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

poplin

I posted this in the general board, but realized that you folks might have more insight.

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, realizing that aiming for 1200 is likely much too low.

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!

holleysings

Ummm...you are way more than moderately active! I would definitely consider you to be right above that level, or 5-6 hours a week of strenuous exercise. It's the time that matters more than the level of intensity. Since you already seem to be at a healthy weight, I would only cut 10% from your TDEE (2219 at the third activity level). At the higher activity level, that's 1997 calories. Now, if you truly want to lose body fat, you need to lift heavy more than you do cardio. Too much cardio will hamper your efforts of building muscle and losing body fat.

poplin

Ummm...you are way more than moderately active! I would definitely consider you to be right above that level, or 5-6 hours a week of strenuous exercise. It's the time that matters more than the level of intensity. Since you already seem to be at a healthy weight, I would only cut 10% from your TDEE (2219 at the third activity level). At the higher activity level, that's 1997 calories. Now, if you truly want to lose body fat, you need to lift heavy more than you do cardio. Too much cardio will hamper your efforts of building muscle and losing body fat.

Thanks for the info!

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a gym at the moment, and I don't have room in my apartment for more than dumbells (your standard Manhattan shoebox!).

Rushfit is a circuit strength training program, somewhat like P90x. Ideally, I would be lifting heavy. Since that's not an option at the moment, would upping the weight I use there (just bumped up to 8lb--it's a lot of reps) and the number of days I do it be enough to build muscle?

Thanks!

holleysings

Ummm...you are way more than moderately active! I would definitely consider you to be right above that level, or 5-6 hours a week of strenuous exercise. It's the time that matters more than the level of intensity. Since you already seem to be at a healthy weight, I would only cut 10% from your TDEE (2219 at the third activity level). At the higher activity level, that's 1997 calories. Now, if you truly want to lose body fat, you need to lift heavy more than you do cardio. Too much cardio will hamper your efforts of building muscle and losing body fat.

Thanks for the info!

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a gym at the moment, and I don't have room in my apartment for more than dumbells (your standard Manhattan shoebox!).

Rushfit is a circuit strength training program, somewhat like P90x. Ideally, I would be lifting heavy. Since that's not an option at the moment, would upping the weight I use there (just bumped up to 8lb--it's a lot of reps) and the number of days I do it be enough to build muscle?

Thanks!

I would think so! I built muscle doing high endurance strength training with medium weights, so it should work! Maybe you could research some body weight exercises to help build strength too. Nerd Fitness has a lot of those on their website. http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/
I haven't done these since I lift heavy at a gym regularly, but they look great!