5.65 female - maintenance calorie goal?

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yirara
yirara Posts: 9,554 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hello,

I'm 169cm (5.65 ft.inches) and currently weigh 58.3kg (128.5lbs), female, 41 years old. I'm still losing weight though I went into maintenance some 2kg ago. I don't want to lose more weight, but I also don't want to go into useless binging or eating sweets just to fill up with more calories. Upping calories slowly clearly hasn't worked yet.

So, scooby and this website give me 1600kcal per day for maintenance, which clearly is far too low. I run a few times a week and do some strength training whenever I feel like it. For running I eat back all calories that I calculate. This number is below what this site gives me. Yesterday I used 173kcal for a 28 minute slow run (12.8miles/km).

Is there someone with similar stats here? What is your maintenance allowance?
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Replies

  • Tubbs216
    Tubbs216 Posts: 6,597 Member
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    I think the calculation is off there. I'm 47 and a little bit shorter than you and my TDEE is somewhere between 1900-2000 cals. Are you sure 1600 isn't your BMR?
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,554 Member
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    Yep, all calculators give me a TDEE of around 1600 for a sedentary lifestyle. To that I'd add 70-350kcal for exercising should I decide to do something.

    If I chose 1-3 hours of exercise per week I get a TDEE of 1757 and with 3-5 hours of exercise I get 1980. I must admit I'm not quite happy with the TDEE calculation method and prefer MFP's and eating back exercise calories because if I do strength I might be in the gym for an hour, but in fact I only lift for around 12 minutes. It's different when I run, but I run so slow that I find it again difficult to quantify it with the TDEE method.
  • Zelinna
    Zelinna Posts: 207 Member
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    Your best bet is to keep adding calories until you find your maintenance amount. You don't have to fill it with sweets, but choose higher calorie foods that can boost your number.

    I am 34, 5'7 and I am still losing while eating 2250 calories a day but many calculators say I should be maintaining at that level. Its all about playing around and finding the number that works for you.
  • kluvit
    kluvit Posts: 435 Member
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    I'm not sure why you think 1600 per day is way too low, but I've maintained for 3 years by staying below that number if I'm not exercising. I'm 46 and 5'7" at 122 pounds with calculated maintenance calories of 1540, but I've found that I really need to stick to around 1450 + exercise calories (~100 calories per mile of running). You'll have to see what works for you, but the less you weigh and the older you get, the fewer calories you can eat to maintain.

    I just manage it like a budget and decide what foods are worth it to me. I typically say no to breakfast and snacks, but I consistently indulge in my daily Mocha Frappuccino Light and after dinner ice cream cone. No food is off limits, but some are just not worth it to me based on the %-age of overall budget they would require. It's a whole lot easier to say no when I think about how many miles it would take to run off a McDonald's shake!

    Best wishes in finding your balance and sticking with what works to make you successful!
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,554 Member
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    Hi kluvit,

    I'm still losing weight, and not slowly either. Thus 1600 must be way too low for me, regardless of what calculators say.

    Zelinna: yes, I have to increase until I find the right mumbers. I stopped lising a bit too late and since then lost another 2 kg. I think I do look too thin for my liking with my wide pelvis.
  • Allelito
    Allelito Posts: 179 Member
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    I'm 5'6", 57.7kg and this past month I've been losing ~0.5kg/week at 1550 calories, which is oddly fast, and would put my TDEE at over 2000 calories..
    I am a programming student, artist and gamer soooo.. Yes. Very senedary lifestyle.
    I lift 3x/week though, and I try to take at least like a 10min walk/take my bicycle to the supermarket/something equevalent every day so that I don't sit still all the time except for at the gym.
    I live on my own so asides from being on my pc, I cook and do dishes and such, but nothing big.

    I don't think it's unlikely that you can raise your calories a bit, in other words!
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I'm younger than you, so that will make our numbers a little different, but I'm 36 years old, 5ft, 6in and my TDEE a little over 1,700 calories, and I don't do a lot of exercise (if I remember correctly I entered in 3 days a week). I walk 2-6 miles a week, and then do 3 days a week of body-weight strength training, but it's only about 30 minutes a time (doing push-ups and squats challenges right now).

    My maintenance range is 120-125lbs.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,554 Member
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    Allelito wrote: »
    I'm 5'6", 57.7kg and this past month I've been losing ~0.5kg/week at 1550 calories, which is oddly fast, and would put my TDEE at over 2000 calories..
    I am a programming student, artist and gamer soooo.. Yes. Very senedary lifestyle.
    I lift 3x/week though, and I try to take at least like a 10min walk/take my bicycle to the supermarket/something equevalent every day so that I don't sit still all the time except for at the gym.
    I live on my own so asides from being on my pc, I cook and do dishes and such, but nothing big.

    I don't think it's unlikely that you can raise your calories a bit, in other words!

    Hey, great to hear of someone with similar stats and similar experience. I've upped my calories to 1800 now (current weight around 58.1kg. Yikes! That's almost teenage weight for me and I'm 41!) and will see how things go. I'm filling up with nuts and almonds just to reach that goal, though it's not the way I'd prefer as I can only get salted nuts, which might mess with water retention.

    Yes, I'm sedentary and sit a lot behind a computer as well apart from the workouts I'm doing. *sigh* losing weight was surprisingly much easier than maintaining. No, don't ask why I gained weight in the first place please! I do know why. :smile:
  • Allelito
    Allelito Posts: 179 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    Allelito wrote: »
    I'm 5'6", 57.7kg and this past month I've been losing ~0.5kg/week at 1550 calories, which is oddly fast, and would put my TDEE at over 2000 calories..
    I am a programming student, artist and gamer soooo.. Yes. Very senedary lifestyle.
    I lift 3x/week though, and I try to take at least like a 10min walk/take my bicycle to the supermarket/something equevalent every day so that I don't sit still all the time except for at the gym.
    I live on my own so asides from being on my pc, I cook and do dishes and such, but nothing big.

