can't figure out calories

apeck422
apeck422 Posts: 30
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone. I'm female, 18 years old, 5 foot 1, and around 140 pounds. For over a year now I've been trying different workouts to lose a few pounds, slim down, and mainly lose belly fat. I never ate really badly but recently I've started following a meal plan and eating very carefully. I am consuming around 1500 calories a day and exercising through Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred and Focus T25 to burn around 300 calories from exercise a day. I'm drinking a lot of water too.

However, I haven't seen results!!!

My question is : Every site I go to gives me different BMR's, different TDEE, etc etc and I want to know how many calories I should be eating!! I want to get the 500 calories deficit obviously but Metabolism and stuff is important too. Can someone please help?

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    You got some really good advice in your previous post.

    It looks like you don't have much to lose, so it's going to be a long, slow process. You're looking at 1/2 pound lost per week at this point. But with exercise you may change the shape of your body drastically over time without seeing much loss on the scale.

    TDEE calculators are all just estimates. They depend on a certain degree of accuracy and some trial and error to work well. If you aren't already accurately logging your food (a food scale would be best) that's a good place to start. But pick one calorie number and hit it for a month along with your exercise routine. You have to wait for your body to adjust to the changes. If, after 4 weeks, you aren't seeing the loss you want then lower your goal by 100. Keep that up until you get where you want to be.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Hi everyone. I'm female, 18 years old, 5 foot 1, and around 140 pounds. For over a year now I've been trying different workouts to lose a few pounds, slim down, and mainly lose belly fat. I never ate really badly but recently I've started following a meal plan and eating very carefully. I am consuming around 1500 calories a day and exercising through Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred and Focus T25 to burn around 300 calories from exercise a day. I'm drinking a lot of water too.

    However, I haven't seen results!!!

    My question is : Every site I go to gives me different BMR's, different TDEE, etc etc and I want to know how many calories I should be eating!! I want to get the 500 calories deficit obviously but Metabolism and stuff is important too. Can someone please help?

    Without being tested (medically)....there is no way to give you an exact number. Take the BMR - TDEE from numerous sites & average ....or pick one.

    Try it out for a few weeks....if you are losing weight as expected .....then your good to go. You can tweak it up or down....MFP allows you to modify these numbers.

    Another frustrating aspect.....calorie burns ......MFP estimates tend to be a little high. Are your 1500 calories net? ......If you are eating for 1500 & exercising for 300....that is 1200 calories net.

    As far as targeting belly fat......not gonna happen. I would love to target my thighs. Diet is for losing weight (your body & genetics will decide where that is exactly) .....exercise is for fitness.

    Treat exercise as another lifelstyle change....do what you enjoy doing. Cardio for heart health, strength training for muscles & bones, and yoga for flexibility & balance (if you are lacking in either area).

    Measure all your food...I am terrible at eyeballing it. Be conservative when eating back exercise calories. The closer you get to goal, the slower weight loss will be. Hang in there.
  • apeck422
    apeck422 Posts: 30
    Well what I think it that my BMR is around 1800 and adding that to the exercise is 2100 then if I'm eating 1500 calories it would be a 600 calorie deficit. I'm not eating my exercise calories so maybe I'm not eating enough? It's just right now I had two 150-200 cal snacks, and 3 300 cal meals. Maybe I need to eat a little more?


    Also since I'm sedentary basically except for the really hard 45-60 min workouts I do every day, should I put lightly active or moderately active or what when I try to figure out my BMR?
  • sanfly
    sanfly Posts: 207 Member
    I'm 5'3, about 146lb, and eat 1400 cal per day. I exercise 300 - 700 cals every day (usually around 500 cals). Sometimes I eat back my calories, mostly I don't. I'm down almost 20lb since November 1. I think you should be fine on 1500 cals with the exercise.

    When you say recently started the meal plan - how recently? A week ago? Could take longer than that to start getting results - and losing weight is 70% about your diet.

    Are you weighing/measuring all your food? It's important to be accurate!

    How are you measuring your exercise cals? I recommend a Heart Rate Monitor for accuracy and consistency
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    The problem with some of those BMR/TDEE calc sites is that they get the terminology confused. They say BMR when they mean TDEE. BMR is the approx # of calories needed to support basic body functions. TDEE is BMR + day-to-day activity + exercise. Plus there are a few different ways of estimating these numbers so there are bound to be some differences.

    One site that's used around here a lot is:
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    I ran your #s and your BMR is around 1500 so I think that's a good daily goal. As others have suggested, you may need to make sure you're meauring and weighing food to make sure your tracking is more accurate and that with the amount of weight you have to lose, 1/2 to 1 pound per week is a reasonable goal so it's going to come off slowly. Eat back at least half of your earned exercise calories, more if you're hungry.

    P.S. Also, as you're closer to goal and facing a slower rate of loss, it will be beneficial to you to take body measurements and/or progress pics and play close attention to how your clothes are fitting. You may be losing inches even though you're not seeing changes on the scale. Patience and persistance is the key!
  • apeck422
    apeck422 Posts: 30
    Sanfly: Thanks! By recently I mean I've been on a strict meal situation/plan for like 3 weeks. I know you didn't ask this but my scale is a nice scale but for some reason it sucks. Like I'll wake up and get on it and it'll say 135 or something then 2 minutes later it'll say like 138. And as for a food scale I don't have one but I use other tools like cups, tblspoons, tsps, etc. Also, I have a heart rate monitor.

    MinnieInMaine: Out of curiosity why should I eat back my burned calories? And BTW it's not really like I'm "closer" to my goal. My goal is to lose fat and I know you can't spot reduce it so yeah. So it's not like I had a bunch of weight to lose and now the numbers are getting smaller. I just haven''t seen results. I take measurements and stuff. I just wanted to make that clear haha :). Thanks!
  • sanfly
    sanfly Posts: 207 Member
    Sanfly: Thanks! By recently I mean I've been on a strict meal situation/plan for like 3 weeks. I know you didn't ask this but my scale is a nice scale but for some reason it sucks. Like I'll wake up and get on it and it'll say 135 or something then 2 minutes later it'll say like 138. And as for a food scale I don't have one but I use other tools like cups, tblspoons, tsps, etc. Also, I have a heart rate monitor.

    Body weight scales can be funny sometimes, if the springs take a while to properly balance back after you jump on. Just take the first one every time, weight at the same time of day, usually in the AM after going to the loo and before eating or drinking anything. Or get a new scale.

    I would absolutely recommend getting a digital food scale, you may need to be more accurate in what you are eating. My food scale is one of the best tools in my arsenal! You should be able to find a relatively cheap one somewhere on sale. Mine was NZ$25 (US$15-20).

    If you don't get any results in another couple of weeks, drop your intake to 1400 and try for another 4 weeks.
  • apeck422
    apeck422 Posts: 30
    Sounds good thanks!

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