Calorie intake/exercise help

1,200 is fine given your current activity level and stats. It's not too much.

Are you trying to lose or maintain weight/tone? Seems you're at a healthy weight for your height.

I wouldn't mind losing about 5 more pounds or so, but I am OK with what I am at now. I just want to lose some flab, and I am getting a bit of muscle tone. But mainly I want to maintain.

I presumed you wanted to lose a bit more given your ticker but if you want to maintain you could easily bump up calories to around 1,600 and be just fine.

I have a question. So here goes... I have a pretty sedimentary lifestyle (School etc.) I walk briskly for 30 minutes or so every other day and I do 15 minutes of body weight training 3-4 times a week to tone up. My question is, is 1200 calories a day too much for this lifestyle? I usually stay under, my diary is open so you can take a look if you want. Thanks!

I am a 5'7" 18 yr. Old 134 pound female.

No, I would say 1200 is no where near enough. With your height and weight if you want to lose weight you should aim for 0.5lbs/week and eat back the cals burned from exercise.

Only you can decide calories, base it on how you feel and what the scale trend is doing, not what anyone here tells you to do. You can always gradually notch your calories up or down by 100 and see how you do. It takes some experimentation to find what works for YOU. What worked for the next person may not work for you just because it did for them. For the most part, if you have fat reserves eating more to lose weight is just plain silly, think about it.

If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for women over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I am a living breathing example of that. I went from obese to now under 12% BF and I've maintained for one year and built muscle the whole time. You don't BUILD muscle in starvation mode, so I proved everyone wrong. You can't really argue with my results and you can see my befores and afters on bobbies fitness.

you aren't eating enough.

you should find out your TDEE and BMR. your tdee is your total daily energy expenditure, which is the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight at your current activity level. your BMR is you basal metabolic rate, which is the bare minimum of calories you need to survive if you were just laying in bed not moving.

TDEE- http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

BMR- http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/bmr-calculator.html

i took the liberty of plugging in the stats you gave. your TDEE for moderate exercise is 2200, for light it is 2000. your BMR is 1460.

you should never eat under your BMR. ever ever ever. that could possibly hurt you and force your body to resist weight loss, as it is trying to conserve itself. if i were you, i would find out my TDEE at "light exercise," and then your BMR. find a number about half way in between those two, and then log and drink your exercise calories.

did i say drink your exercise calories??? WAIT, NO PUT DOWN THAT MARGARITA!!! i mean to get yourself some protein powder, and start using it to make post work out/recovery shakes. use 1-2 scoops of powder, 6-8 ounces of orange juice, and then a half a cup or two of frozen berries and throw it in the blender. its a great way to replenish your body with a lot of good stuff that it needs, and taken after a work out it refreshes you, and helps put off that OMG I WANT TO EAT EVERYTHING feeling ppl get an hour or two after a work out.

If you're trying to maintain and improve body composition, you wouldn't want more than a small deficit. Your estimated TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is 2265, so you should probably eat about 2000 cals per day. Try to get extra protein and limit simple sugar. Make sure you're lifting with intensity if you're only going to do it for 15mins at a time. Maybe you can do a HIIT class or Boot Camp so that it's not as boring for you?

Eating 1200 cals and not exercising much won't get you the results you want. You might lose scale weight, but most likely not much body fat, and you won't gain much muscle (which is what it takes if you're looking for more definition).