Need Help with my Calculations

Goin4goal

I have been trying to read everything I can on this site to help me determine how many calories I need to eat in order to lose weight. I'm 5'2", current weight 202, goal 130. I want to know if I'm calculating this correctly. I've figured my BMR at 1533.7. I need to eat 2108.83 calories to maintain my weight. If I take that times 7 days, I should eat 14,761.81 calories to maintain. There are 3500 calories in a pound, so to lose 2 pounds a week, I need a 7000 calorie deficit for the week. So 14,761.81 - 7000 = 7761.81 calories. This is what I would need to eat for a week in order to lose 2 pounds. Correct? So if I divide that by 7 days in a week, I need to eat 1108.83 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week. Is this correct? OK, now is exercise already calculated into this?? I have been eating back my exercise calories and I'm thinking I probably shouldn't be. Please help me!! I know I'm probably making this much harder than it is, but I want to get this RIGHT this time around. I'm striving to be a WINNER!!!

MRSHHJONES

Hi friend! The math makes my head spin so a better analysis would be what you see on the scale each week. If you are noticing that you are not losing as much as you would like, you could decrease your calorie intake or increase you exercise. I eat my exercise food most of the time. 1450 calories is way to little for me... I am 5'5" and currently weigh 156. I have taken 2# off each week so far... I'm not able to do my normal activity level because of my shoulder and knee, so I'll probably try to scale back on calories IF possible. When I was a nurse most patients were on no less than 1800 calories per day for weight reduction. When you cut your calories too much you can slow your metabolism. I do hope this helps! I am pleased if I eat 1800 or less per day, generally.

lizziebeth1028

I have been trying to read everything I can on this site to help me determine how many calories I need to eat in order to lose weight. I'm 5'2", current weight 202, goal 130. I want to know if I'm calculating this correctly. I've figured my BMR at 1533.7. I need to eat 2108.83 calories to maintain my weight. If I take that times 7 days, I should eat 14,761.81 calories to maintain. There are 3500 calories in a pound, so to lose 2 pounds a week, I need a 7000 calorie deficit for the week. So 14,761.81 - 7000 = 7761.81 calories. This is what I would need to eat for a week in order to lose 2 pounds. Correct? So if I divide that by 7 days in a week, I need to eat 1108.83 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week. Is this correct? OK, now is exercise already calculated into this?? I have been eating back my exercise calories and I'm thinking I probably shouldn't be. Please help me!! I know I'm probably making this much harder than it is, but I want to get this RIGHT this time around. I'm striving to be a WINNER!!!

MFP will do the calculation for you if you plug in your stats. If you select 2lbs a week it will most likely tell you to eat 1200 calories a day (too low in my opinion). I'd rather go slow and steady. Honestly....if you did 1500 calories a day, stayed consistent, log everything, you'll lose. No need to starve yourself. BTW - 1108 is way too low...rapid weight loss is never a good idea.

TAsunder

Your BMR is how much you'd need if you didn't move out of bed all day, basically. Once you have your BMR, you then multiply it by a factor that depends on your activity level to get your TDEE. That figure will tell you, based on your assumed activity level, how much you would need to eat to remain at your current weight. That is the number you should cut to lose weight, not your BMR.

I assume this is what you've done, but you didn't specify how you got to 2100 so I just wanted to make sure. Typically I see TDEE - 20% as a reasonable goal. I think you are shooting a bit too low as you appear to be at TDEE - 50%. Might be hard to maintain that.

If you are using this method (TDEE minus something) then you have already included your assumed exercise and therefore it's just calories that you eat and not adjusted for how much you exercise each week (i.e. don't eat back your exercise because then you are double counting exercise).

Goin4goal

Your BMR is how much you'd need if you didn't move out of bed all day, basically. Once you have your BMR, you then multiply it by a factor that depends on your activity level to get your TDEE. That figure will tell you, based on your assumed activity level, how much you would need to eat to remain at your current weight. That is the number you should cut to lose weight, not your BMR.

I assume this is what you've done, but you didn't specify how you got to 2100 so I just wanted to make sure. Typically I see TDEE - 20% as a reasonable goal. I think you are shooting a bit too low as you appear to be at TDEE - 50%. Might be hard to maintain that.

If you are using this method (TDEE minus something) then you have already included your assumed exercise and therefore it's just calories that you eat and not adjusted for how much you exercise each week (i.e. don't eat back your exercise because then you are double counting exercise).

Shawnzgirl78

I keep getting 1200 calories but on the days that I work out, this may not always be ideal.
I will stick to 120 but if I feel I need more, I am not going to starve myself.

Goin4goal

That's what I was afraid I might be doing wrong. Now I am totally confused !!! So what you're saying is if I just let MFP do the calculating and then eat back maybe 80% of the exercise calories I should be able to lose 2 lbs. a week? Why is this so complicated? Or is it just me - lol.

Goin4goal

Thanks for the input!!!!

TAsunder

That's what I was afraid I might be doing wrong. Now I am totally confused !!! So what you're saying is if I just let MFP do the calculating and then eat back maybe 80% of the exercise calories I should be able to lose 2 lbs. a week? Why is this so complicated? Or is it just me - lol.

There are two methods you are mixing up, I think:

1) Calculate your BMR, use that to calculate your TDEE, then take a certain percent off that (20% is often recommended). That is the number of calories you should eat per day, period. Exercise is already accounted for in this calculation. In MFP you ignore the net calorie number and just track the food calories if you are logging your exercise.

2) Set MFP at sedentary (or equivalent for your activity level EXCLUDING exercise). Have MFP calculate your NET calories each day based on your goals. With this method, the calories MFP recommends are what you would eat if you did no exercise that day. If you exercise that day, you can (don't HAVE to) eat more calories to meet the NET calorie goal suggested by MFP.

Generally, both methods are similar. You will find that you will eat a more steady amount of calories using #1 because that's all you are looking at. Over the course of a week, however, it should be roughly the same total number of calories per week if you've done both methods correctly.

Your first post seemed to be mostly you doing option 1 above but then still exceeding your calorie goal because you were eating back calories.

Hope this helped. It's a very confusing/tricky bit of math.