Adjusting calories

mzbek24
mzbek24 Posts: 436 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm struggling to work out how many calories I should eat. It's at 1200 by default. I am losing on that. However, the general consensus of all my reading in the past couple of weeks is that this is not really enough for my body, health wise. I want to make sure I'm eating enough to be healthy, and still lose weight.

I'm 5',9" and weigh 74.9kg with about 33% body fat.
My BMR on IIFYM is 1454

TDEE is 1999. I put in 3 days a week exercise.
I chose 20% of TDEE, and my total calories came up as 1599. When I put in sedentary it is 1396.

The problem is, I don't know if I fit in entirely sedentary, or 3 times per week.
Previously I was sedentary. Lately in the past 5 weeks, yes I do work out 3 times a week. I only burn about 300-500 at a time, I'd average say 300.
Should I just put it as sedentary, or eat between the two? Or I thought maybe I should just try and kick myself up the bum and make sure I definitely do do 3 times a week.

Replies

  • KariOrtiz2014
    KariOrtiz2014 Posts: 343 Member
    make sure I definitely do do 3 times a week.

    LMAO "do do" :laugh:

    Anyway BUMP because I'm also at a lost with my caloric intake calculations.
  • mzbek24
    mzbek24 Posts: 436 Member
    make sure I definitely do do 3 times a week.

    LMAO "do do" :laugh:

    Anyway BUMP because I'm also at a lost with my caloric intake calculations.

    :embarassed: lol
  • KariOrtiz2014
    KariOrtiz2014 Posts: 343 Member
    :flowerforyou:
  • rbiss
    rbiss Posts: 422 Member
    If you have a desk job, put in sedentary, regardless of working out. If you enter all your stats into MFP it will calculate your caloric requirements - your target weight loss per week. If you want to loose 2 lbs a week, you need to eat at a 1000 calories deficit (1000 X 7 = 7000 = 2 lbs of weight loss). When you exercise and log it, MFP will add back in calories. You need about 1200 give or take NET to maintain metabolism.

    I would enter your stats into the program, log everything accurately, and wear a heart rate monitor for working out. Then you can add the actual calories you burn into the site. It works, just trust the program.
  • mzbek24
    mzbek24 Posts: 436 Member
    I'm feeling paranoid that I'll be doing damage if I don't at least eat my BMR.. like should I eat at sedentary but above my BMR and under TDEE every day, but then on exercise days eat back some of the calories?
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I'm struggling to work out how many calories I should eat. It's at 1200 by default. I am losing on that. However, the general consensus of all my reading in the past couple of weeks is that this is not really enough for my body, health wise. I want to make sure I'm eating enough to be healthy, and still lose weight.

    I'm 5',9" and weigh 74.9kg with about 33% body fat.
    My BMR on IIFYM is 1454

    TDEE is 1999. I put in 3 days a week exercise.
    I chose 20% of TDEE, and my total calories came up as 1599. When I put in sedentary it is 1396.

    The problem is, I don't know if I fit in entirely sedentary, or 3 times per week.
    Previously I was sedentary. Lately in the past 5 weeks, yes I do work out 3 times a week. I only burn about 300-500 at a time, I'd average say 300.
    Should I just put it as sedentary, or eat between the two? Or I thought maybe I should just try and kick myself up the bum and make sure I definitely do do 3 times a week.
    It's trial and error.

    Even though I work a desk job, sedentary and lightly active were too low for me because I lost weight faster than I had set my goals for. I work out 5-6 days a week at the gym, so I put my activity level to active and eat my exercise calorie back. I have successfully lost weight and have managed to pretty much maintain.

    You just have to try what works for you.

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