Experience Runners how many calories

When I started here (a little over a year ago) I was in the midst of training for my spring Half Marathon. I am small, so setting my lifestyle to sedentary and configuring to lose 1 pound per week, MFP had me at 1200 calories. I followed the site's plan of eating back those calories. Most days I was probably within 200 calories of eating them all back. I lost a pound a week for about 12 weeks. There might have been one or two weeks in which my weight stayed the same. This was will running 55 to 70 miles per week.

Edit: I logged the calories that MFP calculated, usually about 90 per mile, I believe.

You should be eating double that. I am 5'3" 119 lbs. I'm currently in maintenance and training for a half marathon. I have a semi-active job with walking, and I went for a 5 mile run yesterday. I ate 2600 calories. Before I was in maintenance it would have been around 2300 - 2400.

Don't starve your runs!

I'm 41, 5'10, 198lbs been running for almost a year now... I am in training for a 1/2 and do full body strength training 3x/wk as well. I eat roughly 1800-2000 calories on work out days and 1600-1700 on rest days. I have been consistantly losing 1.5 - 2lbs/week.

For the amount you do, I would think that you can be 1500-1700 and still lose fat.

Have you calculated your TDEE?

The minimum I eat is my TDEE on a sedentary level and that's a bit above 1600 calories. When I run during the week, i'll add about 200-300 calories to that. When I run on saturday (9-12 miles), i'll add an extra 500-1000 to that.

With that, i've lost about 5 pounds so far this year while training for a half marathon.

You don't want to lose too fast when distance training. You need your fuel.

Edit - I just calculated your TDEE for a sedentary level and it came out at 1752. That's with little or no exercise. I would think eating that, plus 1/2 your exercise calories and you'll be fine.

You should be eating double that. I am 5'3" 119 lbs. I'm currently in maintenance and training for a half marathon. I have a semi-active job with walking, and I went for a 5 mile run yesterday. I ate 2600 calories. Before I was in maintenance it would have been around 2300 - 2400.

Don't starve your runs!

You and I are the same height, right now I am at 153 my goal is to get down to 125 -130 but not at the sacrifice of my runs. Thanks for the information back

Yup, I started at 157, so we are pretty similar! We are little and don't require as much food, my BMR is something crazy like 1100 calories, but with running I have never took any chances and always tried to fuel them as much as possible! When I was still losing I think I tried to NET at around 1300 or so, which means I usually ate around 2000-2300 on run days. Like I said though, I have a pretty active job so if running is the only active part of your day I imagine your calories would be more like around 1800 with half marathon training and still losing weight.

I normally burn about 550 calories in an hour of jogging at about 5 mph. She has you on entirely too low of a calorie intake, imho. You need at least 1200 (most like more) just for your body to function and that doesnt include your exercise. You need to NET at least your BMR per day- which may/may not be around 1200. That means you need to eat back most of your exercise calories. It is a bit more complicated than this and everyone seems to have a different take on it. My thoughts are that you need fuel for running and you will quickly burn through muscle and tank your metabolism if you aren't eating at least at your BMR. Most personal trainers know enough to get by with a rough diet plan but they aren't technically qualified to. Only dieticians really have the knowledge to do that. The fact that she put you on such a strict diet is a red flag to me. Did she discuss your carb/fat/protein ratios and any supplements and vitamins?

Edit to note that I eat around 1600 calories each day, slightly more on run days. Also, I think your BMR is probably quite a bit higher than 1200-1300. You need to hit between your TDEE and BRM to lose weight. The forums and an online search can help you figure out your numbers and explain what all that means.

Exactly. If you're not getting at least your BMR, you're not going to get anywhere. My husband and I are doing a TDEE cut after reading the In Place of a Roadmap 3.0 post -- and we're doing great. He was stalled and as soon as he ate more, the pounds came off - same with me. If I wasn't working from a TDEE cut, I wouldn't have the energy needed to run. Before doing the cut, I was falling asleep in the afternoon and early evening.

I run about 45 miles a week. For me weighing 135, That's about 4800 calories. That's over a pound burned EVERY WEEK. I usually eat around 300 calories a day. When dieting, I would never EVER eat less than 2000