So... Does The Average Woman Maintain On 2000 calories?

Waiting for the "I'm gaining on 1200 calories" comments...

I am 5ft 4, 26 and only active due to exercise, usually 3x a week. If I ate 2000 calories a day, I'd gain. I am losing on 1200-1400. Maintain is about 1750 for me.

I thought the 2000 calories was supposed to be an average between a man and a woman, I thought I read somewhere that the average woman (I believe falling within average body fat and weight at height 5'5"-5'6") maintains at 1800 and the average man (don't remember the stats) maintains at 2200 while being minimally active. Personally my TDEE is calculated around 2100-2200 (5'4" lifting mostly a little cardio and yoga as well) though I'm still trying to lose right now.

According to IIFYM, once I hit my goal weight, I'm only looking at 1800 or so calories to maintain my weight even with exercise. On MFP, it'll be around 2080 without any exercise. According to several other calculators, my TDEE will vary from 1500 to 2100 depending on activity level. I think everyone has to work to find exactly what their TDEE is. As others have said, 2000 is just an average.

I'm working my way up to maintenance calories now. I really hope I can maintain on 2000 or even more calories lol. I'm short though, so who knows.

My maintenance right now would be about 2280, and going lower, past 2000 once I reach my goal weight. So probably no.

Graelwyn75 wrote: »

How many other women here maintain their weight on 2000 calories a day?

I'm 5'4.5"
This morning's weigh in was 171.2lbs
I've been averaging about 1.1lb per week loss while eating 1800-2000 calories per day on average. So 2000 calories would still have me losing weight. Based on my intake vs loss, I would currently maintain on somewhere around 2500 calories.
MFP says if I'm sedentary (no exercise) I should maintain on about 1900 calories. I'm not sedentary though, so I don't know how true that would be for me.

Scooby says my TDEE is 1,750. I'm losing on 1,450 including light exercise, although MFP gives me a baseline of 1,250 to lose 1 lb. a week (Sedentary). At roughly a 200-300 cal. deficit per day, I'm losing about 1 lb. every 12 days instead, which seems very reasonable.

I have considered changing my loss to .5 lb. per week to be more realistic now that I'm halfway to GW, but since I don't stick to the baseline anyway, I'm afraid that will give me too much fudge factor, and I'll stop losing weight.

I haven't gotten there again yet but expect to maintain on 2000/day at goal weight, as I did before (actually I maintained before at a bit above that). I lose on 2000/day presently but I am still obese. I am sedentary.

the numbers vary wildly depending on the amount of exercise you do.

the figures 2000 for women and 2500 for men imply that the person is fairly active. nowadays, people are more sedentary, so burn less. Most sedentary women will gain weight on 2000 calories/day. However, back in the day when people actually walked everywhere and had jobs that had them on their feet all day instead of sitting down, most women would maintain on around 2000 calories a day, or even a little more than that.

I'm 5'1" and female, and I maintain on 2100 cals/day with a reasonably active lifestyle which involves walking up and down stairs rather than taking the lift. I currently walk to work and back, and burn even more than that.

The moral of the story is that a major part of the obesity crisis is due to the fact that people are sedentary. If modern people were to eat what people in the 1950s ate, they'd still be obese, because people in the 1950s were a lot more active. (and all the people who blame the obesity crisis on wheat, HFCS and other demonised ingredients need to realise that).

neandermagnon wrote: »

the numbers vary wildly depending on the amount of exercise you do....

...The moral of the story is that a major part of the obesity crisis is due to the fact that people are sedentary. If modern people were to eat what people in the 1950s ate, they'd still be obese, because people in the 1950s were a lot more active. (and all the people who blame the obesity crisis on wheat, HFCS and other demonised ingredients need to realise that).

QFT

I'm 5'1", but once I'm happy at my weight, I think I may try 1850 - 2000 cal/day for maintenance. BUT i am a distance runner. i run 9 miles/day, every day. So i think i'll try it out, monitor my weight, and adjust if necessary.

Graelwyn75 wrote: »

I replied to a topic about 2000 calories on another forum, where I said that the majority of females, other than those who are older, shorter or have medical conditions, can maintain their weight on 2000 calories a day (which seems to be the common recommendation on nutritional labels etc) to which another poster replied with :

Average is average...average doesn't mean majority. There are going to be women that fall below that and women that can maintain on more than that.

5'4" is considered the average height of the average woman in the U.S....if I put the average stats of the average woman into a TDEE calculator and assume light activity (I don't think the average person is sedentary), I get right around 2,000 calories per day to maintain.

I don't think the 'average' in the US is really 2000 though, the average American is overweight and doesn't exercise, so you're probably looking at 2500+ for them to maintain... 'average' is all relative.