Short ladies - how many calories do you take in a day?

5'3-47yr
I lost 37 pounds by July 2011 and have maintained 115-117 since.
I workout 3-4 times a week.2-3 days lifting heavy. Rest of the days, I stay active biking, gardening or walking my dog.
I eat 1600-2000+ zig zagging and a Spike day Sundays.
I follow 80-20 rules-80 percent I eat very well and the rest I enjoy going out to eat or beers/wine etc. I am in this for life.

I'm 38, 5'1, and work a desk job 8 hrs a week. I'm curious how many calories other short women take in a day and still lose weight. I try to walk three to four days a week. I'm currently trying the 1200 calories, but it seems so hard:sad:

Looking for friends around my heigth and age that check in daily. I'm gonna do this and stick to it. I've already decided that the Holidays is not a free for all food binge. I will splurge SOME, but not overdo it.

First, you have an AWESOME attitude going into the holiday season. You can even have a lot of holiday treats and stay within your calorie deficit budget, or just maintain some days. You don't have to eat the same calories every day, for example you can eat lower the day before and the day after a social event if you want. You can have a weekly calorie budget. There is a lot of flexibility you have have with calories and staying within budget and still enjoying yourself the way our bodies were designed to work.

I'm 5'1" and almost 52 years old. I had to eat pretty low to lose the weight. Far lower than people here would advocate but I was under my doctor's watchful eye and he thought what I was doing was wonderful. It was hard. He checked my hormone levels throughout the process and my DXA scan showed I didn't lose lean body mass and I worked out strong with weights and ran hard. I had to ignore people here badgering me about eating to low and simply listen to my doctor. People will give you advise not realizing your are already following your doctor. I have my diary open because others want to see it, not for advice. I don't really plan my diet, I just eat what I want within a calorie budget and think about protein and carbs and the fat calories sort of just fall into place. Most natural protein sources seem to have enough good fat. Of course eating healthy just makes you feel better, not that the fat cells care about clean food vs "unclean" food. I was the most obese eating 100% organic. Too many calories makes you fat, regardless of how "clean" you eat.

What you need to eat for a deficit is relative to your RMR. If you are short you really don't have much room for up compared to the 1200. If you are taller you will have a higher RMR and can go up or down and still be in a deficit (way above 1200) so you can lose no matter what. All that matters is a calorie deficit.

To tell everyone eat more is wrong.

To tell everyone to eat less is wrong.

To find the exact amount of calories for you to be in a sustainable calorie deficit is correct. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others. Some people have emotional eating disorders and it comes into play. Even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such and everyone is different.

You just need to find the correct calories for YOU to be healthy and sustainable and still lose weight. It might require some experimentation and tremendous patience. You can always notch up and down by 100 until you find what is sustainable and still allows you to lose weight.

If you have emotional eating issues than you are not going to be able to handle such a deep deficit and if you eat to low it will backfire. A better strategy is to eat at a shallower deficit, and sometimes give yourself a break from the deficit and eat at maintenance. This is not going backwards, but eating to low and then binging because you can't sustain it is going backwards. It's better to stay forwards even if it is slower. The tortoise wins this race in the end.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

There is no mystery to weight loss, everyone thinks something is wrong, their metabolism is broken, they have low thyroid, they have menopause or whatever issue, they are as unique as a snowflake, whatever. I thought a lot of these things once too but once the doctor helped resolve the health issues for me I learned there is still no magic pill. Most people eat more than they need to and are not at good at estimating calories as they think they are. Most people have a lower BMR than they think they do. The only way to know for sure is to go to a lab and have it tested. It doesn't seem fair to have to eat less and feel a little hunger. It's hard to face the truth of it, very hard. It's not fun. It's drudgery at times. But if you learn to enjoy your smaller amounts of food (necessary to lose weight, since the reason we got fat in the first place was eating too much whether we knew it or not), and rejoice in your victories it can be done.

Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.

Being on a calorie deficit is hard. You can't do this journey on will power alone. You must set up your environment for success. Have a team around you in your real life, not just online. Get trigger foods out of the house. It will take some sacrifice and it's not easy. You might have to say no to some social events sometimes.

For me it's all about a calorie budget. I had less of a budget available when I was losing weight, more to spend now that I'm maintaining and all the tools I used for weight loss come into play for the rest of my life maintaining.

When you have accumulated excess fat, you have accumulated a debt. It is hard to pay off the debt (you have less calories to spend). If you are sitting next to someone your same gender and height and they are not overweight and you are, they get to eat more than you (have more calories to spend) because they are debt free. You have less calories to spend because you are paying off your debt.

Wishing you the best! -Bobbie

I'm 4'9" (so SUPER short!). I work full-time at a desk job and started my weight loss journey August 1st. My intake goal has been 1200 calories a day and this has been all the difference! I was realistically eating about 2000 per day before and was at 120ish pounds. I am at 107# now, so averaging 4# per month. What I am SO much more excited about are the inches lost. My mid-section has shrunk anywhere from 3 to 5 inches depending on where I measure.

Lately I've only been working out once a week (cardio run). I've had spurts where I've done several 30 Day shred DVD workouts a week. I'd really like to work out more regularly, but honestly, cutting my calories has been giving me the fat-shedding results I've been wanting.

I plan to lose 7 more pounds, then start lifting and toning. :-)

I would LOVE to make more short friends to keep me motivated! Please add me! :-)

~ Adele

5'3'', 1450 calories a day is my goal

I am 5'4" and eating net 1800 calories. My goal is one pound per week. I am also doing strength training 3x a week.

EDIT: I should add that I work a desk job, and I'm 38.

35YO, 5', 118#. I'm trying to shed some fat, so I'm eating about 1650 per day, usually over on weekends. This is a 15% reduction from my TDEE for moderate activity. I lift 2-3 times per week, cardio 2-3 times per week (30-45 minutes), maybe more casually active other days. I don't eat back exercise calories...that's factored into my activity level and I know I'm actually going over my goal 2 days per week. It works for me!

I'm 5'3 and I've been eating 1200-1500 calories most days. I do have a splurge day about once a week. I've been using the site since July and have lost about 7 lbs. Not very much compared to some, but something. My weight tends to fluctuate a lot, so I'm still trying to figure out what works for me.

I am 5' 1.5" and I am a CNA, I am pretty active at work. I eat 1200 calories when I am being good. Some days that just doesn't cut it and I have to eat a little more. I am happy if I stay under 1500.

Yes it is hard, but I am going for 1200......For me drinking lots of water seems to help. And when I really do need a little something I have low calorie but nutricous snacks on hand...limit to just one and eat it slowly

I'm 34 y/o, 5'2", with a desk job, don't exercise at all. I'm eating about 1300 cals per day and losing an average of about 1 pound per week.
I have lost 34 pounds in 36 weeks so far, with about 45 more to go.