how to figure out my activity level

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youmnahm96
youmnahm96 Posts: 36
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
So I am getting closer to my goal weight and I have a few things that are worrying me. I have lost about 25 pounds since September and I am currently netting about 1360 each day. I don't want to gain anything back but I also don't want calorie counting to rule my life (I'm still pretty young and obsessing over this is a bad habit, I'm sure of it) I want to slowly increase my calorie intake (I sort of really hate calorie counting) to a healthy range while work on losing my tummy. The problem however is that I am not an active person and most days I can only allot about 30 minutes to exercise (fitness blender workouts from youtube are my main source of exercise). Given the following stats, what range of maintenance calories would you say is healthy?

female, 18 years old, 125-ish pounds, 5ft4-ish, 20 minutes exercise 6 times a week (I always aim for more but this is my bare minimum since my work outs are not too rigorous)

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    How much have you lost in the last four weeks?
    If it's been about a pound a week then you may well end up 500 calories a day more to maintain. Trial and error will be required.

    BTW - "I don't want to gain anything back" - be very careful with this thought, no-one maintains at exactly the same weight all the time so allow a range for daily, weekly & monthly natural weight fluctuations - a maintenance range not a single number.
  • terrahanne
    terrahanne Posts: 6
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    As long as you eat right and cut out junk food. You shouldn't have to count calories all the time just maintain your level and eat fruits,vegetables, and protein. I find that cutting out bread and pasta helps alot
  • youmnahm96
    youmnahm96 Posts: 36
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    How much have you lost in the last four weeks?
    If it's been about a pound a week then you may well end up 500 calories a day more to maintain. Trial and error will be required.

    BTW - "I don't want to gain anything back" - be very careful with this thought, no-one maintains at exactly the same weight all the time so allow a range for daily, weekly & monthly natural weight fluctuations - a maintenance range not a single number.

    I lost about 4 to 5 pounds since the end of December. I think my main struggle is deciding whether it is more prudent to work out for 20-30 minutes 6 times a week or an hour 2-3 times a week in order to maximize my maintenance calories
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Set your goal to .5 lb. per week until you reach goal. Then switch to maintenance, and continue to eat back your exercise calories at the same rate you are now. Give it a few weeks. Your weight will fluctuate, and it will take trial & error to find the number of calories at which your weight will stabilize.

    Choose a window (for example, plus or minus 2 lb.). If your weight goes below that, raise your calorie goal by 100 calories (or start eating back all your exercise calories, if you weren't before). If your weight goes above your window, cut 100 calories.

    Congratulations on approaching goal!

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • HBombaMama
    HBombaMama Posts: 23 Member
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    If you are almost at your target weight goal and looking into maintaining but still want to "loose the tummy" you should keep doing what you are doing. Make sure your caloric intake is suitable for maintaining vs. weight loss but if you EVER want to see a change you will have to do strength training instead of cardio. You could run 30 minutes every day of the week and you'll probably never have a six pack. Your exercise time could be spent lifting and working on toning and you would probably see fast results considering you are young and at a healthy height/weight range. This is pretty much where I am at too and that has been making all the difference with what I see in the mirror. Strength vs cardio. Good luck!
  • Guamybear
    Guamybear Posts: 1,061 Member
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    Personally I think 5'4 and 125lbs is the perfect weight..only because I am the height and remember my younger days at the weight..
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I think the advantage of planning to exercise every day is that if you miss it you can make it up. I have a harder time finding a whole hour than many 20-30 minute blocks.

    In addition, smaller bouts of exercise seem to keep your metabolism at a higher stable rate than longer bouts of periodic activity. You can also work INTENSELY for 30 minutes more easily than for 60.

    The good thing about longer bouts, however, is that if you do work intensely you'll get a more sustained aerobic effect. It's not all about calories.
  • florentinovillaro
    florentinovillaro Posts: 342 Member
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    IMO, 1250 would be your approx. BMR, set your goal to that and keep your activity to sedentary (you don't want MFP to "guess" your activity for you), and eat back any exercise calories and you won't gain. For example you walk for 30 minutes, burn 157 calories, that's added to your BMR of 1250 which totals 1407, that would be your adjusted goal (the system does it for you) for that day and so on. I'm speaking from personal experience, and I hope this helps.
  • Blokeypoo
    Blokeypoo Posts: 274 Member
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    I've been "maintaining" for about a year.

    I though just upped my cals in week to 1500 and eat more at the w/e's when socialising but it does mean I probably track cals more than you'd like to. It suits me because I'm a nit picky, attention to detail saddo lol.

    I don't gym 3x wk like I did and now go twice and just do weight machines and then walk/trampoline for cal burn. It's not perfect but I'm after better than before not perfect. I know already that I get the brain monkey rattled if I'm too hard on myself so am gradually moving towards more weights/lifting. I started getting too tied up the shame of still carrying some body fat when I came here full time in Dec (I was on Biggest Loser site before but registered here early to start the transition) so had to stop and be grateful for my progress albeit still with a tum. You have to keep an eye on what you have achieved not what others have, maintenance is hard without adding physical imperfections to it.

    I use my Fitbit to ensure that I burn as much as I eat (at least - again I set it to a small deficit to allow for w/e freedom). If I haven't moved enough but want to eat a bit more I jump on my mini trampoline and earn it which I don't think is a bad habit to have and as worked for me but everyone is different.
  • fougamou
    fougamou Posts: 200 Member
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    I am still trying to work this out. I have been maintaining for two months, and suspect I will be tracking calories for some time -- both as I try to figure out my maintenance and as I try to figure out food combinations that end up at maintenance.


    I also have a Fitbit which gives me an estimate of calories burned each day. I THINK my maintenance is a bit lower that both Fitbit and MFP give me. Right now I am trying to leave about 100 cals on the table each day. My weight fluctuates so much over the course of a month, though, that I might be off on this assessment

    Essentially its all trial and error.
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
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    Personally I think 5'4 and 125lbs is the perfect weight..only because I am the height and remember my younger days at the weight..

    Ditto this. Due to

    Im 5'6" and the low end of the BMI scale for me 125 & the high end is 159.9 in the healthy weight range.

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