Help!! How many calories to maintain?!?

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thinkanon
thinkanon Posts: 2 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I am 5'3 and 117 pounds and hoping to maintain a 40 pound loss I just had. I looked up my maintence calories for my weight from multiple online calcs and they said about 1500 calories to maintain. I think this is reasonable because I am very sedentary but myfitnesspal said 1,600! Who do I trust? I really don't want to gain after all I have done :(

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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    at this point you should know on average how many Lbs you were losing per week...at this point you should have plenty of your own data and shouldn't really need a calculator...your own data is going to be far more accurate...do the math and base your assumptions on your own data, not some estimate from a calculator. these things are only meant to give you a reasonably good starting point...real world data is far more accurate.

    also, 1500 vs 1600 calories is hardly what I would call a significant variance..if you're going to use a calculator, take with a grain of salt...as I stated above, they are just reasonably good estimates...if you keep losing eat a little more...if you gain (not natural fluctuation gains) then drop them a little...real world data trumps any calculator there is.
  • sheldonklein
    sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    at this point you should know on average how many Lbs you were losing per week...at this point you should have plenty of your own data and shouldn't really need a calculator...your own data is going to be far more accurate...do the math and base your assumptions on your own data, not some estimate from a calculator. these things are only meant to give you a reasonably good starting point...real world data is far more accurate.

    also, 1500 vs 1600 calories is hardly what I would call a significant variance..if you're going to use a calculator, take with a grain of salt...as I stated above, they are just reasonably good estimates...if you keep losing eat a little more...if you gain (not natural fluctuation gains) then drop them a little...real world data trumps any calculator there is.

    This. Pick a number, any number. Log accurately. See what happens. Adjust accordingly.
  • mk2fit
    mk2fit Posts: 730 Member
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    MFP gave me 1540 for maintenance and I kept losing. I changed it to 1800 after a couple of weeks and have seemed to level off. I think a lot of it is based on how much exercise you do. You may need to fine tune for a few weeks to find your balance. I went to the IIFYM website and put in height, weight, exercise and up popped a number which was a very good guideline. Congrats on your weight loss and good luck maintaining it!
  • turbogirl68
    turbogirl68 Posts: 3 Member
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    I don't think u will be able to hit dead on anyways so if you aim for between those numbers you will be fine. Adjust as needed as to how you feel.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    Use your own data. MFP or any other source will just find an average based on people at a certain weight. Obviously everyones body structure and composition is different. Activity level and metabolism also change these estimates.
    Go for somewhere between 1400 and 1700 and Im certain with time you can fine tune and adjust accordingly. Maintenance is not easy to be honest. I have had to re-adjust and fine tune a fair bit. Good luck
  • pamelalabs
    pamelalabs Posts: 26 Member
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    i believe it should be around 1200 daily
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    pamelalabs wrote: »
    i believe it should be around 1200 daily

    You might want to rethink that answer. The OP is asking about maintenance, not weight loss.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Before I reached my goal, I had this idea that I'd figure out what my maintenance calorie goal should be and go from there. MFP gives me a goal of 2460. I still haven't figured out if that is the correct number or not because I frequently exercise and end up with a higher number. Yesterday, it gave me a goal of 3,672. I didn't eat that many calories, but on Sunday I didn't exercise and I think I went over the 2460 mark. I'm still logging everything, but I've decided that instead of worrying about the exact number, I'll just go with close enough and make any adjustments I need based on the bathroom scale.
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    sheldonklein wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    at this point you should know on average how many Lbs you were losing per week...at this point you should have plenty of your own data and shouldn't really need a calculator...your own data is going to be far more accurate...do the math and base your assumptions on your own data, not some estimate from a calculator. these things are only meant to give you a reasonably good starting point...real world data is far more accurate.

    also, 1500 vs 1600 calories is hardly what I would call a significant variance..if you're going to use a calculator, take with a grain of salt...as I stated above, they are just reasonably good estimates...if you keep losing eat a little more...if you gain (not natural fluctuation gains) then drop them a little...real world data trumps any calculator there is.

    This. Pick a number, any number. Log accurately. See what happens. Adjust accordingly.

    THIS!!! I am 110 pounds and 5'3" and I eat 1500-2000 depending on how active I am that day. Maintaining for 11 years now!
  • cilleriania
    cilleriania Posts: 11 Member
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    MFP tell me to eat 2080 to maintain. I eat 2300 and recently dropped a couple of lbs (unintentionally). It depends on so many things including activity level outside of exercise and during exercise. Look at what you were eating - add 100 calories per week until it levels out. Some people will get a jump in weight, if so, stay at the same (increased) calories for a few weeks to see what happens.
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
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    Also, be prepared to (possibly) gain a couple pounds of water weight right away when you switch from calorie deficit to maintenance. Your muscles may restore glycogen now that you are not eating at a deficit. This is not fat weight gain, and it shouldn't affect your measurements, how your clothes fit, or what you look like. So if that happens, don't freak out and drop your calories and despair that your maintenance calories are going to be super low.

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