how many calories are smaller women having?

5'2.5 131lbs and my NET can be anywhere from 1300 to 1600 depending on what I'm doing that day. 1300 is really only on Sunday when I'm sitting on my butt all day. I'm not big on cardio, it makes me skinny fat, so that is limited to 30min 3x a week. I do love lifting and that is what I do on Mon Wed Fri for 1hr. That's about it.

5'2.5 131lbs and my NET can be anywhere from 1300 to 1600 depending on what I'm doing that day. 1300 is really only on Sunday when I'm sitting on my butt all day. I'm not big on cardio, it makes me skinny fat, so that is limited to 30min 3x a week. I do love lifting and that is what I do on Mon Wed Fri for 1hr. That's about it.

have you lost weight from that? or is that maintainance weight routine? i suppose for me it is a method of trial and error. im so impatient! ha

Oh no I'm not on maintenance by far. I'm still losing, my weigh in is tomorrow and my loss for this past month will be 5lbs. I've got a tentative goal of 120lbs. Just from experience not NETTING at least 1200 is going to make it hard to sustain over a long period of time. I'm not a happy woman when I'm hungry lol

I'm a little under 5'5" and I'm losing eating at least 1800 calories a day. Now keep in mind that I run for about 45 minutes everyday but even if I'm taking a day off I still lose eating 1400 calories. I did lose a ton of weight eating only 1200 calories a day but I stalled at about 130. Once I raised my caloric intake the weight started coming off again. In my opinion, 1200 calories is not a sustainable goal.

I'm 5'0" and 127 lbs. I haven't been really tracking lately (I'm basically in maintenance) but when I was last tracking I was at about 1800 daily and losing probably on average 1/2 pound per week (wouldn't want to lose more quickly because of current goals). I'm going to start tracking again, mostly to make sure I'm getting 100g of protein, and I'll have it set at 1600 since I don't measure very accurately (to account for the chance I'm eating more than that, lol)

It should be noted that I lift heavy weights 2-3 times per week and am not sedentary - I have a 2 year old as well as older kids, so I'm often up playing with them, dancing for him, being bouncy and goofy, etc.

ETA: I'm 36 … sometimes age can make a difference.

I'm 5'1" and lose on 1800 cals/day, maintenance around 2100 cals/day. I have a large frame and high lean body mass for my height, so have a slightly higher basal metabolic rate than average for my height, but by my calculations that only adds a hundred or so calories. most short women can actually lose on more calories than you think, and MFP tends to underestimate calories. Short =/= having to restrict yourself to only 1200 cals/day. BTW I don't do any cardio pretty much, apart from having to go up and down stairs at my job and to my apartment (no lift). I lift heavy weights though :drinker:

Your weight is more important than your height. The reason many smaller women have to restrict calories is because "light" weights may not be as light for a petite woman. The two get linked together because of that.

What does MFP give you for weight loss? Try it on both .5 lbs a week and 2 lbs a week. Then you can eat anywhere in that range from day to day.

I'm 5'5, 127 pounds and just raised my calories today. I was at 1200 for a long time, lost weight slowly and got to where I actually started gaining some back. Was hungry all the time and I've read a lot of statements on how people started losing weight when they finally raised their calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes to starvation mode. I may not eat the 1600 it's telling me to eat, but I'm not going to fret being over 1200 especially since I live a pretty active life.

I think that little is just nuts. I don't understand why they give you that few. As you lose weight you're gonna have to reduce your amount of calories and really you're not supposed to go under 1200. I would bump it up a little bit more than that so that you have wiggle room to reduce as you start plateauing. If I were you, I'd bump it up to enough to only lose 1 lb per week and then exercise enough to lose the 2nd lb.

I'm 5'1 and 188lb and just completed my first week with Myfitnesspal. i was wondering what steps smaller women are taking in order to lose weight? As a smaller person i have restricted myself to 1200 calories and 45 minutes of exercise daily. Is this sufficient to lose weight? any other advice?

With your current stats, your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is 1655, which means that to keep your organs functioning properly, you need to NET at least 1655 calories every day until you start losing weight, and then that amount will go down. At a sedentary level with little exercise, your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is 1987. (Search BMR and TDEE calculators and you'll find lots of resources to keep up with these numbers)

Personally, I vary my calories frequently and eat between my BMR and TDEE on any given day (with holidays, I've gone over a couple of times recently, but it hasn't hurt my weight loss one bit). At 5'3" and 140.6 lbs, my current BMR is 1429 and my current TDEE is 1715. When I exercise, I log it and eat my exercise calories back because I set my diary to 1440 calories so I don't want to fall below my BMR by netting lower than that number. I think someone else on here already explained how to figure out your NET calories.

When I first started on MFP a couple of years ago, I did the 1200 thing for a while and completely stalled out after a few short months and started gaining back. It was incredibly frustrating. I gave up for a while, and then came back ready to try out the BMR and TDEE thing and I've had more continuous success with this method. I'm giving my body what it needs to function properly and it's thanking me by getting rid of the excess.

Do what you think is best for you, but I highly recommend staying above your BMR (1655).

I have been averaging 1200 a day, for about two months and lost about 1lb a week. I am hungry! I don't want to continue eating like this. It's not enough food to maintain on a long term basis. I can't socialize with friends, eat proper meals with family or have a normal day without obsessing with over-eating.
I know the answer though. Since I do almost zero formal exercise and am quite sedentary, i will now start with increasing my activity levels and up my calories to see if I can still lose at 0.5-1.0 lb a week but eat around 1600-1800 cals a day.
I worked out what my calorie levels are like for an ideal day of what is for me normal eating and it's around 2000 a day. I really would like to be able to eat that much and maintain a goal weight of 120-125lb at a height of just over 5', age 40 and thyroid problems! ( tbh thyroid counts for about 10lb gain for me, not more than that)

I am 5'1 and started at 169.8 lbs back in August. I work out six days a week. I completed Body Revolution the week before Thanksgiving and I weighed in at 149.8 in the beginning of December. I am up between 1 or 2 lbs from the holidays right now.

MFP has me set at 1200 calories before exercise. I eat back all my exercise calories and had many weeks where I went over one day to eat out. Sundays are my off days so I only get 1200 calories but I do not find it too unmanageable really. It one day where I just really watch my portion sizes.