How many calories?

literlover
literlover Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How did you figure out how many calories to eat to lose? I'm a 43 year old woman who exercises 5 days a week. (moderate) I realize as we get older we need to eat less but I feel like my metabolism has left the building. I haven't lost a pound in a year of trying.

Replies

  • Dreysander
    Dreysander Posts: 294 Member
    How many cals are you eating now and how are you tracking it?
  • literlover
    literlover Posts: 12 Member
    I'm working with a trainer who has suggested 1800cal/day. I feel this is too high but am giving it a try. I'm using mfp to track. So far no loss.
  • starwhisperer6
    starwhisperer6 Posts: 402 Member
    That seems high to me, but how tall are you, and how much do you weigh?
  • literlover
    literlover Posts: 12 Member
    5'8" 167lbs
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    edited December 2015
    At 43, female, 5'8" and 167lb, you have a BMR ~1450 calories/day. Assuming you are lightly active outside of exercise, that would give you a NEAT total of ~2000 calories/day. Add in 300 calories/day of exercise and you get 1800 calories/day to lose 1lb/week.

    Your trainer seems to have a reasonable TDEE based estimate. MFP uses NEAT, so it will naturally give you a lower total, but you have to add in exercise and eat that back to get the equivalent deficit.
  • starwhisperer6
    starwhisperer6 Posts: 402 Member
    I am 5'9 150 pounds 36 years old and with my exercise I get about 1600 calories a day, so maybe you work out harder than me, that is always possible. :) So try it for a couple of months and see if it has you losing where you want to. If not you could reevaluate after that.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    How accurate is your logging? I'd start there before reducing calories too much (although 1800 would be way to high for me to lose). Whenever I'm not losing it's more an issue with my logging than anything else though: bad logging = eating more than I think = no weight loss.
  • allyphoe
    allyphoe Posts: 618 Member
    I'm 42, 5'4", 150ish, and mostly sedentary. Maintenance for me is somewhere between 2,000 and 2,150, depending on whether I am "sit on the couch and watch TV all day" sedentary or "doing heavy brain work and going up and down the stairs to my office a couple times" sedentary.

    Over the last year, I've lost 22.9 pounds and consumed an average of 1,930 calories per day.
  • literlover
    literlover Posts: 12 Member
    Thank you everyone!
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    Since diet is 80% of it, I must mention that as we age we generally become less and less Carb tolerant. You may want to research Low-Carb or even Ketogenic diets. ;)
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    It may be a logging issue more then anything. Do you use a food scale?
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,588 Member
    literlover wrote: »
    How did you figure out how many calories to eat to lose? I'm a 43 year old woman who exercises 5 days a week. (moderate) I realize as we get older we need to eat less but I feel like my metabolism has left the building. I haven't lost a pound in a year of trying.

    I entered my details into MFP, selected a weight loss goal of 0.5 kg/week, and MFP gave me a max calorie amount.

    Using a food scale to weigh and log everything, I stuck to that max calorie amount like glue for 4 months .... and lost 15 kg in those first 4 months. :)

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