Calorie Confused...Suggestions please?

vikdexkaykai

Hi everyone,
So I'm a little confused with MFP's plan for my caloric intake. It says I should be eating 1337 calories but that would be WAY under my basal metabolic rate of 1776!
Here's my stats:

Height: 5'8
Weight: 218 lbs
Age: 30
Body fat: 44%
TDEE: 2442

Measurements:
Chest-40"
Waist-36"
Hips-48.5"

Here's my current exercise routine (approx):
Cardio 3-4 times/week of 20-25 mins
Strength training 3-4 times/week of approx 5-10 minutes
JM 30 Day Shred 3-4 days/week
I work full time as a nurse but at times by entire 8 or 12 hour shift will be sitting watching 1 patient (minus my 45 min lunch when I'm at the gym).
I'm also a mom to 2 girls (2 and 8 years old)

I was eating at a 1200 caloric diet as I thought I was supposed to (with no weight loss), so it was suggested, that being that I'm 5'8, I should up it to 1500...so I did! But as I've been doing some diet/weight research, it would appear that even that is too low and it should be 1954 cals/day (which is 20% below my TDEE)!

Does anyone with similar stats have any info to help??? Anyone at all???

I want to make sure that I'm eating the correct amount of calories (not over OR under), so it's not to my fat/weight loss detriment and quite frankly, doesn't 'undo' the sweating and 'crying out' at the gym!!! lol

Thanks,
Jenn :grumble: :sad:

wild_wild_life

It might be easier to think of it in terms of a deficit from TDEE so you don't need to worry about adding back in exercise calories.

If your TDEE is 2400 and you eat 1900, you should lose 1 lb/wk (3500 cal weekly deficit). If you eat 1400, you should lose 2 lbs per week (7000 cal daily deficit). 1400 is probably the lowest you should eat and closer to 1900 would probably be more sustainable and still give you a good rate of loss. You can also use the TDEE minus a certain percent (15-35 depending on how much weight you have to lose). Generally, if you have more to lose, you can tolerate a bigger deficit.

If you decide to eat 1900 and go for the 1 lb/week loss, if you enter your stats into MFP and tell it you want to lose 1 lb/ wk, it should give you a calorie goal less than 1900 but it expects you to log exercise and eat calories back, so the final goal will be the same. Just depends how you want to do it.

BMR is not really that important for short term dieting. You don't want to eat under it forever but while you are losing weight it's OK as long as your deficit from TDEE is less than 1000 per day (ie, don't eat less than 1400 and consider eating more than that for sustainability purposes). Many people recommend a more conservative deficit than 1000 cals per day, which is why you see the 'don't eat below BMR' around here so often.

Hope that helps.

briannadunn

There's is so many different calculations for losing weight..I would try freedieting.com for a good estament for calorie range.

vikdexkaykai

That's awesome information! Thanks so much!!! I understand the drastic change in numbers now (ps. math was never my strong suit!! :laugh: !!!!

It might be easier to think of it in terms of a deficit from TDEE so you don't need to worry about adding back in exercise calories.

If your TDEE is 2400 and you eat 1900, you should lose 1 lb/wk (3500 cal weekly deficit). If you eat 1400, you should lose 2 lbs per week (7000 cal daily deficit). 1400 is probably the lowest you should eat and closer to 1900 would probably be more sustainable and still give you a good rate of loss. You can also use the TDEE minus a certain percent (15-35 depending on how much weight you have to lose). Generally, if you have more to lose, you can tolerate a bigger deficit.

If you decide to eat 1900 and go for the 1 lb/week loss, if you enter your stats into MFP and tell it you want to lose 1 lb/ wk, it should give you a calorie goal less than 1900 but it expects you to log exercise and eat calories back, so the final goal will be the same. Just depends how you want to do it.

BMR is not really that important for short term dieting. You don't want to eat under it forever but while you are losing weight it's OK as long as your deficit from TDEE is less than 1000 per day (ie, don't eat less than 1400 and consider eating more than that for sustainability purposes). Many people recommend a more conservative deficit than 1000 cals per day, which is why you see the 'don't eat below BMR' around here so often.

Hope that helps.

vikdexkaykai

Thanks...I'll check that out

There's is so many different calculations for losing weight..I would try freedieting.com for a good estament for calorie range.

basillowe66

I don't have any calorie advise, but my sister in law who works at a hospital and went on their weight loss programm, she is 5'1" and I don't know what she weighs, but she lost 75 lbs in 4 months and wants to lose another 20. They put her on 1200 cal. per day , but also 80 grams of protein each day. They said protein is important to burn fat.

I hope this helps somewhat. There is a web site,, commonsensehealth.com that can give you some help!

Basil