Women, what are "maintenance calories" for you?
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I've been averaging around 1600 and maintaining. I weigh myself every day and average that as well. The real answer to how many calories you need to maintain is whether your weight is stable long term at that caloric intake. If you log everything every day and weigh yourself regularly it will become clear.
When I first switched to maintenance I was paranoid and kept my calories closer to an average of 1500 and very very slowly lost weight. Not obvious in the short term but over a month I could definitely see it.0 -
5'6", 50yo, 183. Fairly sedentary, but I do chase my 2 yo granddaughter around 4 days a week. I also have PCOS and Insulin resistance. I maintain around 1400 or so. I have been at maintenance for about the past year, not intentionally, just too much stuff going on right now to be able to concentrate fully on losing.
If I ever reach my goal of 155, I am afraid my maintenance will be around 1000-1200. ugh.
May I please say this makes me : (
1400 should never have to be your maintenance cals - certainly nothing lower.
I'm 50 . 5'4 . Around your weight, size 8 . Straight up size 8. I maintain with a very doable lifestyle activity level @ 2200 cals. I enjoy my food, my activity. Anyone can. PROMISE!!
I challenge you to rethink your scale weight goal and focus on changing your body composition with some strength training in your life and some nutrition tweaks. Please please don't resign yourself to a life of 100O cals.
What is NOT on my bucket list? aging and losing my functional strength and falling and can't get up. Oh! And I want to enjoy food all the way to the grave and looking pretty dang fantastic doing it.
K. / passionate rant
Peace out
I should have added that I have a spinal cord injury/disease (cauda equina syndrome) and am partially disabled. So my activity is limited. But even 20 yrs ago when I was bodybuilding and working a very active job as a baggage handler, I was still only maintaining around 2500, much less than the other lady lifters and girls I worked with. I actually never knew why I had to eat less than others til I came on here and found out that PCOS lowered your metabolism. Years of frustration finally explained.
I'm glad I still have a lot of my muscle left, or it would be even worse! Constant muscle spasms help.0 -
26, 5'3ish, decently active. I use my body media fit to track and I can be as low at 1900 or as high as 2400, depending.0
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For the past six weeks or so I've been eating on average around 1700-1800 calories. I'm 5'0", doing a boot camp class 5 days a week, running 4-5 days a week as well. I seem to be fluctuating around the same weight +/- 0.8 lbs or so, so I'm pretty sure I'm just maintaining. I'm dropping to 1500 cals or so to see if I can budge the scale a bit. But eating this keeps my energy levels stable so I can keep on doing double days.0
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5'1"24, lightly active, 1900-ish.0
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I maintain on 2700. However, I'm really active with a lot of lean mass: Crossfit 3-4x per week, powerlift for 60 min 3x per week, olympic lifting class 2 hours per week, usually do 2 yoga classes per week and hike/walk/run/swim 1-2x per week. I'm also a bartender/server so I have a fairly active job.0
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I am 5'3", 96lbs and consume around 1200 calories/day to maintain. Doesn't sound like much, but I've always been slim and I'm not very active nowadays. I jog for two miles once a week, as well as Zumba for an hour (admittedly, I haven't even been very consistent with these things for the past couple of weeks).0
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I'm 50, 5'6" tall and making my way back down to 140 -- damn vacation. :-) My maintenance (3 years at goal) is around the 2300 mark. I exercise 5X week (run 3X week in summer) and stay fairly active during the day (I raise cattle).0
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Hi
I am age 51, 5ft 8 ins tall, lightly active - Fitbit target 10,000 steps daily, 3 power walks a week, plus 3 kettle bell workouts. Otherwise I am reasonably active around the house and gardens. MFP says 2,140 net cals a week and I seem use 2,500 on Fitbit. I am building up slowly and would like to settle around 2,000 net, which should leave me some room for away days ;-)0 -
This is interesting as I'm more or less at my goal and have been trying to work this out.
I'm 32, 5'4'', 116lb, have a reasonably active lifestyle (some walking around at work, cycle 10 mins there and back) and run 50 miles a week. I've been eating an average of 2300 calories/day over the past 30 days and have lost about 3lb in that time, so I'm thinking maybe 2500-600...0 -
The same question has popped into my head recently as I near my desired weight of 57kg (which is the weight I've been for most of my adult life, until menopause and two broken ankles contributed to a 20 kg weight gain). I'm 165cm tall (5'6") and almost 58.
I've been sticking at 1200 cals for weight loss, and hardly ever eating back my exercise calories. Once I hit my goal weight, the first thing I will do is eat back my exercise calories and raise the limit to 1500 cals. After a month, I'll review my weight change and adjust if necessary. It will certainly be nice to have a few glasses of wine!1 -
5ft. 2,500-3,000 cal
i've gained about 33 pounds on it so far but i am now maintaining on it which is awesome
im now 103 lb0 -
I've maintained for six months prob eating up to around 2800 or even more a day - i binge eat outwith my logging - yes something Im getting help with. Im 146lb age 30 5 ft 5 but I do seven workouts every week including hiit training, weights etc. Im very active.
I reckon trial and error and don't be afraid to eat more!0 -
I'm 43 5'7" and 127lb. I maintain without exercise at 1750-1800.
I burn 600 cals an hour running
4-500 cycling and swimming
200 walking
300ish weight training, maybe more....
non exercise days are sad food dayz.....
