Just a little help please....

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gohealthy111
gohealthy111 Posts: 1
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some help figuring how much I need to eat in a day.
I've recently (today) began aiming for 1600 cals a day.

I'm a female, 17 years old, I weigh 116 lbs, and I stand at 5'4"

According to MFP, my BMR is 1296.1.
I exercise daily, starting off in the early morning by burning off (again, according to MFP, 507 cals). I do 50 mins of yoga in the afternoons (that's another 100 cals burned) and in the evenings, my mother and I always take a brisk stroll and I burn off another 120 cals.

Should I be eating 1600 cals? Or less?
Please help me!!!

Thanks :)

Replies

  • cs821
    cs821 Posts: 48
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    Hey,
    As long as you're exercising like you are, 1600 cals should be ok. How many cals does MFP say you should be eating? You should follow that as close as you can.
  • ianmccarthy
    ianmccarthy Posts: 6 Member
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    When you joined the site and put in your info and how much you wanted to lose did MFP not tell you how many calories to eat? If you are aiming for 1600 per day, then you can add the calories burned from your exercise onto that and eat that too.

    I'm eating 1310 calories per day but I burn around 400 calories every day too with exercise, so I aim near 1600 - 1700 of total calorie intake.
  • drusilla126
    drusilla126 Posts: 478 Member
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    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
    Put your information in there. For step 6 go TDEE minus 15%.
    Eating at that number would give you a slow healthy weight loss.
  • chivalryder
    chivalryder Posts: 4,391 Member
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    Not that I'm doing anything about it, but prepare to get your account deleted. MFP does not allow users under the age of 18.

    Just sayin'.
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
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    Are you trying to lose weight? It really doesn't sound like you need to.

    To calculate your daily calorie requirement, you can plug your numbers into a TDEE (total daily energy expendature) calculator like this one: http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

    According to this, you would maintain on around 2100-2400 depending on if you consider your exercise moderate or heavy.

    So I would recommend eating 2100-2400. If you really feel like you need to lose weight, take a small (10-15%) cut off your TDEE and try that.
  • SelkieDiver
    SelkieDiver Posts: 260 Member
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    I commend you for being so healthy at your age. According to the BMI charts at 5'4" and 116lbs you are in the 39th percentile so you are at a perfect weight for your height and age. Congratulations! With your current activity level, to maintain the weight you are now (which should be your goal) her's the info I found:

    "A healthy diet for a 17-year-old girl should have enough total calories to promote growth in an older adolescent. A girl in that age group would need between 1,800 and 2,400 total calories of food per day. A relatively inactive girl would be at the lower end of the calories while a physically active girl would be at the higher end due to calories burned off with exercise.

    Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/314341-healthy-diet-for-a-17-year-old/#ixzz24n9MARxY"

    My best estimate is 2000/day but you could try 1900 and see how you do on that. I wouldn't go lower than 1800 though unless for some reason you find you gain wait at that amount (which I seriously doubt).
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    You're 17, active and a healthy weight (probably at the low end of healthy for your height).
    I'm guessing that you should be eating more than 1600 to support your developing body and brain.
  • HypersonicFitNess
    HypersonicFitNess Posts: 1,219 Member
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    Why are you trying to lose weight? At 116 you are within a healthy weight range. Are you just trying to maintain and get healthy? Get more physically fit? I hope this is the case and not that you are trying to lose.

    It appears the American Heart Association website is currently undergoing construction however you should be able to check back and they have a chart for your age, height, bone structure for the range of weight you should be in. You can also find this by calculating you BMI (Body Mass Index)

    Here WebMD has a good site for BMI calculator, it incorporates your gender, age, height, current weight, pant size, weight loss goal (if you have one) and activity level.

    http://www.webmd.com/diet/calc-bmi-plus

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