Given my goals, how many calories should I be eating?

poplin

I'm 5'2", 110 pounds and have 22% body fat, according to the U.S. Navy scale (which apparently can be 1-3% off).

Essentially, I've been focused on losing pounds, but have realized it would make much more sense to focus on losing inches and body fat. I'm now trying to figure out what my exercise plan and calorie intake should be.

My exercise plan right now is:

3-4 days a week: Rushfit (40 minutes of high-intensity circuits including warm-up and cool down)
1-2 days a week: Running (~40 minutes at 9.5 minutes per mile)
4-5 days a week: Walking (30-40 minutes on my lunch break at a brisk pace of about 3.5 MPH)

I calculated my calorie expenditure using the Scooby's Workshop calculator, and came up with:

BMR: 1286

TDEE at light activity (1-3 hours/week of light exercise): 1769
TDEE at moderate activity (3-5 hours/week of moderate exercise): 1994

TDEE - 15% at light activity: 1504
TDEE - 15% at moderate activity: 1695

My questions are:

1. Should I be using the light activity or moderate activity numbers? On the one hand, I'm doing about 6 hours of exercise a week, and I'd consider at least half of that moderate to intense. On the other hand, when I calculate calories burned through MFP, the numbers don't seem to match the additional 700 calories a day that the moderate activity TDEE gives me over BMR.

2. Given my goals of losing inches and body fat, should I be taking 15% off of whichever TDEE I end up using?

Thanks very much in advance!

WinnerVictorious

the answer to your question is in the math.

using your numbers, with a base BMR of 1286, you'd have to burn 3381 calories per week with exercise to be at "light activity".

(1769 - 1286) x 7 = 3381

if your individual exercise per week (and you'll have to calculate those separately yourself) meets this requirement, then that's the right setting.

or, you can determine if you're at moderate activity using the same technique.

or, you can forget that. use the default 1.2x multiplier for sedentary and then log each exercise as a negative calorie on your daily budget only when you do the exercise.

it's up to you to find out what works best, makes the most sense, and is most accurate for you.

asarwe

That actually answered a question of mine. But don't forget that your BMR is what you would need if you are comatose. Walking around, doing household chores, sitting upp, standing up and so on has a positive contribution as well.

The math is more like BMR+daily non-exercise activity+exercise activity averaged over the week.

poplin

the answer to your question is in the math.

using your numbers, with a base BMR of 1286, you'd have to burn 3381 calories per week with exercise to be at "light activity".

(1769 - 1286) x 7 = 3381

if your individual exercise per week (and you'll have to calculate those separately yourself) meets this requirement, then that's the right setting.

or, you can determine if you're at moderate activity using the same technique.

If BMR is the bare minimum of calories you need live (i.e., if you were in a coma), wouldn't light activity take into account both exercise *and* the other non-exercise activities you do during the day (i.e., brushing your teeth, typing, etc.)? In that case, I would need to be burning something less than 3381 calories per week through exercise, right? I just don't know the best way to think about it.

or, you can forget that. use the default 1.2x multiplier for sedentary and then log each exercise as a negative calorie on your daily budget only when you do the exercise.

it's up to you to find out what works best, makes the most sense, and is most accurate for you.

I'd prefer not to do that. It's what I'm doing now, but I feel like what I'm doing could be better. But always a fall back--thanks!

Greenrun99

You are Definitely not Lightly Active.. you might even be above moderate.. Biggest mistake you can do is underestimate, have a huge deficit and then not see any progress.. happens alot around here..
As for the percentage off, you shouldnt be doing 15, you should be doing 5%.. and you should include some strength training, actually you should replace some of your cardio with it.. you don't have alot of weight to lose, but you have BF that you want to lose, that is going to need you to hit some weights.

poplin

You are Definitely not Lightly Active.. you might even be above moderate.. Biggest mistake you can do is underestimate, have a huge deficit and then not see any progress.. happens alot around here..
As for the percentage off, you shouldnt be doing 15, you should be doing 5%.. and you should include some strength training, actually you should replace some of your cardio with it.. you don't have alot of weight to lose, but you have BF that you want to lose, that is going to need you to hit some weights.

Interesting; that's very helpful.

The Rushfit program is essentially circuit strength training (along the lines of P90x). Unfortunately, I don't have access to a gym right now, and I live in a shoebox apartment in New York, so I can't store anything larger than dumbbells. I'm upping the weight I use with Rushfit (I'm using 8lbs now, up from 5lb ; the highest they recommend you go is 20-25lb).

GIven that I don't see that I can add any pure, heavy strength training into my routine right now, does the moderately active, -5% off TDEE still make sense for me? Will I be able to gain muscle/lose body fat, or will I just gain fat?

Thanks!

WinnerVictorious

the answer to your question is in the math.

using your numbers, with a base BMR of 1286, you'd have to burn 3381 calories per week with exercise to be at "light activity".

