advice needed, eating too little?

Hi all,
I am nearly 5ft 7in (5ft 6 and 3/4 of an inch). My weight fluctuates between 137 and 140lbs, however i wish to get to 130lbs. I cycle 6 miles weekdays and work out from home after work using an app, doing things like burpees, squats, push ups, mountain climbers, skipping and limited weights usually for half an hour , 4 or 5 times a week.
I have my calories set to 1200 and eat back my bike exercise - however i feel the calories burned looks a little high from the mfp setting. I seemed to lose more on a low carb diet than low calorie, but i'm vegetarian and seemed to be eating cheese and nuts a lot.
I realise i am at a healthy weight but would like some definition in my abs area so would like to drop a little body fat.
I think i may be eating too little but any advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks.

To lose weight, you need to eat in a calorie deficit whether you are low carb, low fat or whatever. It's the calorie deficit that loses the weight. Calories in must be less than calories out.

Whilst you do a lot of cardio, I wonder whether you are overestimating the burn and hence eating at maintenance?

Do you have a heart-rate monitor - if not, get one, and this will help calculate your cardio burns more accurately.

If you are looking to add muscle to your abs and shed a bid of fat you may not see the scale move at all as muscle weights more than fat does and as you shed that fat and gain muscle - you may even see yourself gain a pound or two due to the added muscle. Nothing to worry about. I wouldn't go below 1200 calories even after exercise as your body needs those calories to build new muscle, so I would recommend eatting back all calories you burn up to the 1200 mark at least, preferably a bit higher than that - say 1400-1500. Good luck!

The OP is not gaining any muscle eating 1200 calories and not doing compound lifts.


OP, do you use a food scale? Also, have you considered dropping some cardio and doing more lifting. Right now you are shooting for vanity lbs, which is going to be difficult. If you want to "tone" up, weight training is really the way to go.

Also, I would suggest hitting around 1700 calories. That would be about a 20% deficit. Maintenance would probably be around 2200 calories.

Hi there,
Thanks all for your advice, i am very careful with my food and understand mfp may be miscalculating the number of calories burned, i will look into purchasing a heart rate monitor, whilst my day job is mainly answering phones or reception duty i always go out at lunch either on my bike or by foot, get about 50 minutes cycling travelling to and from and as i've mentioned do half an hours work out from home. I do have some weights and tend to lift 5kg (bicep curls and squats but my experience is limited, think this is an area i need to do more research in.
i have good definition on my legs and arms but would like more defined abs and to do this i need to lose body fat, i do ab exercises but realise nutrition is prority.
I am my own worst enemy as i check the scales too much and perhaps should focus on what i see in the mirror.
Thanks all for your help i will explore what you have said, i should maybe drop a little cardio and try to do a few sessions with the weights instead, is this achievable given that i work out from home with dumbells?
Thanks again

It's definitely achievable. All I have is dumbbells at home too. You can do bodyweight exercises too, if you want some variance in your strength training. Good luck!

Hi there,
Thanks all for your advice, i am very careful with my food and understand mfp may be miscalculating the number of calories burned, i will look into purchasing a heart rate monitor, whilst my day job is mainly answering phones or reception duty i always go out at lunch either on my bike or by foot, get about 50 minutes cycling travelling to and from and as i've mentioned do half an hours work out from home. I do have some weights and tend to lift 5kg (bicep curls and squats but my experience is limited, think this is an area i need to do more research in.
i have good definition on my legs and arms but would like more defined abs and to do this i need to lose body fat, i do ab exercises but realise nutrition is prority.
I am my own worst enemy as i check the scales too much and perhaps should focus on what i see in the mirror.
Thanks all for your help i will explore what you have said, i should maybe drop a little cardio and try to do a few sessions with the weights instead, is this achievable given that i work out from home with dumbells?
Thanks again

If you have the ability, I would look into getting some selecttech dumbells. While they are a bit of money up front, it's a lot cheaper in the long run when you don't individually by dumbells. BTW, many of us workout from home. And you absolutely have the ability to get lean and fit that way. The biggest thing is investing in equipment to support your goals.

Personally, I wouldn't even waste your money on a HRM as they are only good for cardio, so it would be ineffective on a bike and during strength training. Besides, if you follow the TDEE method (like I suggested), you can get your calories dialed in over a month or two. If you eat 1700 calories a day, monitor weight over a month, you can find your average TDEE. From there you can validate your deficit.

Example. I eat 2500 calories a day. I average 1 lb per week loss (we all know a 1 lb loss is 500 calories). This means my TDEE is 2500 + 500 = 3000. So if you eat 1700 calories a week, average .8lbs per week, then your TDEE would be 1700 + 400 (80% of 1lb per week) = 2200. The advantage to this method is it allows you to understand your true maintenance calories.

Until you get more gym equipment, you can look up "you are your own gym" or use the NIKE FIT app (i believe thats the name).