Cut is leaving me 1300-1600 cals..low cal all over again?

himel13

7 more days of fasting for Ramadan and then I start my cut! Its been 11 weeks of Reset for me and eating more calories has me happier then ever!
My weight increased from 129 to 132 pounds and I have maintained from there, so I know I'm pretty much at my proper TDEE.
Now the problem..being only 5'1" and having only about 30 pounds to lose..even a 10% cut leaves me with only 1667 calories and a15% cut with 1574. And thats with activity levels set to 'light'.. there are times when I can't get exercise in and should probably use 'desk job' calculations..but then that leaves me with 1374 cals at 15% cut and 1454 cals at 10% cut!

Isn't that just low calorie dieting all over again? Thats basically what I was eating before I started EM2WL. If I'm just going back to that then it feels like I just gained weight for nothing! Advice anyone?

Noor13

How high was your TDEE?
EMTWL does not change your stats. If you want I can recalculate I for you.
But being only 5 feet tall, it means of course your body needs less to maintain as the body of somebody being 6feet.
The only way to get more to eat is by adjusting your exercise accordingly.

splashblob

Reading this post, now you got me curious too. I am around 5" 5' tall and coming from 800-900 kcal, my weight before I was upping calories was around 99lb and my current weight is 101.5lb. Using Scooby's sites, my TDEE is around 1461. That is too eating at low calories?

How many calories intake that doesn't counted as low calories diet? I thought 1460 is a lot already.

himel13

My TDEE during 'moderate' exercise was around 2050..and for 'light' exercise (during Ramadan) its been 1850. Should I give you my stats so that you can calculate for me?

himel13

Reading this post, now you got me curious too. I am around 5" 5' tall and coming from 800-900 kcal, my weight before I was upping calories was around 99lb and my current weight is 101.5lb. Using Scooby's sites, my TDEE is around 1461. That is too eating at low calories?

How many calories intake that doesn't counted as low calories diet? I thought 1460 is a lot already.

I was under the assumption that 1200-1400 is low calorie..so anything below that must be super-low? I don't really know..am hoping to figure this out or I will feel like I wasted 11 weeks eating at TDEE!

Noor13

Sure, give me your stats
I will run the numbers for you
I would not see at wasted time that you ate at TDEE

Noor13

You have to have in mind that low cals foe you are different then fo somebody with different stats
1400 might be ok for your stats with light activity
For me the calories would be different cause I am taller
You have to see the whole picture

Settuccini

Being that you're so short, 1350~ calories is -not- too low for you. As Noor said, your body doesn't need as much to function as, say, someone who is 5'11" or something like that. However, if you are active and build muscle, you will be able to eat more. Since you're so small, just keep your cut to 5% to 10%, or add in some cardio and eat back the cardio calories. I'm 5'2.5" and my cut will bring my calories down to 1400-ish, too. Not looking forward to it, but alas, I am short!

norcal_yogi

Reading this post, now you got me curious too. I am around 5" 5' tall and coming from 800-900 kcal, my weight before I was upping calories was around 99lb and my current weight is 101.5lb. Using Scooby's sites, my TDEE is around 1461. That is too eating at low calories?

How many calories intake that doesn't counted as low calories diet? I thought 1460 is a lot already.

5'5" and only 1460 at TDEE? that does seem low. can you go back and reconfigure?

himel13

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone! I understand that for shorties lower calories are needed..but that basically means I wasn't doing a low calorie diet in the first place cuz I was eating around 1350 anyway! So I probably didnt need the Reset!
But its ok..maybe this will help shake things up so that I can finally break the plateau!

My stats:
Weight: 132 lbs
Height: 5'1"
Body fat % (Covert Bailey): 24.6%
Body fat % (Military): 35.6%
Age: 28
Exercise level: erratic and never more than 2 hrs a week

Let me know if I've miscalculated! I will be starting my cut after the 21st hopefully!

DaysFlyBy

Yeah I realized the same thing. My eating was fine before I just needed to NET higher. I am so hungry all the time that I might as well be over 6 ft tall, lol, but I'm not so I can never eat enough to be full. I think all we can do is lift heavy and put on muscle weight since being heavier will sl. increase our TDEE or do a butt load of cardio and buy ourselves enough calories to eat a decent amount. I've been doing IF just because that's the only way I can not feel like crap and be miserably hungry all day long. I'm highly unpleasant when hungry. Ask anyone who knows me lol.

Noor13

Your 10% cut at light activity level would be 1705
with the lower activity level it is 1488

If you can squeeze in just 1or 2 hours of workout a week you can eat 1700, which is not too bad

splashblob

5'5" and only 1460 at TDEE? that does seem low. can you go back and reconfigure?

I am not sure about the number myself. To get you the correct number in metric system, I am 163.5 cm tall, which is about 5'5", right? I find my body fat% from fat2fit sites.Then using scooby's accurate calculator that need my body fat to calculate the TDEE number and scooby's calculator to figure out my TDEE and the result from both calculator is between 1458-1466 with sedentary activity level, so I choose the number that is in between this 2 number, which is 1461kcal.