Confused about my daily calorie needs to lose weight

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vienna26
vienna26 Posts: 115 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi my current weight is 138lbs and goal weight is 127lbs and im around 5ft 5, mfp set me to 1200 cals but a friend suggested recalulating my numbers as thats a little low.

My fitness plan i am aiming to work out 5x a week i used the fat2fit website to calculate my numbers im just unsure if i should chose moderate activity that would give me the numbers of 2156 and i was told for weight loss take 20% of this number which gives me 1724 cals a day or should i go fo light activity 1913 and a daily intake of 1530?? i dont want to up my calories and start putting weight on

I also haveno idea how many calories i should be netting either for weight loss??
so confusing all these numbers lol any help will be greatly appreciated

Replies

  • stephiegirl1215
    stephiegirl1215 Posts: 30
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    Hmm you could try a trial and error approach to it? So like say either try the lower number but if it doesn't feel adequate to the amount of working out you're doing you could try the bigger number. Or either try the higher number first, and if you're feeling too full and not losing any weight then you could switch to the lower number.
    Or you could just do the average of the two :)
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
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    As you get closer to your goal you won't want to be at the high end of the percentage burn, even though 11lbs is alot, you already dont weight that much at 5ft 5.. your going to want to recalculate your calories for probably 10% or less, so about 1 lb a week if not less..

    5x a week working out(1 hr a piece?) is moderate activity so I would calculate your numbers from there, you can always adjust your calorie numbers but if you first start working out and you haven't been you need to give it more than a week as your body will retain water to heal your muscles etc from beginning a workout program so the scale will go up, best bet is to not weight yourself for a few weeks.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
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    It is solely a preference on how you set up the site, but here is how I do it.

    Do the guided goals and choose the sedentary option for your activity. For the amount of weight you want to lose, you probably want to set a loss goal of 0.5 lb/wk. Log your exercise when you do it, and eat between 50-100% of the exercise calories back. At the end of the day, your calories remaining should be around zero.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    with so little to lose I would suggest that 1200 is much too low. with the amount you have to go an ideal goal would be 0.5lbs/week and to eat back the cal burned from exercise, if you are following MFPs intake. This would have you eat less on non-workout days than workout days. Or you just eat the 1724 everyday regardless if you workout or not. This will give you a small deficit on non-workout days and a larger deficit on workout days.

    I would say do whatever fits your lifestyle better (same cals everyday, or more on workout days, less on non workout days) but I would def eat more than 1200 net.
  • vienna26
    vienna26 Posts: 115 Member
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    As you get closer to your goal you won't want to be at the high end of the percentage burn, even though 11lbs is alot, you already dont weight that much at 5ft 5.. your going to want to recalculate your calories for probably 10% or less, so about 1 lb a week if not less..

    5x a week working out(1 hr a piece?) is moderate activity so I would calculate your numbers from there, you can always adjust your calorie numbers but if you first start working out and you haven't been you need to give it more than a week as your body will retain water to heal your muscles etc from beginning a workout program so the scale will go up, best bet is to not weight yourself for a few weeks.

    Thanks yeah ive been working out for the past 3 weeks about 4 days a week, this week im going to 5 not every workout will be an hour a piece ,3 are an hour and 2 are 40 mins thats why i wasnt sure should i use moderate or light to calculate my cals
  • vienna26
    vienna26 Posts: 115 Member
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    with so little to lose I would suggest that 1200 is much too low. with the amount you have to go an ideal goal would be 0.5lbs/week and to eat back the cal burned from exercise, if you are following MFPs intake. This would have you eat less on non-workout days than workout days. Or you just eat the 1724 everyday regardless if you workout or not. This will give you a small deficit on non-workout days and a larger deficit on workout days.

    I would say do whatever fits your lifestyle better (same cals everyday, or more on workout days, less on non workout days) but I would def eat more than 1200 net.

    I think what you suggested eating the same amount of cals everyday is more suited for me, i find it hard eating back exercise cals and i dont like it makes me think like ive wasted a workout lol im new to all this!! Thanks for the help
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
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    i find it hard eating back exercise cals and i dont like it makes me think like ive wasted a workout lol im new to all this!! Thanks for the help

    The purpose of exercise is more to maintain your lean body mass while you lose weight. Otherwise, as you burn fat, you also burn muscle which decreases how many calories you need per day and makes losing weight even more difficult. Don't think of it as wasting a workout, think of it as fueling your body so you keep your muscle mass.
  • SARgirl
    SARgirl Posts: 572 Member
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    Your stats are similar to mine (I'm 5'5") and I'm currently maintaining at 126-128 pounds (been maintaining since June). I personally think that your calorie intake is low, especially if you are working out as much as you say you are. When I was around your current weight I changed my settings to lose 1/2 a pound a week and was given around 1600 calories a day. I also ate back the majority of my exercise calories and used a HRM to monitor my calories. This is what worked for me, hope it helps you!
  • vienna26
    vienna26 Posts: 115 Member
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    i find it hard eating back exercise cals and i dont like it makes me think like ive wasted a workout lol im new to all this!! Thanks for the help

    The purpose of exercise is more to maintain your lean body mass while you lose weight. Otherwise, as you burn fat, you also burn muscle which decreases how many calories you need per day and makes losing weight even more difficult. Don't think of it as wasting a workout, think of it as fueling your body so you keep your muscle mass.

    I have the logic of whats thepoint in working out if im just going to eat all the cals back but this now makes sense to me thanks for clearing that up for me :-)
  • madmish00
    madmish00 Posts: 35
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    I would definitely up your calories to the 1600 mark and eat back about 50% of your exercise calories.

    I have recently upped my calories to 1800 and I am still maintaining my weight (which is my goal) but I am definitely getting more muscle tone now than when I was eating 1400 calories.

    Obviously to lose you want to have a deficit but as others have said I would aim for 0.5lb per week which is about a 250 calorie deficit.

    You want to be burning off fat and not protein (lean muscle) when you workout - once your carbohydrate stores have been used up during exercise your body needs its fuel from somewhere. By ensuring a good supply of calories and protein you will ensure that it is the fat being used rather than muscle
  • vienna26
    vienna26 Posts: 115 Member
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    Thanks everyone who commented think ive finally figured out how this all works and got my numbers right now. All i need now is ideas of healthy foods to eat to up my cals, not as easy as it sounds when your a fussy eater like me and dont like alot of things! I was thinking a good protein bar after my workout!! i dont like the protein shakes so their a no go!!

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