(1769 - 1286) x 7 = 3381

if your individual exercise per week (and you'll have to calculate those separately yourself) meets this requirement, then that's the right setting.

or, you can determine if you're at moderate activity using the same technique.

If BMR is the bare minimum of calories you need live (i.e., if you were in a coma), wouldn't light activity take into account both exercise *and* the other non-exercise activities you do during the day (i.e., brushing your teeth, typing, etc.)? In that case, I would need to be burning something less than 3381 calories per week through exercise, right? I just don't know the best way to think about it.

or, you can forget that. use the default 1.2x multiplier for sedentary and then log each exercise as a negative calorie on your daily budget only when you do the exercise.

it's up to you to find out what works best, makes the most sense, and is most accurate for you.

I'd prefer not to do that. It's what I'm doing now, but I feel like what I'm doing could be better. But always a fall back--thanks!

think of it this way. base BMR is calorie need to maintain weight if you slept all day. all 24 hours a day.

base BMR x 1.2 is what you need to maintain weight if you get out of bed and live your life sitting behind a computer or at a desk. that's all the miscellaneous walking to and from your car, to and from the bathroom, etc. it does not include any specific exercise.

cardio exercise burns calories on top of everything else. strength training burns calories too, but fewer. strength training tones your muscles and builds your muscles, which in turn require more calories for fuel, but it doesn't have much impact on your calculations right now (while you're at 22% body fat). do the strength training too, but don't count on it to contribute too much to your weight loss goals right now.

so, it's clear you should run a reasonable calorie deficit + adding cardio (and + strength) to get the best overall effect, right?

now, you just figure out what amount of calories you burn per day on average.

that's ((base BMR x 1.2) + daily cardio burn) x (deficit %)

to plu in some numbers for you... lets assign some calorie values to your exercise.

3-4 days a week: Rushfit (40 minutes of high-intensity circuits including warm-up and cool down)
1-2 days a week: Running (~40 minutes at 9.5 minutes per mile)
4-5 days a week: Walking (30-40 minutes on my lunch break at a brisk pace of about 3.5 MPH)

let's say Rushfit is 350 calories each time you do it. let's say running is 400 calories each time you do it. let's say walking is 300 calories each time you do it.

on average you do 3.5 x (Rushfit) + 1.5 x (running) + 4.5 x (walking) each week.

that's 3.5 x 350 + 1.5 x 400 + 4.5 x 300 = 3175 calories burned per week or 453 per day.

so your maintenance calorie intake needs to be 1286 x 1.2 + 453 = 1996 calories.

if you eat less than that, you'll lose weight. whether you want to eat 5% less or 10% less or even larger deficits is up to your goals and how long you are willing to wait to get to the goal and how healthy/unhealthy you want to be when you get there.

if you choose 200 calories per day as your deficit (i.e. 10%), then you should try to eat around 1800 calories per day. this puts on on a pace to lose 1.7 lbs per month. (200 x 30)/3500 = 1.7

you'll have to come back and do correct calculations on what that exercise TRULY burns since i just pulled numbers out of thin air, but this is how you figure it out and this is how you can check the accuracy of the various calculators out there.

heybales

I'm 5'2", 110 pounds and have 22% body fat, according to the U.S. Navy scale (which apparently can be 1-3% off).

Essentially, I've been focused on losing pounds, but have realized it would make much more sense to focus on losing inches and body fat. I'm now trying to figure out what my exercise plan and calorie intake should be.

My exercise plan right now is:

3-4 days a week: Rushfit (40 minutes of high-intensity circuits including warm-up and cool down)
1-2 days a week: Running (~40 minutes at 9.5 minutes per mile)
4-5 days a week: Walking (30-40 minutes on my lunch break at a brisk pace of about 3.5 MPH)

I calculated my calorie expenditure using the Scooby's Workshop calculator, and came up with:

BMR: 1286

TDEE at light activity (1-3 hours/week of light exercise): 1769
TDEE at moderate activity (3-5 hours/week of moderate exercise): 1994

TDEE - 15% at light activity: 1504
TDEE - 15% at moderate activity: 1695

My questions are:

1. Should I be using the light activity or moderate activity numbers? On the one hand, I'm doing about 6 hours of exercise a week, and I'd consider at least half of that moderate to intense. On the other hand, when I calculate calories burned through MFP, the numbers don't seem to match the additional 700 calories a day that the moderate activity TDEE gives me over BMR.

2. Given my goals of losing inches and body fat, should I be taking 15% off of whichever TDEE I end up using?

Thanks very much in advance!

You won't gain any or much muscle eating at a deficit and not actually working the muscles heavy.

Eat at Mod Active TDEE, drop the running, make the high intensity actual lifting as best you can in situation you got, keep the walking.

This will give a chance to build as the fat drops.