I've got in the habit of under playing my exercise calories a little(10%), and allowing the odd day 'off piste' ie for a heavy weights day, I may add a few hundred extra cals to bulk a bit that day, and cut a little fat all the other days. Just a bit of recomping as I am happy where I am.0 -
I have recently his maitenance weight, so working my way up to maitenance calories.
It should be around 2100 a day...
I am 41, 5 ft 7, lift 3x a week (heavy), HIIT/Cardio 2-3x a week, desk job but a mom and lead a very active life.
I am still losing eating 1900-1950 a day...about 1/4lb-1/2lb a week...
I am hoping that my maitenance goes up as I see lots of women my size eating more...not sure what I would eat as the food I consume seems to satisfy me quite well.0 -
34yo, 5'2 135lb around 17% BF. I have a large amount of lean mass and maintain on 2400-2500 cals. This is via TDEE, I don't play the tracking burns game. I've built my metabolism up to this level as I use to not be able to maintain so high even when I had a higher activity level. Right now I'm just lifting as always with a powerlifting focus 4 days a week, sometimes 5 for 45-60 mins. I think I fit in cardio once a week right now for 15 mins.0
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I'm 42, 5'5" and around 155lbs - work from home and walk 30-60 minutes daily with strength training 2x a week -- 1800 calories seems to do it for me and I do not eat back exercise calories as my day is way more sedentary than MFP assumes
but like most people note - we are all going to be different
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I'm 5'2" and always stay at 110lbs no matter how much I eat. I could eat 1500cal or 2100 cal and all it does to me is my body will trigger itself to go to the loo more... And my weight stays the same. I know it's weird... But then it's impossible for me to go above or under that weight. Actually if anyone has any tip to help me with this I would love you forever. Lol. Thanks.0
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I'm 5'2" and always stay at 110lbs no matter how much I eat. I could eat 1500cal or 2100 cal and all it does to me is my body will trigger itself to go to the loo more... And my weight stays the same. I know it's weird... But then it's impossible for me to go above or under that weight. Actually if anyone has any tip to help me with this I would love you forever. Lol. Thanks.
Why do u want to be under 110? You are certainly not overweight. maybe you want to gain? My advice: if you are seeking body changes relative to size and definition, strength, firmness aka tone - don't seek to lose weight. Focus on body recomposition. Eat as high as you can and add progressive strength training to your life. You may go up on the scale but your body will transform to leaner, stronger and firmer.0 -
Under 1500. :sad:0
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I am 5'3.5", 64 years old, wanting to lose another 9-14 #, and average about 1700 (gross, not net). I am losing very slowly, so maintenance for me will probably be about 1800 (1850 according to Scooby!). My main exercise is walking & try to get at least 10,000 steps on Fitbit, but a lot of days life gets in the way & it is way less. (retirement is rough, lol!) Think I will have to start some strength training (or at least body weight exercise at first), because I like to eat!!0
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non exercise days are sad food dayz.....
Truth
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I am 38 years old, 5'4" and 144 lbs. I maintain at about 2100-2200 calories. Right now, I am eating about 1900 a day and losing about a 1/2 a pound a week. I lift heavy 3x a week, HIIT 3x a week and walk 3+ miles almost every day. I work from home and it's pretty much a desk job, but I do a lot of running around. I try not to sit for longer than 45 min at a time. I also have 4 kids ranging in ages 5-21 who all still live at home, so they keep me busy, too.0
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nearly 42yo, 5'8.5", still have some weight to lose (? 15-20lbs?), no PCOS or other metabolic issues.
I inadvertently maintained for awhile and found an average of about 2400 worked for me under normal circumstances. I'm basically a slug at home, but when I'm out of the house, I move around alot (city living without a car), keep up with my 9yo & 3yo, also run, take long walks for fat burning, and hit the gym 3-4 times per week. I'm currently averaging 17,000+steps per day, mainly because I've upped the running & walking so I can eat the same but still create a deficit to try to lose the rest of this flab.0 -
I think it's 2225? that includes lots of walking due to the fact I don't own a car and 1-2 x5 hour waitressing shifts at my work. It's hard to say, cause it's holidays now and if I'm not working extra my maintenance calorie well be less
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I usually eat around 2,000/day. I don't work out. But I do run around at work a lot some days. :-)
Any exercise I do, even just walking around, I will log and gladly eat back. I try to walk at least thirty minutes a day.0 -
I'm in the process of trying to figure this out. I switched to maintaining about a month ago, going by MFP's estimate for me (I'm 27 years old, 5'1", and trying to maintain around 105 lbs). Since switching to maintenance, I've lost another 3 pounds, which is not cool. . . I'm starting to notice hormonal issues connected to low body fat. I'm going to be attempting to gain those 3 pounds back. The maintenance number MFP gave me is 1600, so I suspect my true maintenance number for staying between 104-106 is around 1800-2000 (net).
This maintaining thing is hard, a lot harder to figure out than losing. I think it is going to take a couple months to figure it out, at least!0 -
5'5" 122-125 lb - maintenance is about 2300 for me. I'm quite active.0
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Oh boy. I was still slowly losing weight at 2700 so my coach has me up to 3010 now with very specific macros. I train powerlifting 3 days a week, LISS for 20 min 3x/wk.0
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an average of 2000 seems to work for me if I want to maintain my weight0
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