Tone or Lose? Calorie Calculations provided by MFP

puddleducklondon
puddleducklondon Posts: 2
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi there,

I'm a 23-year-old female and I was wondering if I could get some advice from you lovely people. I'm new to MFP and am, in many ways, finding it very useful. I do have a history of eating disorders back in my teenage years which I am now recovered from and was at a healthy but slim weight for 3 or 4 years. However, in the last 12 months due to some fairly intense anti-anxiety medication coupled with a generally cruddy lifestyle (too much smoking, drinking and eating crap food) I've put on 10-15lbs. Now, I don't weigh myself because it takes me back to a dark place but I could tell in the way my clothes fit and the 'wobbly bits' that appeared on my body.
Since exercise was never an element in my eating disorder (I was a 'lazy anorexic!'), I'm desperate to get fit and start toning up. I also think a healthy exercise regime would help me with my anxiety. I would like to lose the 10/15 lbs I've gained, and I've been following MFP's recommendations.. However, I'm quite weary of the low numbers given by MFP.
For the last week my net intake has been ~1200 and I've been getting in between 20 minutes and 2.5 hours of exercise (hiking for up to an hour and a half every other day and 20 minutes on the cross trainer every day) I can already see the weight coming off and I'm worried it's too fast and not sustainable and will all come straight back on when I eat more. I equally don't want old feelings to start coming back and I feel eating such low numbers is not helpful. Do I really only need 1200 to lose (healthily) - I read some of you ladies in your forties are eating more like ~1650 with 30/40 minutes brisk walking and still losing. I'd love to start lifting and doing some weight training but I don't have access to a gym nor the money to afford one (the cross trainer is a friend's and he's keeping it at my flat for storage!)
Any general suggestions? I don't really know how to give a good idea of where my body is at without weighing myself, which I realise is frustrating but I just don't want to...!

Replies

  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    Find a decent TDEE calculator through Google (I have used the Fat2Fit and Scooby's Workshop ones in the past). This is going to be how many calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight. Since you are only trying to lose 10-15 pounds and are already fairly lean, multiply your TDEE by 0.85 and eat that many calories each day. For me, this averages out to around 1800 calories daily. I am steadily losing weight and fat eating 1800 calories per day because it is a 15% deficit from my maintenance calories.

    Since you are presumably lean right now just losing a little bit of weight, you don't need a huge deficit. I would definitely not recommend eating just 1200 calories which is more than likely less than your BMR.
  • Alta2000
    Alta2000 Posts: 655 Member
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Do what the person above said, and then just do tone total body or other videos from fitnessblender.com, blogilates.com, or try the befit channel on youtube
  • wlawhorn1993
    wlawhorn1993 Posts: 16
    The calories you eat correlates with your basic metabolic rate, and how much you exercise. I like scooby's workshop's calorie calculators. It is best to read his site, try not to go to hardcore all at once, and find your BMI. For my weight and height, my BMR on MFP I didn't eat enough calories. I have a larger build than average for my weight and height. Larger wrists and neck, and I have big calves and quads. My BMR was more than average because of my existing musclemass and body composition. So I was eating actually less than my -20% TDEE. I was tired all the time and losing weight pretty rapidly, so I reccomend finding your BMI and using. scooby's calculator instead of MFP.
  • puddleducklondon
    puddleducklondon Posts: 2
    Sorry I'm a little late to reply but thanks so much you guys! The Scooby calculator was really useful, I have a small frame despite being relatively tall (for a woman - 5'7) with small wrists and ankles. I think I'm going to aim for between 1500 and 1600 per day with 20 minutes of cross training and ~30m of walking daily. Does that seem OK? The only 'weight loss' efforts I've made in the past have been very unhealthy so it's quite confusing and difficult trying to do it 'right' now haha!
  • Alta2000
    Alta2000 Posts: 655 Member
    Sorry I'm a little late to reply but thanks so much you guys! The Scooby calculator was really useful, I have a small frame despite being relatively tall (for a woman - 5'7) with small wrists and ankles. I think I'm going to aim for between 1500 and 1600 per day with 20 minutes of cross training and ~30m of walking daily. Does that seem OK? The only 'weight loss' efforts I've made in the past have been very unhealthy so it's quite confusing and difficult trying to do it 'right' now haha!

    Do only TDEE-15% and do not count exercise or anything. Always eat above your BMR and just try to eat between TDEE-15 and BMR and do not stress about it. I think it will be more important that you tone your body instead of focusing on calories. I would set scoobie at 3-4 hours exercise based on what you described.

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