Am I eating enough?

brendabryden

Due to menopause I gained 10 pounds that I want to lose; so I joined MFP to learn how to eat healthier and hopefully lose those 10 pounds. I have done a lot of reading on MFP about how to calculate the calories you should be eating, but not to eat to few calories or you won't lose. With my busy work schedule and my 14 yr old grandson living with us, I normally only find about 30 minutes a day to use my elliptical - which says I burned around 300 calories. I am a secretary so most week days I spend a lot of time sitting. When I am home I usually am on my feet doing something around the house or yard. I am 5' 4", 129 lbs, 55 years old. I have calculatted my TDEE at 1730; reduced that by 10% which is 1,549. So I am aiming for 1,550 calories per day. My BMR is 1,230. The way I see it is I eat around 1,550 calories and exercise to burn 300 calories I really only have 1,250 of the calories I ate left which is close to my BMR. Do you feel 1,550 calories is what I should be eating being I don't have a lot of weight to lose or should I be eating more? Thanks for the advice.

heybales

That's pretty good.

First, the calorie estimates for elliptical's isn't based on years of research like treadmills is, and the variations in tension and tilt and speed and arm use and how you do - not a great hope of accuracy.
So don't worry about it being right. Best thing you could do if really curious, find out what your avg HR is while doing your session, and then use a nice treadmill somewhere that has you input weight and has HR display, and find what walking speed up to 4mph with incline gets you the same HR. The calorie burn displayed for that pace and incline and HR will match when you get that HR on the elliptical.

Second, another reason not to worry about it. That calorie burn estimate, actually any estimate, is total calories burned during that 30 min. Not what was extra on top of what was going to be burned anyway, not was is extra over what was accounted for already. So gross, not net.
You take out what was planned for that 30 min already (your sedentary TDEE), and that 300 is probably 250.

So you got iffy calorie burn, and gross not net.

So you aren't that close to BMR which is just fine, for a few days.
That being said, it sounds like your evening activity is probably bumping you up in level even without exercise.

10% deficit is wise.
I'd say BMR multiplier of 1.49, over lightly active, but not moderate yet.
BMR - 1230
TDEE - 1833
-10% - 1650