1600 cals? Weight loss confusion!

rilj
rilj Posts: 2
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all I am 5ft4, female, 30 years old, weigh 135lbs. I want to lose 14lbs ideally.

I currently run 30mins 3x a week and do some body weight exercises at home 3x a week (body rock.tv).

I am confused on the calories I should be eating. Mfp sets it to 1200 which I can't stick to. So i worked out my tdee at about 1660 which tbh i still struggle with. Will I lose weight if I eat say 1800/1900 regularly and burn 300ish off a day?

Replies

  • Wonderob
    Wonderob Posts: 1,372 Member
    TDEE = 1660
    I.e if you consume 1660 calories and you maintain the same level of activity that you set in your TDEE then you will not gain & not lose

    If you consume an extra 240 calories (Calorie intake at 1900) then you will need to burn off an extra 240 calories to break even (not lose, not gain)

    So really to lose a lb a week you need to burn 700 a day and not the 300

    or consume less calories
  • trizzletrix
    trizzletrix Posts: 92 Member
    Hi all I am 5ft4, female, 30 years old, weigh 135lbs. I want to lose 14lbs ideally.

    I currently run 30mins 3x a week and do some body weight exercises at home 3x a week (body rock.tv).

    I am confused on the calories I should be eating. Mfp sets it to 1200 which I can't stick to. So i worked out my tdee at about 1660 which tbh i still struggle with. Will I lose weight if I eat say 1800/1900 regularly and burn 300ish off a day?

    Is that your TDEE with a percentage reduction for weight loss?
  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    use this http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

    your bmr is ~1320, adjusting for activity your tdee is probably ~2100

    don't listen to mfp's calorie recommendations they are always extremely low and off, you don't need to starve yourself at 1200, eat 1500-1600 a day at that activity and track your weight for 2 weeks, you should be losing ~ 1lb a week at that
  • Wol5894
    Wol5894 Posts: 127 Member
    Sorry to pry but, when you are in the "healthy" BMI range at around 23.17, why do you want to lower it to around 20?

    I know full well that BMI is not the be all and end all of everything and not the most accurate measure (think muscled rugby players who are classed as overweight or even obese when they are clearly not!) but why do you want to push yourself to extremes?

    Surely, if you can keep your weight nice and steady where it is, then that is a fantastic achievement in itself!

    I would give a LOT to be the weight you are (OK, so I am twice your age, an inch shorter and nearly 80 pounds heavier) but even at my lightest (around 138) I have never been able to hold to a weight like that.

    Do as you are doing and be HAPPY!
  • rilj
    rilj Posts: 2
    Thank you all so much for the advice and encouragement!
  • kuolo
    kuolo Posts: 251 Member
    Your BMR is around 1402 so it's unlikely your actual TDEE is 1660 as you are not sedentary. But if you do use your sedentary TDEE then exercise on top of that then yes you can lose, but you will still have to burn more than you eat. At your weight you're probably going to be looking at a half a pound a week weight loss. Have you tried setting the loss to half a pound in MFP and seeing what calorie goal it gives you? You will then be able to eat back your exercise calories on top of this.
    But basically you need to be burning 250 cal per day more than you take in to lose half a lb per week. So if you ate 1900 cal and burnt 250 in exercise a day you would probably maintain or gain not lose. But these calculators are never totally accurate and it depends on your muscle mass etc so there will be an element of trial and error, especially with a small margin like you will be working with.

    ETA: assuming you are sedentary apart from your exercise.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    MFP gave you 1200 calories based on the data you entered in.

    Such as weekly weight loss goal...over 1lb a week I suspect...and your activity level set at sedentary.

    Set your weekly goal at 1/2lb and move activity level to lightly active.

    With MFP you are suppose to eat your exercise calories back and if you are doing TDEE you shouldn't be eating them back.

    If your TDEE -X% is 1600 you need to stop eating back exercise calories.

    As well if you did "sedentary TDEE" then you might as well just change your data in MFP as you will get the same calories.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    With MFP you have to eat your exercise calories back. Your TDEE isn't 1600, it's probably around 2000. 1600 is just that with a 20% deficit, which is close to what you would get with MFP if you added your exercise to your goal, like you're supposed to.
  • tamalyn2000
    tamalyn2000 Posts: 2 Member
    confused?! as you are the same height as me and at my ideal weight yet you want to lose 14 pounds? thats a stone! you would be underweight for you height then?

    if you have lumps and bumps, maybe its better to do a dvd like jillian michaels 30 day shred, rather than dieting to lose weight, you would then lose some inchs and keep to the same weight.

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