5' 6" ladies -- how many calories?

Blueyz82

I'm 5'6" and sit at my desk a lot at work...My calorie goal is 1330 a day, but that is including 4X/wk minimum workouts of 45 minutes. I have been following it and have lost 14 lbs so far, so I guess I'm doing ok. I also don't eat after 9pm, if I do it's a few pickles (0 calories). Feel free to add me if you'd like! I have 71 lbs to go... Good luck to you!

Maude_Lewbowski

Desk Job 1275 cals have only lost 7lbs since January and holding. I excersise 3-5 times a week and do not eat back my excercise calories. Not sure what else to do.

phresh21

I started out at 236 and was eating like 1400ish calories and only loosing 1 lb a week while working out. I upped it to 1650 and do the same workout and still loose 1-2 lbs a week. The more I eat the better I loose.

jendavis07

I weigh 194 and I try and stay around 1500 calories for the day. I work out 3-4 times a week doing about an hour of cardio(500 calories) then I do strength training. Remember, you don't want to eat too much or too less.. Good luck!

HotCuppaJo

I am 5'6 and am allotted 1200 calories. I've lost 28 pounds since January 16th when I started. I exercise 5-7 days a week...(try to do something EVERY day...but can't always find the time being a single mama. ) When I workout, I usually gain back 300 or so calories, but I very seldom eat them all back. I try really hard to stay under the 1200 calorie mark and it seems to be working for me!

gemiwing

Desk Job 1275 cals have only lost 7lbs since January and holding. I excersise 3-5 times a week and do not eat back my excercise calories. Not sure what else to do.

Your story sounds like SO many of our group's members- maybe you'd like to check out the group? Super nice people there too!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less

SimplyShanRunning

My cals are set to 1650

Im lifting tho and I usually attempt to eat back all of my exercise cals if I don't Im famished

Im still trying to lose tho at this point inches is where I am seeing results .....and the change in my body. To me honestly I don't care about the number that scale gives me just that Im healthy, in shape, and happy when I look in the mirror, and every day that goes by I am getting closer to accomplishing that

chevy88grl

This whole topic is just so confusing, i keep going back and forth changing my calorie goals as in 4 weeks I've only lost 1lb (all in the 1st week). For now I'm sticking with 1,300 per day and if exercise cals take me down below 1,200 nett, i will eat some of those back as really that's the lowest the body needs to function from what I have read. I'm 130lb and hoping to get down to 115lb. Feel free to add me

I total agree with you. I keep changing mine as well cause one person says to do this another says to do that....so frustrating! :-(

Everyone is different. Yes, we all have the same parts on the inside, but things work differently for different people. What works for me - may or may not work for you. The key to success in this journey is to not be afraid to step out of the normal and see what works for YOU. If what you're doing isn't working, then do research... read articles, use calculators to get an idea of your BMR and your TDEE. Don't be afraid to try new things - even if everyone else says "That won't work!". Just because it didn't work for them, doesn't mean it won't work for you!


I'm shorter than you ladies are - I'm only 5'4". I've learned that I can easily lose weight on 2100-2200 net calories a day. I can easily maintain in the 2300-2500 net range. I know that anything under 2000 isn't enough and I won't lose any weight - and strange enough will start to see a small gain if I try and be under 2000 for an extended period of time. I've learned all this by trial and error, figuring out my BMR and TDEE and taking all my activity into account.

Some people have success eating back their exercise calories (I am one of these people) and some people don't. If you aren't eating them back and aren't losing, try eating the majority of them back for one month. If you are eating them back and not losing, try only eating 1/2 of them back. And for heaven's sake, when you switch things up? Give it TIME! Your body needs between 3 weeks to a month to adjust to what you're doing.

I see people (women especially) who aren't losing and assume they need to drop their calories to lose.. before you do that, do some research. You may find that you actually need to UP your calories vs lower them!

runfrommygenes

I'm 162 pounds... Right now I was working on maintaining while i recover from surgery...
So I set my cals at 1840 (sedentary maint for my weight)
I am losing eating that..
Little workouts in the last week...
Crazy, I typically eat about 2100 while burning about 800 a day... and was not losing...
Maybe I really was eating tooooo little... Hmmm...

donna_glasgow

Im 5'6 CW 169 lbs and I am trying to lose 22lbs.

I was living on 850-950 a day I was losing weight on this, also active, healthy and full of life

however I was reading up on "healthy eating" and realised I wouldn't be doing my body any good long term eating so low, I have struggled for a long time to eat more than 1000 cals a day, I have just raised my intake to 1200 a day (by eating nuts seeds and dried fruit) so Im awaiting the results .... however I have also upped my exercise so that the 3-400 cals dont go straight to my waistline lol

feel free to add me and see if it works for me

edit

---

I normally exercise about 20- 30 mins a day ... thats on average across the week jogging walking and rowing but,,, at the moment im doing 60 mins a day (due to my up in cals)

BobbyLx

It would depend on a lot of factors. How you prepare and cook them, for example, would make a tremendous difference. If your were to bread and fry her it would add many many calories as opposed to baking or broiling her. Do you leave the skin on? More vitamins but more calories. There the fat content would have a big effect as well.

jadedone

I am 5'4.5"

My MFP Goal is 1700. I aim for 1600 on a non workout day and 1800 on a workout day.

