calorie counting yikes

Bagginsess

Hi. Im 20 and I weigh 180lbs standing at 5'7.(female)
I work at a daycare so I'm on my feet most of the day chasing kids and I walk every night for about 30 min
That's about as much exercise as I get in
I want to get down to about 150 but what gets me is the eating enough calories to lose the weight
My mfp says to eat 1520 calories a day to reach my goal but on an app that came with my phone it says to eat like 2260 calories to reach my goal
So my question is which is better to follow

TheFrugalFatass

I am 5'6" and 219 lbs. I have about the same activity level as you. I've been doing MFP for five weeks and have lost nine pounds, so that's a pretty good clip of about two pounds per week. My MFP calorie level is 1860. I usually eat very close to that, and I often "eat back" part or all of my exercise calories. You weigh 50 lbs less than I do, so your calorie needs will be smaller. I bet you would lose on 1800 calories per day. I'd try that for a few weeks and see if it works.

Also - you're about 30 years younger than me, so you will probably lose weight easier/faster.

KatieKansan

I count calories as well.. I am on 29, 5'10 and 173 Lbs currently. I am eating 1320 calories a day to get to my goal. I have been losing two pounds a week since and am currently down 34 pounds. Depending on how many calories you burn from excising varies your calorie intake for the day. Use the app ( and I use the Lose It app too) It helps a ton with keeping track of the calories you eat and burn. If you are wanting to get down to 150 your calorie intake for the day would most likely be 1520 calories a day. Hope this helps you!

caracrawford1

It seems you have a fairly active job-- but I wouldn't set it to anymore than lightly to moderately active. I am a teacher, and have worked in a head start before and probably wouldn't set it to "active". I work out for an hour a day plus another 3-5 miles in addition EVERY DAY (walking dogs) and, though I weigh less than you, I eat at 1500 to lose on the order of 2lbs per week. Outside of work, you are getting in 30 mins of exercise a day--correct? No more than that? 2260 seems high, esp since, outside of work, you are getting less than an hour of exercise a day. It boils down to how fast you would like to lose (1-2 lbs a week is ideal) and what your goal weight is. I found a really neat online calculator that works out how many cals you should eat in a day based on anywhere from a 10% deficit to a more aggressive 40 percent deficit. It calculates day by day and decreases cals as your weight reaches different levels. You can even approximate how long it will take you to get there:
http://www.calculatorlab.com/HowDoIMeetMyWeightLossGoal/
Lmk what you think.

pander101

That seems really high. I'm 5'7" and started out at 214lbs. I'm down to about 195lbs now. MFP had me at 1350 for 2lbs for a sedentary lifestyle and working out 3x a week. I use an outside site to calculate my TDEE and still don't have something that high even for working out 5x a week. I would go with the lower one. If you're having trouble with that try starting out with a weight loss goal of maybe 1/2lb to 1lb a week and go from there.

999tigger

Agree with the others the 2260 seems too high as the natural calorie count for a female is 2000 calories a day and you arent doing masses of exercise. I'd check you are using the app correctly to get a reading like that.