How many calories should I be consuming?

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ooerr
ooerr Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

I've seen a lot of stuff on here about how your BMR and TDEE determine how many calories you need to lose weight. I've calculated my TDEE to be 1671 and my BMR to be 1393 (using fitness frog). But what do these mean for what my calorie consumption for weight loss should be?

I'm 5'3" and 123.5lbs. Ideally, I want to get to about 117. MFP says that to lose 0.5lbs per week I should consume 1380. If I set it to 1 or 2lbs per week it says 1200, which I've heard people on here say is too low, and that you have to 'eat more to burn more' or something. I am exercising 3 times per week (couch to 5k). Can anyone who knows what they're talking about more than me help me out? Thanks in advance :)

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  • dangerousdumpling
    dangerousdumpling Posts: 1,109 Member
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    Since you are close to your goal you should subtract about 10% from your TDEE. Eat between about 1500 calories.
    If you change your mfp settings to 1/2lb per week it will probably be about the same once you eat the calories you burn by exercising.
    BTW, did you choose sedentary or light activity?
  • ooerr
    ooerr Posts: 6
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    Since you are close to your goal you should subtract about 10% from your TDEE. Eat between about 1500 calories.
    If you change your mfp settings to 1/2lb per week it will probably be about the same once you eat the calories you burn by exercising.
    BTW, did you choose sedentary or light activity?

    I chose sedentary. I'm a uni student, and although I walk to and from the campus (it's about 0.8 miles each way), I spend the rest of the day sitting down (at home, doing work, in lectures etc.) I change it to light activity during university breaks because that's when I work at my part-time job where I am on my feet for most of the day. Do you think sedentary describes me correctly?
  • TimeForMe99
    TimeForMe99 Posts: 309
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    Your results are consistent, as they should be. To lose .5 lbs a week you reduce your daily need by 250 calories. So MFP has calculated your daily needs (absent exercise) as 1630, the TDEE calc is 1671 so they are nearly exact. Half a pound a week, or less, should be fine for you. TDEE -10% would actually be a higher deficit.

    MFP won't go below 1200 so even though you asked for a 2 lb per week deficit (1000 calories) it's only dropping 430 per day, or less than a pound.

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