What's your target calories for the day?

jah732

According to MFP, my goal is 1310 because i am a short (5"0") middle aged (50) women and need really to maintain, or lose just a little (110lbs).

I put my activity level to sedentary as a base level because i have a desk job, although for the past few months I have been standing at my office desk (soon I will get a real standing desk instead of propping my computer up on boxes). I always stand when I am working with the students/public (anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours per day). I do not actively exercise beyond the fact I tend to walk a lot and take stairs.

Then I would add in daily activities like walking, gardening, cleaning, cooking, etc. But I think that adds too much calorie allowance because my pedometer is going to count steps I take even when I am just gardening or cooking. I cannot figure out how to separate out the steps I deliberately take versus those I take due to normal daily activities.

So now I am thinking I should put myself in as lightly active and not log the daily activities.

A typical weekday goes like this:
5:50am Get up, feed the cats, go downstairs to clean litter boxes, go back to kitchen to clean up a little, then make the bed.
6:05am Shower, spend about 20 minutes petting and brushing cats (while naked in the bathroom), get dressed.
6:40am Wash dishes, eat breakfast, brush my teeth and play with cats.
7:00am Out the door (except lately because my spouse had knee surgery and needs a ride to work & he is not ready until about 7:30am) & drive to work (about 20 minutes) then park & walk across campus (about 10 minutes), take stairs to 4th floor.
7:45am Standing at my desk reading emails or catching up with news.
I spend the rest of the day either standing at my desk working and occasionally walking around to get things, deliver items, talk to others, etc, although some days I get stuck in meetings and have to sit a while.
5:00pm Walk back across campus & drive home
5:30pm Arrive home, feed cats, clean litter boxes, make dinner
6:30pm Call my mother (while still preparing dinner)
6:45pm Eat dinner
7:10 pm Clean up, wash dishes
rest of night until bedtime at 10pm either do grocery shopping, clean the house, work on home computer (again standing), do light gardening, or otherwise do household chores. I do NOT watch TV (have not done so in about 3 years although if there are sports on I might glance over occasionally to see scores). I spend a few minutes just before bedtime during puzzles.

Weekends are similar except instead of working at a computer, I am gardening, shopping, doing big meal cooking (I only do roasts or lasagna on weekends), doing batch cooking (I make my steel cut oats every Sunday to eat throughout the week) and doing thorough house cleaning. I don't exercise but I am rarely seated or not moving.

So maybe I should consider myself lightly active even though I don't deliberately exercise. Not sure

Bukawww

Currently, 1500. I wear a BodyMedia band that tells me I burn between 2500 and 3000 calories per day.

darrensurrey

1730-3000 depending on exercise, but usually somewhere more manageably in between.

Love it when women post they are eating up to 3000. Not because I'm a feeder. I mean it's great to see that not everyone is trying to avoid food!

Haha, you should see what I eat when I'm marathon training! I think my record for a long run day was 3650 and I was still under my target.

Excellent. I know a guy who maintains at 4000 cals. He's entering strongman comps! He tries to eat 5000 a day!

darrensurrey

1730-3000 depending on exercise, but usually somewhere more manageably in between.

Love it when women post they are eating up to 3000. Not because I'm a feeder. I mean it's great to see that not everyone is trying to avoid food!

YES!!!! I'm "getting" there slowly but surely. Finding my passion for running and "boot camp" style workouts will only bump up my fuel needs as I increase my strength and endurance. Strong and fit members who feed themselves well with great results are so inspiring, aren't they?

Yep!

darrensurrey

So maybe I should consider myself lightly active even though I don't deliberately exercise. Not sure

I say try it for a few months and see how you get on!

KylaDenay

1700

StaciMarie1974

1400-1600 generally. I'm female, 39 years old, 5' 5.5" and now 146.0. Steadily losing about 1 pound a week on average when you look at the month as a whole. I know its going to slow down. Trying to figure out my real goal. Started around 178 a little over 5 months ago. (wow!) Thinking 130-135?

graytausn1

Just dropped to 2000 (cutting on 500 deficit)

200g Protein
200g Carbs
44g Fat

I workout M,T,T,F (Upper/Lower split) and don't eat my calories back (sometimes I do). However, on Friday after my workout I have a cheat meal that I don't really track just to help my metabolism and re-feed but I don't go crazy on it, if that makes any sense lol.

levitateme

Usually 1970, but I am okay with anything from there to 2900

dekuja

BMR: 2081
TDEE Sedentary: 2497
MFP Target Calorie Recommendation: 2100

Male, 5'9" 243.8 pounds with a goal one 1lb loss a week.
Current Progress: 5.5 weeks and 4.1 pounds lost.

Sedentary is debatable. I averaged thus far 8502 steps a day which is roughly 500 extra calories burned according to FitBit. Then again, most of these steps are gain at work, with only some in exercise.

Not sure if I'm doing it right, but I'm just working on sticking to my calorie target.

47Jacqueline

When I was losing weight: 1450c
At maintenance - 1800
Plus I eat a lot of my exercise calories back.

I'd like to eat more in maintenance, but I want to lose another three pounds and some body fat, so that will have to wait.

spara0038

1400, but weekends I'll get up to 1800 or sometimes even 2300 as long as I exercise first :-) I found 1200 calories wasn't enough to prevent me from feeling light-headed or enough for me to get enough protein I needed