Someone do the math for me?? Please???

JagerLewis
JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello MFP peeps, I'm looking for help. Could someone please give me the number of calories I need to lose weight? I'm convinced I'm doing it all wrong. I've been stuck at the same weight for one full month! And before that, I only lost a pound. I do workout about 5 days a week with my heart rate averaging around 165...Sometimes a bit lower, but not much. Some days I am not really all that active (besides taking time for exercise) then there are some days that I'm super busy. So don't know if this helps to figure out what I need calorie wise.

Here are my stats:
Height: 5' 2.78"
Weight 138 lbs
Goal weight: 125
Chest: 35.5"
Hips: 36.5"
Upper thigh: 21"
Upper arm: 11.5"
Smallest part of waist: 30"
Above belly button (chunky area): 32"
Body fat % (according to my scale....seems off) 38.4%
Muscle mass % (according to my scale..seems off as well) 29.6%
Water %: 44.5%
Last Friday I took 3 days to go well over my calories to try and make things work again, Monday I was back at my normal 1400. This took much courage to put all my stats out for all to see, I am just desperate to get the scale moving again in the right direction. My goal weight is not too low for me, I was this weight 2 1/2 years ago, any less, I look too thin. So I KNOW that my body can do it, it's just stuck in park! Thank you so much for any help!!

Replies

  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/


    Eat -20% of your TDEE
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/


    Eat -20% of your TDEE
    ^^^^ great calculator to use

    this post might also be helpful- covers where alot of beginners go wrong:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    ~best wishes
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    About 1340 plus exercise calories
    or
    About 1600-1700 every day, depending on what you calculate you burn thru exercise.
  • sathor
    sathor Posts: 202 Member
    Is that the weight watchers BF scale with the glass and .1 increments?

    If so:
    ....
    .....
    .....
    ....
    F$#$ that thing. It is always a few % higher than tape measure / Omron BF device.
  • gypsy_spirit
    gypsy_spirit Posts: 2,107 Member
    Read the "sexy pants" post above and start working on finding the numbers that work for you.

    The thing that stands out the most is your diary. You need a food scale and if something is not a liquid, you need to be weighing it.

    Entries like tuna salad 'one serving', one cup of sour kraut, hamburger/one patty, etc. are too vague. The thing that was holding me back was I was measuring everything. Once I got a food scale and started weighing, I was amazed at how OFF my calories were.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/


    Eat -20% of your TDEE

    at her height and weight, she doesn't want to be eating less than -10% of her TDEE..... -20% is for people with a significant amount of fat to lose. She's at the high end of the healthy BMI range and wants to be in the middle of the BMI range

    OP: you need to take the fat loss really slowly at this stage, i.e. what I just said above, and aim for very slow fat loss, and be patient. Also lift weights and eat plenty of protein as this helps to ensure it's just fat you're losing and not muscle. Also, those scales are not reliable for body fat percentage. With your weight, height and measurements your body fat percentage isn't going to be that high. Maybe try measuring it with calipers, or just monitor loss of inches.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    This content has been removed.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    You didn't say how long your workouts are so it's hard to determine your activity level. If they're 30 min workouts, that's lightly active but if they're 60 or more minutes, that could be more of a moderate level. If you do decide to go with the TDEE-% method, please use 10-15% rather than the 20% suggested above - that's more appropriate for the amount of weight you have left to lose.

    The BF % scales can be off by quite a bit so don't put too much behind that number. Try this and see what you get:
    http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bf/

    The weight is going to come off a lot slower as you get closer to goal and you may have to become more diligent about logging both food and exercise. Weigh and measure your food for accuracy and also check the listings you use against other calorie listings like the USDA's. For exercise calories, if you're going off what cardio machines or MFP gives you, these tend to be overestimates so only eat back half to 2/3rds of the calories earned. You may want to consider investing in a good HRM like ones by Polar or Garmin that have chest straps. They're not 100% accurate but give a much better # than other sources.

    Good luck!
  • JagerLewis
    JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
    Thank you all so much for your advice! I will weigh more things for sure now (this morning I had 50gm of mushrooms!). My foods like tuna salad and whatever else is "loosely" entered as 1 serving, are from my recipes, so it was already measured out. Maybe my issue is not weighing everything?? I measure high calorie foods, not so much things that are only 5 calories for 1/4 c because I never get that close to my daily goal to have 5-50 calories cause that much of a difference.
  • brosis85
    brosis85 Posts: 114 Member
    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/body-fat-chart.php

    Try this ... it is what I used to figure out my BMR (more accurately than MFP) and it worked to kick me off of a huge plateau.

    At first you will feel like you may be eating too much because you are not used to it, but it will work for sure! When I was eating only 1400 calories a day I hit that same plateau where I couldnt get any of my measurements to move! Increased it to 1600 and voila, I started to drop bodyfat, weight and inches!

    Cheers!!
  • JagerLewis
    JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/body-fat-chart.php

    Try this ... it is what I used to figure out my BMR (more accurately than MFP) and it worked to kick me off of a huge plateau.

    At first you will feel like you may be eating too much because you are not used to it, but it will work for sure! When I was eating only 1400 calories a day I hit that same plateau where I couldnt get any of my measurements to move! Increased it to 1600 and voila, I started to drop bodyfat, weight and inches!

    Cheers!!
    Thank you! Did you also change how you were eating? Sometimes I struggle getting all the protein I need... That site says my BF% is 25.91, a hell of a lot better than what my scale says!! :) I also never know what to enter in for activity level.....It varies day to day. For moderate activity it says 2,127.84. For light activity it says 1,887.6. My BMR is 1372.8. It's so hard for me to wrap my head around eating more calories to lose when my whole life I've heard eat less calories to lose.
  • Carmenbraun55
    Carmenbraun55 Posts: 50 Member
    If you are not sure about the math, because your activity level changes so much go and find the group "in place of a road map' they have an spread sheet that does all the math for you. I was able to get the scale and BF% going down again after I used it. Good luck :flowerforyou:
  • JagerLewis
    JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
    If you are not sure about the math, because your activity level changes so much go and find the group "in place of a road map' they have an spread sheet that does all the math for you. I was able to get the scale and BF% going down again after I used it. Good luck :flowerforyou:
    Thank you! Though, I can't find the group! :blushing:

Categories