I have a desk job (on the computer all day) and I work at home. So activity during work hours is really limited, since I don't get to walk over to cube-land to talk to my coworkers.

I workout around 3 days a week with interval cardio and strength training. I usually fit in 1-2 45-90 walking errands a week. And then find another 1 hour of incidental exercise (strength, yoga) during the week.

FitMama2013

I am 5'6, 201 pounds, 27 years old, and I eat between 2,700 - 3,200 calories a day

I am eating to lose and am pretty active - doing P90X and zumba (twice a week on the zumba, 6 days a week P90X), but I have a desk job from 7AM-5PM so I'm chained to my desk during the day.

I lost 35lbs within 4 months by undereating (1600 calories gross per day) and then plateaued for 5 months. Then I increased my calories significantly (to my current levels) and I've been losing weight consistently now.

If I could stress anything to women reading this post - undereating will not get you there any sooner, so please PLEASE learn what BMR and TDEE mean and do this the right way! I feel 800 times better now that I am eating enough to fuel my body. Message me if you have any questions

noushsoup

I'm 5'6 and at my highest weight I was 12 st (168lbs) back in xmas 2010. I rarely left the house, and was easily eating about 5,000 calories a day. I started by simply changing all my usual foods to a lighter version and lost half a stone ( 7 lbs)

From then I actually started to calorie count, I followed the traffic light system on food in Sainsburys so was eating 2,000 calories a day but no exercise. I managed to drop to 10 stone (140lbs) and wasnt eating particularly healthy food, just packed meals and snacks within calorie range.

From then I realised I needed some kind of exercise, being an exercise-phobe I simply just did walking. So I walked for roughly an hour every day at an average pace and learned to enjoy it. I dropped my calories some more too so now I was eating about 1500 and managed to hover around 9 stone to 9 and a half (so between 126 - 133lbs is was at) with just walking for exercise. I started to drink water rather than juices and actually felt full on 1500, fuller than when I was on 2000 if that even makes sense!

So then I dropped my calories more, hoping I could loose a bit more weight as I was still squishy at 9st. For the first time I actually decided to start snacking on fruit lol! I'm a sugar-holic, I don't tend to each much in a meal but I eat a lot of sugar in between which is what caused me to gain. So swapping my chocolate for dates actually did me a ton of good and I lost more and felt fuller again. (Oh I still eat my sugary snacks on the weekend though!)

I then joined MFP this year in Jan weighing just shy of 9st (I was about 125lbs) I discovered Jillian Micheals and Zumba and havent looked back! MFP put me on 1200. I admit with all the fruits, and veg soups I eat I dont often hit 1200, more like 1000. I only hit 1200 on the weekend when I eat my happy junk (chocolate and pizza whooo!) I did Jillians 30 day Shred and lost 5 lbs. I'm now doing her Ripped in 30 and have lost another 3 lbs so far (I'm finishing week 2 today!) I also do a 45 minute Zumba Wii session about 4 or 5 times a week and I walk everyday for about an hour to an hour and a half. I dont eat exercise calories back, I don't have time nor hunger for that! I'm now at 8 stone and 3 lbs (115lbs) My goal I set on MFP was a nice round 8stone (112lbs) I'm pretty damn happy!

jelicaa

I increased mine to 1600 but will likely increase to 1800. I normally eat beyond the setting because I do intense bootcamp classes and burn between 600 to 800 calories per class, plus walk dogs (300-400 calories), and occassionally run during lunch. My trainer wants me eating at least 1800 even when I'm not excercising to fuel my body to burn calories...I feel extremely full after ~1500 cals...working on it though

Articeluvsmemphis

1800ish, it equals out in a week's time, say i eat 1300(+) one day, I'll eat maybe 2000(+) another

nikkit321

I'm at 1220 to lose .5 lb/week. But I didn't lose anything at all until I increased my exercise from 4 hours a week to 6 two weeks ago. I do eat some of my exercise calories.

Feel free to look at my diary, or to add me.

RLeighP

I'm at 1200-1300 right now, I don't have much time to workout as I have an infant so I'm trying to stay lower. Back when I lost all my weight the first time, I was eating a net of 1200 but usually topped out at 1700-1800 after about 1.5 hours working out.

tropaze

Hi there, I'm sedentary. My calorie goal is 1350 and on non-workout days I stay right about there (most days). On workout days I eat back my exercise calories and can go up of the 2000 calorie mark, it depends on how hungry I am. It's working for me so far, each person's going to be different though. Make sure you pick the appropriate lifestyle for yourself and MFP sets a pretty accurate gauage, sometimes you need more or less so adjust it as you need.

Edit: fixed exercise calories (because 200 calories a day just isn't feasible for me).

Ahluvly

Similar to my situation to this lovely lady (below) although I do 4-5hrs worth of exercise a week and I'm a few lbs lighter! We need to eat to lose people.....50% of my work outs are weight bearing as my Nutritionist has found this to be more effective when losing weight!

I've lost 105lbs so far - have about 38lbs more to lose.
sw 303.4 (1/1/11)
cw 198.4
gw 160

I eat typically 1800-2000 calories a day.
I work out 6-7 days a week (2-3 days of strength + cardio, and then 3-5 days of just cardio)