5 feet - help, how many cals should i have

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rorai
rorai Posts: 4
in Health and Weight Loss
HI all,
I'm five feet. weigh 123 and am wondering and stuck on how many calories to eat all day. I am pretty sedentary at my job. But do go for a half hour walk a day. I am eating about 1100 calories a day. I am just confused and don't want to get frustrated so early in the game. and being short doesn't help in really knowing how many calories to consume. Ideally, would like to lose 20 pounds cause that was the weight i was happy with two years ago!
any help from any of MF Pals would be very appreciated and needed! Feel free to add me as a friend too, need the support and contacts!

have a great day all!

Replies

  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    I found the tools and information in this thread very helpful for calculating and setting my calorie goal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
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    HI all,
    I'm five feet. weigh 123 and am wondering and stuck on how many calories to eat all day. I am pretty sedentary at my job. But do go for a half hour walk a day. I am eating about 1100 calories a day. I am just confused and don't want to get frustrated so early in the game. and being short doesn't help in really knowing how many calories to consume. Ideally, would like to lose 20 pounds cause that was the weight i was happy with two years ago!
    any help from any of MF Pals would be very appreciated and needed! Feel free to add me as a friend too, need the support and contacts!

    have a great day all!

    MFP gives you a suggested amount of calories to eat daily.. what did it tell you to eat? I know that MFP has a minimum calorie set at 1200 I think.

    Also have you tried to figure out you TDEE? That has worked for quite a few people.

    Another thing that adds to the equation. Are you doing any physical activity? Walking, dancing, etc?

    You might look into a device like a bodymedia, fitbit, and etc as well that monitors how many calories on average you burn a day to give you a better idea.
  • pineygirl
    pineygirl Posts: 322 Member
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    I'm just under 5' and weigh 115lbs. I have a pretty active job when I'm not doing paperwork or sitting in meetings, so at work I'm lightly active to very active depending on the day. On most days, 5-6 days a week, I do cardio for 45 minutes or lift weights/curcuit train for an hour. I typically burn about 1950-2250 calories a day on workdays including workouts, and about 1600 on days that I'm totally sedentary (according to Fitbit and HRM for cardio).

    I consume anywhere from 1200 to 1700 calories per day depending on how active I am. I'm usually round the 1400-1500 range.

    1100 is too low. I try to at least eat above my BMR which is around 1170.
  • chantelp89
    chantelp89 Posts: 590 Member
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    I just want to know what you skinny *****es are doing on mfp lol. I'm pretty sure the minimum is 1200, but if you're pretty active it will probably set you up for around 1400
  • squigglypuff
    squigglypuff Posts: 279 Member
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    I agree with Piney ... 1100 is too low, especially if you only have 20lbs to lose. I'm 4'11, about 120lbs, and I "only" have another 10-15lbs to lose and I can say with certainty that the smaller you are and the less you have to lose, the harder it is!

    I started on MFP at 148lbs, inactive at work (customer service rep), and vaguely active outside of work (30-45 minutes of walking on most days). In the beginning I only ate 1000 calories and yes, it did make me lose weight but I was hungry and angry and exhausted and just awful. After a few months of eating only 1000 calories, I decided to up it to 1200 calories which i found was more sustainable. Now that I'm more active and do more strenuous workouts (running, some lifting), I have my calories set at 1400 but I *net* anywhere from 1000-2000 calories per day depending on how hungry I am.

    I'd suggest eating AT LEAST 1200-1300 calories even if you're sedentary. If you plan on working out you can definitely up your calories but be sure to consume HEALTHY items over junk food. My biggest problem is I'll see "ooh! 200 calories left to go! ICE CREAM! YAY!"

    And please be patient! It took me about 6 months to go from 148lbs to 115lbs, but only two weeks to go from 115lbs to 127lbs (I live in NY, Hurricane Sandy was a huge setback) and now I'm slowly working my way back down to 115lbs or lower, currently around 120lbs but I'm not sure because I only weigh in 3x a month. I've been working on this since summer 2011 and it definitely does not happen overnight!
  • imchicbad
    imchicbad Posts: 1,650 Member
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    Are you maintaining weight?
  • InNeedOfAFitnessPal
    InNeedOfAFitnessPal Posts: 7 Member
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    Lol!
  • Joreanasaurous
    Joreanasaurous Posts: 1,384 Member
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    I am just shy of 5 foot and weigh 110. On a lazy day with no working out I am eating 1300. Add cardio and weights and my calories go up as well.

