5'5" women - how many calories are you eating?

berry987

I've read all the posts about estimating your calories and used the calculators and all that, but I'm still a little unsure. I am a lifetime dieter (was overweight at age 10 and have pretty much restricting since then…I'm now 38) and I've done super low cal (800 calories a day) up to recently trying a high calorie diet with a lot of kettle bell exercises on a daily basis (2600 calories). And many calories in between. Based on my calculations, it looks like I should eat between 1400-1600 calories a day (I'm a light/moderate exerciser - I hike regularly but strength training is sporadic). I'm just curious how many calories other women, who are about 5'4" or 5'5", are eating?

alyssamaryw

Hello,

I'm 5' 5" and if you want I can friend you so you can see my diary.

shadow2soul

Before pregnancy 1500 on a lazy day and 2000+ on my more active days. From last year:


I'm 6 weeks postpartum currently and eating about 1500-2000 (at least thats what I've been eating since I started tracking again).

One2Run

My maintenance is1600 and deficit is1350. This is with 4x a week training for a half marathon, and regular noontime walks.

My BMR Is reaaaally low.

katieai

I think it sort of depends on your starting and goal weight.

I am 5'4 1/2" and have 40 more pounds to lose. I am doing 1200 calories per day and am exercising 5 days per week. I am also like you where I have been overweight (not drastically but sometimes significantly) since childhood. Feel free to add me if you'd like!

SW: 200
CW: 189.6
GW: 150

curlygirl513

I started at 242, asked to lose 2 pounds a week. I'm sedentary. I get 1200 calories and the weight is falling off in the first 2 weeks. I'm down like 10 pounds, no exercise. I did go vegan and whole foods and cut out sugar.

BombshellPhoenix

I'm 5'3.5 " and started at 170 lbs after my 6 week postpartum check up. Ate 1650 net for the majority of my weight loss. So, most days were closer to 1900. Took me 9 months to lose 53 lbs.

I ate ice cream virtually every night and focused on hitting my macros and micros for health

lcangelini

I'm 5'4" and have also been overweight for as long as I can remember. I'm currently eating 1200 - 1300 calories a day and exercising 6 days a week. Alternating between cardio and strength training and yoga/pilates. My BMR is also really low because apparently with a 1000cal deficit i'm only losing a little over a pound a week lol

chargraves

5'5". I lost most of my weight eating btw 1650 - 1900 net with a starting weight of 319. I am around 180ish now and MFP just reset me to 1500/ day for lightly active 1lb per week loss. For exercise Jazzercise 4 -5 days a week and at least hour of walking 6 - 7 days a week ususally broken up into 20 - 30 minute segments throughout the day.

I am going to give it a couple of weeks and if 1500 is too rough I can live with .5 a week with a higher daily total. The way I see it, I will always have to do the same things I am doing now to maintain my loss so what does it matter if it take me a little longer to get to a goal weight.

TechNerd42

I'm 5'5", and I started at 1800 or so calories. Right now my net goal is 1320. With activity (Fitbit) my goal today is actually around 1550. My profile/diary should be open if you wanna see.

I may actually stop before my goal weight, depending on how things look and how I feel the closer I get. I set the goal low intentionally. I will probably not adjust my calories again until Maintenance, although, again, that depends on how things go. It is lower than maintenance for my current goal weight, so I figure it will get me where I need to be. (And if I look and feel great at 150, then I don't have to worry about that last 10-15 pounds that takes forever to come off, because I won't actually want to lose it. )

MKEgal

it looks like I should eat between 1400-1600 calories a day (I'm a light/moderate exerciser - I hike regularly but strength training is sporadic). I'm just curious how many calories other women, who are about 5'4" or 5'5", are eating?

There are 2 simple ways to decide what you should be eating.

1 - take your current weight, multiply by 10, and subtract 500-1000 per day to lose 1-2 lb per week.
If you have a lot of weight to lose, this is a good way to start. (This is what my doctor & dietician told me to do.)
As you lose weight, drop the calories. Don't go below 1200 unless you're monitored by a doctor.

2 - take your goal weight & multiply by 10.
According to this BMI chart: http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf at 5'5" you should be between 115 & 145 lb.
For now, aim for the top end of that, so 1450 cal per day. That will bring you to 145 lb.
When you get there, see how you feel & if you want to tweak it a bit lower, do it.
Don't go below 1200 unless you're monitored by a doctor.

My doctor told me to treat exercise as a bonus toward weight loss. Do not add it in to what you normally eat.
If you're really hungry at the end of the day, have 1/3 to 1/2 of what you burned off that day beyond your normal goal.

MKEgal

I'm 5'4" ... currently eating 1200 - 1300 calories a day and exercising 6 days a week. Alternating between cardio and strength training and yoga/pilates... with a 1000 cal deficit i'm only losing a little over a pound a week

Maybe you're not eating enough.
At 5'4" you should be between 110 - 140 (up to 1400 calories).
Since you're exercising a lot, try hitting 1400 for a couple weeks and see if that helps.
Or be sure you're weighing / measuring everything.

shadow2soul

Before pregnancy 1500 on a lazy day and 2000+ on my more active days. From last year:


I'm 6 weeks postpartum currently and eating about 1500-2000 (at least thats what I've been eating since I started tracking again).

I forgot to add that I'm 5'4". I should probably also add that my lazy days a literally less than 3000 steps (sometimes not even 2000 steps). From my chart, you can see where I went from around 184lbs down to about 169lbs. My start weight is actually much higher, but this time frame is where I weighed in the most and makes for the best graph. There are lots of little fluctuations, but as you can see the overall trend was down. My workouts consisted of both strength training (more muscle = more you can eat) and cardio. During the time frame on the chart, I was even walking to and from the store for groceries (almost 2 miles away) while pushing my oldest in his stroller.

My progress thread from back then:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1100730-191-days-of-mfp-47-8lbs-lost-35-2lbs-to-go?hl=191+days#posts-16987716

LosingItInDenver

I'm doing about 1600 a day, but thinking that I might reduce that by 100-150 to see if I have better results.