Daily calorie goals?

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  • beautifulwarrior18
    beautifulwarrior18 Posts: 914 Member
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    Well, your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is 2461. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR or the rate at which you burn calories at complete rest-aka pretty much comatose) is 1587. You should always be above your BMR because obviously a body that moves and what not requires more energy than a body at complete rest. If you do workout 3-5 days a week (which is considered moderate) your calories burned would be 2461. That means 2461 should be your baseline for maintaining your weight. If you want to lose 1 lb a week, you shoul be eating 1961 and exercising 3-5x per week. If you want to lose 2 lbs per week you should eat at probably 1600 and increase your exercise.
  • GypsieFlower94
    GypsieFlower94 Posts: 71
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    Ok, thank you so much, I will definitely try it and hopefully I get results! :)
  • Captain_Wobbles
    Captain_Wobbles Posts: 240 Member
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    I feel as if this thread if for girls only but i can add to this discussion. I wasn't sure when i set up my account if my life is active or just semi active. I tend not to judge my activity level by the way the exercise estimates go as they seem horribly inaccurate. For example if i add my 8 hours of work apparently my job burns 2400 calories . I know that's impossible since my daily limit is set at 2330 and at times i eat well below that before coming home and i don't feel the slightest bit burned out. Most of the time its difficult even reaching that goal.Once I replaced the junk i used to stuff myself with, with fresh greens , complex carbs , and plenty of protiens and fiber, the full feeling sticks with me all day that i'm not usually hungry enough to reach a safer level of calories. *peanut butter has been my savior in these cases* I agree with everybody in this thread though, 1200 is pretty low if you are anything more than sedentary. Id eat closer to the recommended number just to maintain as much lean mass as possible.
  • jessie62993
    jessie62993 Posts: 27 Member
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    I feel as if this thread if for girls only but i can add to this discussion. I wasn't sure when i set up my account if my life is active or just semi active. I tend not to judge my activity level by the way the exercise estimates go as they seem horribly inaccurate. For example if i add my 8 hours of work apparently my job burns 2400 calories . I know that's impossible since my daily limit is set at 2330 and at times i eat well below that before coming home and i don't feel the slightest bit burned out. Most of the time its difficult even reaching that goal.Once I replaced the junk i used to stuff myself with, with fresh greens , complex carbs , and plenty of protiens and fiber, the full feeling sticks with me all day that i'm not usually hungry enough to reach a safer level of calories. *peanut butter has been my savior in these cases* I agree with everybody in this thread though, 1200 is pretty low if you are anything more than sedentary. Id eat closer to the recommended number just to maintain as much lean mass as possible.

    It's not just for girls - your feedback was helpful! I do feel pretty sedentary, though. I am college student and if I not purposefully going out to exercise the only time i am active is walking to the bus stop and then to class and back. It doesn't seem like that much to me. I do think I need to make some adjustments...I'm just not sure what to change it to.
  • DeterminedFee201426
    DeterminedFee201426 Posts: 859 Member
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    1850 calories-2290 perday
  • skittlesnhoney
    skittlesnhoney Posts: 651 Member
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    In the past, I have always told MFP that I needed to lose 2 lbs. a week and it always set me to 1200 calories. But since then I have learned some things. I now follow IIFYM and eat my TDEE - 20%. I'm aiming for .5 lb to a lb a week weight loss. I don't want to lose any more muscle mass and gain body fat like in the past at eating 1200 calories and high cardio.
  • Gaaya3
    Gaaya3 Posts: 13 Member
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    So I'm trying to lose 2lbs a week. MFP started me at 1300 and now it has me at 1240 calories on a lightly active lifestyle option. Now I was curious about TDEE and checked out this calculator: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

    According to this at female, 5'6, 188lb, 29 years old my BMR is 1752 calories and with 9 hours of sleep (had the day off), 20 min of intense activity, 20 min of moderate activity, 1 hour of light activity and 3 hours of standing/walking, my TDEE is 3351 calories! Even if I take out the 40 min spin class, I'm at 2826 TDEE.

    That seems so high and inaccurate because according to this calculator I could eat 2351 calories and still have a 1000 calorie deficit, which is significantly different from the 1200 average a week I've been maintaining. Any thoughts?

    Thanks!
  • frood
    frood Posts: 295 Member
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    So I'm trying to lose 2lbs a week. MFP started me at 1300 and now it has me at 1240 calories on a lightly active lifestyle option. Now I was curious about TDEE and checked out this calculator: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

    According to this at female, 5'6, 188lb, 29 years old my BMR is 1752 calories and with 9 hours of sleep (had the day off), 20 min of intense activity, 20 min of moderate activity, 1 hour of light activity and 3 hours of standing/walking, my TDEE is 3351 calories! Even if I take out the 40 min spin class, I'm at 2826 TDEE.

    That seems so high and inaccurate because according to this calculator I could eat 2351 calories and still have a 1000 calorie deficit, which is significantly different from the 1200 average a week I've been maintaining. Any thoughts?

    Thanks!
    The TDEE numbers seem right. Note that you should update your calories about every 5-10 lbs lost because if you play with those little dials you'll see they change with weight changes. I am your height and about your age (31) and my BMR at 154 is ~1450.

    You probably got the 1240 number from MFP because your BMR is ~1750 plus lightly active, so maybe expending ~2250 (ref: http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html with "lightly active), then subtract 1000 for a deficit to get 1250. But with that much standing and various exercise, you're definitely not lightly active.
  • scubasuenc
    scubasuenc Posts: 626 Member
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    I'm currently eating 1700 calories per day. I started on MFP with a 2lb per week loss at 1680 calories as sedentary. Per my doctor's recommendation I did not eat back my exercise calories. As I lost weight the base calorie number dropped. When I got down to 1240 I was starting to struggle. I was tired a lot and my muscles were not recovering as well from the exercise. I used the TDEE calculators and my actual weight loss to calculate my TDEE and it was between 2700 and 2800 calories. At 1200 calories I was eating less than 50% of what I needed. I increased my calories slowly to 1700, which is still a 2lb per week loss.

    I plan to stay at 1700 and let my deficit decrease as my TDEE drops. In theory I should be able to stay at 1700 all the way down to my goal weight. My estimated TDEE at goal is about 1900 calories. I monitor my actual TDEE (based on weight lost) and estimated TDEE regularly to see if I need to make any adjustments.

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