    Every body is different, so what works for you, might not work for me. My advice is to goggle BMR and TDEE and experiment with different numbers between the two until you find something that works for you.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    I'm just under 5' and weigh 115lbs. I have a pretty active job when I'm not doing paperwork or sitting in meetings, so at work I'm lightly active to very active depending on the day. On most days, 5-6 days a week, I do cardio for 45 minutes or lift weights/curcuit train for an hour. I typically burn about 1950-2250 calories a day on workdays including workouts, and about 1600 on days that I'm totally sedentary (according to Fitbit and HRM for cardio).

    I consume anywhere from 1200 to 1700 calories per day depending on how active I am. I'm usually round the 1400-1500 range.

    1100 is too low. I try to at least eat above my BMR which is around 1170.

    Ditto to calorie burn estimates but I eat ~1750-1850 a day to lose weight...giving me a 400-500 deficit most days.
  • FITnFIRM4LIFE
    FITnFIRM4LIFE Posts: 818 Member
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    I just want to know what you skinny *****es are doing on mfp lol. I'm pretty sure the minimum is 1200, but if you're pretty active it will probably set you up for around 1400


    5"3 115pounds-eat 1600-2000 cals maintained 2 years...And 2 above poster-This skinny ***ch:wink: Has lost and kept off almost 40pds and have built muscle and maintained-People are on here for many reasons;-)
    And to OP your cals are too low..You can eat and lose;-)Good luck on your journey;-)
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    I just want to know what you skinny *****es are doing on mfp lol. I'm pretty sure the minimum is 1200, but if you're pretty active it will probably set you up for around 1400


    5"3 115pounds-eat 1600-2000 cals maintained 2 years...And 2 above poster-This skinny ***ch:wink: Has lost and kept off almost 40pds and have built muscle and maintained-People are on here for many reasons;-)
    And to OP your cals are too low..You can eat and lose;-)Good luck on your journey;-)

    what's your exercise regimen like? (quality and quantity...frequency, duration, etc). How old are you?
  • chantelp89
    chantelp89 Posts: 590 Member
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    I'm 5 ft and I've got about 40lb to lose after having 2 kids. Hopefully by summer I'll be back to being my skinny self
  • FITnFIRM4LIFE
    FITnFIRM4LIFE Posts: 818 Member
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    what's your exercise regimen like? (quality and quantity...frequency, duration, etc). How old are you?

    47yrs old- body 19 percentBF- working to lower a tad.Lift heavy 3 days week
    Have completed New rules several times-in the past have made my own weights routine-Currently doing
    Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove’s Supercharged
    -cardio 2-3- hit-crossfit or walk and body weight work-trx ,tires and sandbags.
  • chantelp89
    chantelp89 Posts: 590 Member
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    If you mean me, I just walk mainly. I'm 23
  • FITnFIRM4LIFE
    FITnFIRM4LIFE Posts: 818 Member
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    If you mean me, I just walk mainly. I'm 23

    Sorry;-) I was replying to love4fitness's question.:-)
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    what's your exercise regimen like? (quality and quantity...frequency, duration, etc). How old are you?

    47yrs old- body 19 percentBF- working to lower a tad.Lift heavy 3 days week
    Have completed New rules several times-in the past have made my own weights routine-Currently doing
    Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove’s Supercharged
    -cardio 2-3- hit-crossfit or walk and body weight work-trx ,tires and sandbags.

    how long are your workouts?
  • FITnFIRM4LIFE
    FITnFIRM4LIFE Posts: 818 Member
    Options
    what's your exercise regimen like? (quality and quantity...frequency, duration, etc). How old are you?

    47yrs old- body 19 percentBF- working to lower a tad.Lift heavy 3 days week
    Have completed New rules several times-in the past have made my own weights routine-Currently doing
    Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove’s Supercharged
    -cardio 2-3- hit-crossfit or walk and body weight work-trx ,tires and sandbags.

    how long are your workouts?
    It depend??? Weights,geberally 60-90 mins- cardio depending what i do-Crossfit 60 mins-trx-ropes etc bodyweight-20-30-hit-15-20..--Have a good day;-)
  • rorai
    rorai Posts: 4
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    yes unfortunatley this is been my maintenance weight for awhile. Yet two years ago i wasn't at this weight. and i do about 30 mins of cardio a day and weighlifting every second day. also.... thanks for everyones replies thus far, has been really helpful :)
  • mareeee1234
    mareeee1234 Posts: 674 Member
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    this, this and this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12


    btw, i'm currently doing a metabolsim reset, eating 2000 cals (my tdee) and doing weights 3 x a week with cardio twice a week - and am getting results! i'm only 5'0.5 :)

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