. Weight loss is weird like that.

Speaking of weights, use them, and lift hard and lift heavy. You won't get bulky (unless you put a LOT of time and effort into it), especially if you're eating at a deficit. It's pretty much impossible if you're not taking on extra calories. It will, however, help you get in the shape you want to get in, and it will help you to maintain the muscle you have while losing fat. Something to read: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi12.htm and http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi13.htm (The model in those articles is very lean and has a little size as well. As with bulking in general, that doesn't happen by accident. If that's not the look you're going for, you won't just end up looking like that through lifting)

As a disclaimer, I'm no expert. I'm just a dude trying to get in shape ; ). I tend to err on the side of nerd in most things in my life, so I read everything I can get my hands on about anything that interests me. I think I've read most of the weight loss/fitness internet at this point. I've never been a 23 year old woman working out, so I can't claim any sort of expertise with regard to your situation. Take my thoughts for what they are worth, and maybe someone with a little more experience a little closer to your situation will chime in.

LKArgh

I am a little taller than you, about the same weihgt and also have similar exercise routines (but about half the strength training) and similar goals. I aim at about 1500 calories. Considering you are also younger than me and do more strength training, I would expect you to need at least around 1600 calories, if not more, to have a reasonable fat loss. Give yourself some time, if you just starve, you will see the scales moving fast, but it will not be fat you will lose.