Ladies - How many calories do you eat??

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  • Angie80281
    Angie80281 Posts: 444 Member
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    A lot of us with higher calorie goals customized them instead of using what MFP suggests. The MFP calculators tend to run low. I think my MFP-dictated goal is about 1450 but that's way too low for me. I also find it easier to factor my exercise routine into my goal and have a set amount each day, rather than guessing how much I burn every time.
  • Goalsat47
    Goalsat47 Posts: 74 Member
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    ok...so I'm VERY NEW to dieting and I'm apparently clueless to what I'm suppose to be doing but how can you eat so many calories and still lose weight? I thought you ate less calories=weight loss? I workout out guaranteed for 30 minutes of the 30DS and i try to jog/run/walk at least 2x/week. My calorie goal is 1100. Is that right?
    I just joined a few weeks ago and per the MFP instruction I am on 1200 calories. I try to be right under it most days. I am 45 and 5 foot 4. I'm curious as to why others who are shorter than me have more calories. Am I doing something wrong whe I calculated how much I wanted to lose. I have about 15lbs to go to goal.


    It's not always less calories = more weight lost. Adaptive thermogenesis will slow your metabolism if you eat too few calories. And even if it doesn't, you can burn out and end up binging. So it's better to eat at a moderate deficit and exercise than to cut calories too low and feel hungry and tired all the time.

    Many of the women who are eating 1800 and 2000 calories or more are either very active, or have a good amount of muscle, or both. Those increase your metabolism. They also recognize that this isn't a race - there's no prize for getting there faster. Patience is the name of the game; if you lose 1/2-1 pound a week on a calorie level that you can feel satisfied on, you can stick with it. And when you reach your goal, you can add a few more hundred calories to be at maintenance and not gain a lot of weight back.

    I'm 5'0" and 130 lbs, and I eat between 1600 and 1800 calories most days. I do heavy lifting 4 days a week, run 1 day, and do light cardio or rest the other 2. (edited to add): Last measured, I was at 26.5% body fat; I'm only interested in losing 5 or 10 pounds total, but I would be perfectly happy to stay at this weight and 22% body fat or so.

    Great explanation! There is a huge difference between weight loss and fat loss, by eating at a slight deficit and lifting weights you help ensure you're losing mostly fat vs. muscle and fat. You should want to keep as much muscle as possible to keep your metabolism high and in the end have a much better physique. Plus why would you not want to eat as much as possible and still change your physique for the better?? :smile:

    This makes a lot of sense, thanks. I think thats why I am liking MFP a lot more than I did WW. I really felt hungry on WW and I didnt eat my exercise points on that. I am finding myself much more satisfied on MFP. I am also finding the message boards and friend are so much more of a support. Right now I am not exercising a lot. Starting slowly with the Couch to 5K but running 4 times a week instead of 3. One I graduate the C25K I plan to mix it up with some kind of boot camp or weight lifting.

    I changed my goal loss to 1lb per week in goal settings but that didnt change my calorie allocation - it is still at 1200 but maybe thats more to do with my age. I'm going to wing it for another week or two. I am losing so thats good and I'll just see how it goes and play around with it a little.
  • jjanay100
    jjanay100 Posts: 46 Member
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    Are you considering upping your calories? I would...

    I'm 5' 0" and I eat about 2000 cals per day. Desk job + heavy lifting.
    Yeah, i am considering. I thought 1400 was a good amount for trying to lose weight so by adding on an extra 400-600 to make up for the breastfeeding i thought I was ok but on a previous post I made it seemed like everyone thought I wasn't consuming enough. I find no matter how much I eat breastfeeding makes me feel hungry ALL the time. Before I joined MFP I ate constantly and put on about 10+ pounds since coming home from the hospital! They say breastfeeding melts the fat right off... not for me! Now I am making better choices when I eat (for the most part) and the weight is slowly coming off.
  • bongochick45
    bongochick45 Posts: 130 Member
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    I'm 5'3" and I eat between 1200-1400 calories a day. Rarely do I eat more than 2000 in a day. I'm also pretty active and about to run my first 5k and 10k at the end of the month.
  • iechick
    iechick Posts: 352 Member
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    I'm in maintenance and my weight range is between 120-124 (this morning I weighed in at 121.5lbs). I'm 5ft, 6in and I'll be 35 yrs old in a few days. Exercise is walking 10 miles (15 minute miles) and 4 miles of running (10 minute miles) a week.

    I eat intuitively now and I don't purposely track calories, but I know by memory most of the calorie counts of the foods I eat. My daily calories range is usually anywhere from 1,100 calories to over 2,000. It just depends if I'm hungry or not. I no longer eat out of habit, or because it's a certain time a day and a 'meal' time. I eat when hungry, stop when full :) I also eat a mostly whole foods, plant based diet.

    Today I'll be on the low side of things, probably at around 1,100-1,200 calories. Yesterday I ate around 2,000 calories. On the weekends I'll easily go over that, and I do it totally guilt free. It all evens out and I've been maintaining effortlessly, without tracking anything, for a while now.
  • jadethief
    jadethief Posts: 266 Member
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    Don't mean to be rude, but to those of you who posted that you're 5'1" or shorter, but eating 1450 calories or more on rest days: how much do you weigh? I'm 5'1" and my no exercise maintenance is 1320! BUT, I'm 99 pounds. Height can't be the only factor here. Just curious, again, not trying to be rude.