    I don't think it's unlikely that you can raise your calories a bit, in other words!

    Hey, great to hear of someone with similar stats and similar experience. I've upped my calories to 1800 now (current weight around 58.1kg. Yikes! That's almost teenage weight for me and I'm 41!) and will see how things go. I'm filling up with nuts and almonds just to reach that goal, though it's not the way I'd prefer as I can only get salted nuts, which might mess with water retention.

    Yes, I'm sedentary and sit a lot behind a computer as well apart from the workouts I'm doing. *sigh* losing weight was surprisingly much easier than maintaining. No, don't ask why I gained weight in the first place please! I do know why. :smile:

    Sweet! Sounds good, I'd love to know how 1800 works out for you! I'm currently upping my calories slowly (and I mean slowly, like 50 calories/week) just to prepare myself to eat a little more, and will eventually go into maintenance.. I just keep getting this "hmm, I might as well lose just a little more first, and then I'm ready..", but I need to start realizing it's soon time to maintain. :D
  • meganjcallaghan
    meganjcallaghan Posts: 949 Member
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    I'm a little younger and weigh about 10 pounds more...and do a fair bit of running. but even so, I have to eat back all my exercise calories despite the fact that mfp overestimates those as a general rule. I'm knocking back around 3200 a day at least to maintain
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
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    I'm a little shorter and weigh a few pounds less, but I maintain on 1850-1900 plus exercise calories, so my TDEE averaged over a week is probably closer to 2100. I would think you could eat more, particularly if you are still losing weight.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,554 Member
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    yesimpson wrote: »
    I'm a little shorter and weigh a few pounds less, but I maintain on 1850-1900 plus exercise calories, so my TDEE averaged over a week is probably closer to 2100. I would think you could eat more, particularly if you are still losing weight.

    Thanks a lot guys. Lets see what happens. I think one reason why I'm still losing above sedentary TDEE is because I have a fair bit of muscles. On the other hand I played quite a bit with TDEE calculators using different ages & different LBMs and didn't get much higher numbers out. I eat all my running calories back based on my own calorie calculations (it's somewhat lower than MFPs and based on METs). Yesterday I had 2000kcal :dizzy:
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I'm almost exactly the same height (5'6.5ish, 170 cm), but I'm half your age. I get 1800 for a sedentary maintenance, but I seem to lose a lot faster than I should if that's my actual maintenance number. Sometimes the numbers don't apply to you. I'd say keep increasing in 100-200 calorie increments until you stop losing, then start to (very slowly) gain. Then you would have found your maintenance right under that number. :)

    Editing to add... That's my maintenance number for 62 kg. :)
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,554 Member
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    Hiya Susieq! Great to hear about your maintenance calories. People say I look at least 10 years younger, so maybe I have the metabolism of a younger person as well (one can dream). Yes, I'll keep it at 1800 for a week at least and then reevaluate. At the moment it looks like it might still be a bit too low, but we'll see about that then.

    Btw, I wanted to maintain at 62kg as well, but my scale battery was empty and I found out I was at 60 when I finally got a new one (sometimes items just go out of stock for several weeks here). I've been trying to properly maintain from that point *sigh*
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 647 Member
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    I am 51 and my maintenance calories are 1550 at 5'6". I think that is pretty accurate. I run about 35 miles a week so I figure about 2100 per day... On weekends/holidays I am not sedentry so I get closer to 2500.
  • eseeton
    eseeton Posts: 80 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I am also in maintenance. 5'7" 137lb female. I use my fitbit to calculate so the method is a little off from you, but I also found that what it was telling me to eat was far too low, I'm still losing weight! My plan is to add back calories here and there that I cut out, such as requesting whole milk instead of 2% in coffees, using more oils to cook with, etc. I am averaging 2000 cals per day right now and am still losing.... I hope you are able to figure out your perfect calorie numbers!

    Edit: Your 1600 cals/day sounds very low to me, that is what I was eating dropping 1lb/week.
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    Hiya Susieq! Great to hear about your maintenance calories. People say I look at least 10 years younger, so maybe I have the metabolism of a younger person as well (one can dream). Yes, I'll keep it at 1800 for a week at least and then reevaluate. At the moment it looks like it might still be a bit too low, but we'll see about that then.

    Btw, I wanted to maintain at 62kg as well, but my scale battery was empty and I found out I was at 60 when I finally got a new one (sometimes items just go out of stock for several weeks here). I've been trying to properly maintain from that point *sigh*

    Getting too eat more is a good thing anyway! :) Hopefully you'll find that magic number soon! ;)
  • Sephixteeo
    Sephixteeo Posts: 75 Member
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    I'm also exactly your size and trying to get to 122-123 to maintain (ok with adding some muscle). I'm not small framed, so I don't want to get below 120. I'm only guessing my calories will be in the 1800-1900 range, depending on exercise. But, I know it will take guess work, too once I get there. Best of luck to you!
  • PrimroseFlower
    PrimroseFlower Posts: 110 Member
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    I am 165 tying to get to 155. I have my calories set at 1800. I don't log my work outs...I do kettlebell and run 4-5 times a week. Yall can add me if you want.
  • aprilricks86
    aprilricks86 Posts: 67 Member
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    I'm about the same height and weight, probably closer to 130 now, I lift for about an hour 4 times / week and do probably an hour of cardio / week and my maintenance is around 2100-2200. I am 29 years old, so mine is a probably bit higher than yours. I like Scooby's calorie calculator and have found it to be the most accurate for me personally.

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