how many calories day day should i eat?

lmfaulkner9
lmfaulkner9 Posts: 14
in Health and Weight Loss
I am new to counting calories. I am 5'3". Basically I have been around 127 lbs for the past year. Before that I was around 122-125 and that is where I want to be. I just ran a marathon a few weeks ago and since I gained 5 lbs! I lost a few already. I think I can get back to 127 pretty fast considering how fast I gained to begin with (I am down to 129 from 132 just 5 days ago). So, I will have about 5 lbs to go and that might be harder.

My calorie goal originally had me about 1200 and I quickly found that to be way too low. I have it set at 1500. On the days I run (4 days per week), I will eat some calories but not all (especially the days I run 8+ miles).

Do you think 1500 calories per day is a good start or do I need to lower it? I am so used to training for a marathon and needing to eat a lot more. I need to find a much better balance between running, eating the right amount of calories to have enough energy and loosing these last 5 lbs.

Replies

  • runnerchick88
    runnerchick88 Posts: 1
    The answer is not how many calories you should eat, but rather what should your calorie deficit be per day. If your body has a bmr (calories burned for your body to function. ie breathing, heart beat, ect) of 1600 and you exercise 1000 calories then you have burned 2600 calories. If you eat 1500, then your deficit is 1100 that day. It takes a deficit of 3500 to lose 1 pound. I am a runner as well. I have found that when I put my body through such a large deficit with only a few pounds to lose, I do not lose. But if my deficit is lower (like around 500) then I will lose slowly. Hope that helps!
  • lmfaulkner9
    lmfaulkner9 Posts: 14
    Well I don't know much about bmr but I calculated it and it is 1345. Still not sure what that really means though.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    BMR is what your body would burn if you were comatose. You multiply it by your activity level to get your TDEE. But MFP will do all that for you. You just need to make sure you have your goal right. I'd say since you have so little to lose, set it for .5 lbs loss per week. That sounds slow but the idea is not to lose your muscle. So go in, adjust your setting to half a pound a week, and then either use a heart rate monitor and eat back all or most of your exercise calories, or enter your exercise on MFP and then only eat back half.

    Remember though that setting your goal to half a pound means you don't have much deficit to work with (that's the setting I'm on right now) so you have to be really precise with measurements so that you don't underestimate how much you're eating.
  • wahmx3
    wahmx3 Posts: 633 Member
    Totally agree, the closer to your goal, the less deficit the better. However, strength training can help you look like you lost more than 5 pounds without actually losing the weight. 5 pounds isn't going to be easy to lose at your current weight.

    The answer is not how many calories you should eat, but rather what should your calorie deficit be per day. If your body has a bmr (calories burned for your body to function. ie breathing, heart beat, ect) of 1600 and you exercise 1000 calories then you have burned 2600 calories. If you eat 1500, then your deficit is 1100 that day. It takes a deficit of 3500 to lose 1 pound. I am a runner as well. I have found that when I put my body through such a large deficit with only a few pounds to lose, I do not lose. But if my deficit is lower (like around 500) then I will lose slowly. Hope that helps!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    You have two pounds to lose? Two? Eat at maintenance. Take the steps instead of the elevator. Ta Da.

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