    I'm 182 with a goal weight of 130 to 115. I eat 1450 on those days when I curl up on the couch with a book. An average day is 1800-1900 and a really active day is 2200.

    I expect my TDEE to be around 1700 at 130 and 1600 at 115.
  • Goalsat47
    Goalsat47 Posts: 74 Member
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    OMG can someone tell me what TDEE means. I've looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Also BME??
  • xLoveLikeWinterx
    xLoveLikeWinterx Posts: 408 Member
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    I'm a hair under 5'4 and 142 and I eat roughly about my TDEE-20%. Ends up being about 1450 or so most days, and I like how much simpler this way is.In about 5 more lbs of loss, I'm going to lower the deficit to TDEE-11-13% (about 1600-1650 cals), see what happens/how much it slows loss down, then re-evaluate and kind of coast into maintenance that way.
  • RockinTerri
    RockinTerri Posts: 499 Member
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    1400-1600 non-exercise days, 1500-1900 on exercise days.
  • xLoveLikeWinterx
    xLoveLikeWinterx Posts: 408 Member
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    OMG can someone tell me what TDEE means. I've looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Also BME??

    Total Daily Energy Expenditure
  • jadethief
    jadethief Posts: 266 Member
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    OMG can someone tell me what TDEE means. I've looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Also BME??

    TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure The number of calories it takes to maintain your current weight.

    BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate = The number of calories it takes for body to perform basic life functions like breathing, heart beating, etc.
  • kr1stadee
    kr1stadee Posts: 1,774 Member
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    OMG can someone tell me what TDEE means. I've looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Also BME??

    TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - The amount of calories needed to maintain your weight with all of your activity and exercise included (you take a cut from this number - most popular is 20%, but if you have a small amount you want to take a 10-15% cut)
    BMR (I'm assuming that's what you're asking) - Basal Metabolic Rate - the amount of calories needed to sustain organ function. You would consume this if you were in a coma.. You should not eat below this amount.

    This is where I get my numbers from
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Fill in what you need to and then you'll see the numbers!
  • footiechick82
    footiechick82 Posts: 1,203 Member
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    Usually 1,800 and I'm still losing... mind you I havne't had alcohol, sugar or anything processed in 2 weeks. Yesterday I pigged out. Meh... whatev. it's all healthy foods.

    I do Tdee - 20% which is about 1,800... maintenance for me is around 2,200.

    I'm 5'7, 17%(ish) bodyfat and 136lbs (last time I was on the heavy duty scale - today about 133ish?)
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
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    OMG can someone tell me what TDEE means. I've looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Also BME??

    TDEE= total daily energy expenditure. The total amount of calories your body uses in a day for basic function plus exercise and daily activities.

    BMR= basal metabolic rate. The number of calories your body would use to just lay around and keep your organs functioning.

    You should aim to eat at least BMR but below TDEE to lose weight. Check out Scoobys Workshop tdee calculator for an estimate that seems to be pretty close for most that I have known to use it. Also there's an awesome group on here Eat More 2 Weigh Less with more testimonials to how this has worked for them and more explanations. Plus the girls that run the group are amazing friends, full of knowledge to have!
  • mamasmaltz3
    mamasmaltz3 Posts: 1,111 Member
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    2000-2500 cals a day.
  • Goalsat47
    Goalsat47 Posts: 74 Member
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    Wonderful, thank you all for explaining. I've been trying to figure it out.
  • Goalsat47
    Goalsat47 Posts: 74 Member
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    OMG can someone tell me what TDEE means. I've looked everywhere and I cannot find it. Also BME??

    TDEE= total daily energy expenditure. The total amount of calories your body uses in a day for basic function plus exercise and daily activities.

    BMR= basal metabolic rate. The number of calories your body would use to just lay around and keep your organs functioning.

    You should aim to eat at least BMR but below TDEE to lose weight. Check out Scoobys Workshop tdee calculator for an estimate that seems to be pretty close for most that I have known to use it. Also there's an awesome group on here Eat More 2 Weigh Less with more testimonials to how this has worked for them and more explanations. Plus the girls that run the group are amazing friends, full of knowledge to have!

    Awesome, thank you.
  • shred_me_up
    shred_me_up Posts: 267 Member
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    anywhere from 1700-1900 , im maintaining/trying to put on some muscle, 5'4
  • StephieClay
    StephieClay Posts: 28
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    Non active day 1550-1600 calories. Active day depends on how much exercise I've gotten but probably 2000 calories on average on those days. I'm sort of in slow weigh loss/maintain it zone right now. I've surpassed my goal, but I could use to lose another 10lbs.
  • shred_me_up
    shred_me_up Posts: 267 Member
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    ok...so I'm VERY NEW to dieting and I'm apparently clueless to what I'm suppose to be doing but how can you eat so many calories and still lose weight? I thought you ate less calories=weight loss? I workout out guaranteed for 30 minutes of the 30DS and i try to jog/run/walk at least 2x/week. My calorie goal is 1100. Is that right?

    Best way to find what you should be eating (IMMO) is to find TDEE and subtract 15-20% and eat that amount every day. 1100 sounds way too low- i dont believe in starvation mode but i do believe that to lose weight you need to find something that you will be able to stick with, and im pretty sure 1100 calories a day will lead you to end up binging or giving up relatively soon.

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