Confused about calorie maintenance/deficit

blap4462
blap4462 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone,

I am a 25 year old female, around 5'3 and about 117 lbs. I am a healthy weight but I look best at 112-113 so I just want to lose those few pounds. I am just really confused about calories. I have been tracking all of my calories/weighing my food. I keep having problems because everything I have read has said females need to eat 1200-1500 cals to lose weight. I try to eat 1500 cals a day and then end up being soooo hungry at the end of the week and will have a day or 2 where I eat like 4500 calories- I still end up maintaining my weight like this and even losing but it's not what I want to do. So these past 2 weeks I've been averaging out around 1825 cals daily (some days I eat over 2000 and some days I'll eat 1400 but it evens out). I have lost 2 lbs the first week and 2.7 lbs this past week. I run 2-3 miles in the morning, spin and take weight lifting classes. Some days I run and take a class as well. I also live in a city so I walk to the gym, to get groceries, etc. so I'm pretty active but I also spend a lot of my day sitting in class or reading. I am just wondering if it's actually possible that my maintenance cals are around 3000?? My weight loss is also very noticeable to me so my scale isn't broken or anything like that. I'm just wondering if I should be eating more and why everything I reds says I should be eating 1200 calories (even most calorie expenditure estimators!) Thanks everyone!!

Replies

  • HutchA12
    HutchA12 Posts: 279 Member
    1200 cals is the base amount for women to get their full nutrition. If you arent very big and you choose to lose 2# per week MFP probably puts you there.

    MFP doesn't account for your exercise and you need to give it a proper activity level. If you work out a lot you need to log it and possibly eat back 50 to 75% of the cals depending on the rate of loss.
    At your weight and goal I would only set the app to a .5 pounds loss per week and eat back some exercise. Your probably hungry from just under eating while being active and that is causing your binging days. Which if you are having those negates all the very low cal days.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    Your data are your guide. Close to 5 pounds in two weeks is too fast. Eat more, but track, and adjust your intake as you discover a safe weight loss.
  • pineygirl
    pineygirl Posts: 322 Member
    I'm a little smaller than you (5'1 and 110lbs) and my maintenence calories are 2000 to 2500 depending on my activity. I lose 1lb per week eating 1500 to 2000 per day. I'd say my average maintenence is 2250 and I eat around 1750 to lose.

    I just switched to a smaller deficit so now I'm supposed to eat around 2000 per day...to lose 0.5lb per week...until I hit 108lbs. I look best at 110lbs but I'm undershooting my goal a little to account for the water weight I'll put on when I stop eating at a deficit and put my glycogen stores back.

    You sound pretty active so being hungry eating 1500 caloies seems about right. I'm pretty active. I take 15000 to 25000 steps a day (work on my feet and have an 18 month old little boy at home). I also do cardio (elliptical) daily and lift heavy 3 days a week.

    I don't think your maintenence is 3000 though. Maybe around 2500 some days but 3000 sounds really high.
  • pineygirl
    pineygirl Posts: 322 Member
    Also if you were maintaining before and just switched to a deficit you might have lost a good amount of water weight in addition to some fat...so try to see if after another week you are losing at the same rate.
  • sarahspenceee
    sarahspenceee Posts: 38 Member
    Girl, go to any weight loss clinic and have them calculate your BMR (Base Metabolic Rate ) and then create a deficit around 500 a day... so lets say your BMR is 1500 ( probably higher since you're really active)

    so BMR is 1500

    you eat 1300 calories which = a -200 deficit

    and then you burn 300 calories at the gym... which brings your deficit up to -500 calories

    don't eat your calories back.


    you can google your BMR. http://www.bmrcalculator.org/

    its not as accurate as getting a calculation from a medical weight loss clinic but its pretty close. mine is only 100 off from what the doctor told me.

    so after you figure that out, you can eat and workout to create a deficit that will get you down that 5 pounds. You're hungry because your body needs more fuel. that's why 1200 or 15000 cal doesn't feel comfortable.
  • sarahspenceee
    sarahspenceee Posts: 38 Member
    if you find that even though you are creating a deficit with calories and youre not losing enough, take a look at your macros. you could cut your carb intake to 70 ish... check out the app "eat this much" it creates a meal plan to fit a set calorie amount and macro values.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    sarahspenceee wrote: »
    if you find that even though you are creating a deficit with calories and youre not losing enough, take a look at your macros. you could cut your carb intake to 70 ish... check out the app "eat this much" it creates a meal plan to fit a set calorie amount and macro values.

    Unless OP has an underlying medical condition s/he has not yet shared, carbohydrates are not going to cause her to retain weight if s/he is in a calorie deficit.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    I think you're confusing BMR with TDEE.

    BMR is what your body burns just to keep your body functioning. This does not include what energy you spend to move thru normal daily activity or exercise. TDEE is the average that your body burns daily based on a typical week of activity & exercise.

    You don't create a deficit by subtracting from your BMR.
    sarahspenceee wrote: »
    Girl, go to any weight loss clinic and have them calculate your BMR (Base Metabolic Rate ) and then create a deficit around 500 a day... so lets say your BMR is 1500 ( probably higher since you're really active)

    so BMR is 1500

    you eat 1300 calories which = a -200 deficit

    and then you burn 300 calories at the gym... which brings your deficit up to -500 calories

    don't eat your calories back.


    you can google your BMR. http://www.bmrcalculator.org/

    its not as accurate as getting a calculation from a medical weight loss clinic but its pretty close. mine is only 100 off from what the doctor told me.

    so after you figure that out, you can eat and workout to create a deficit that will get you down that 5 pounds. You're hungry because your body needs more fuel. that's why 1200 or 15000 cal doesn't feel comfortable.

  • blap4462
    blap4462 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks for all of your responses! I know about BMR & TDEE which is why I was confused that I lost that much weight at 1825 calories. Most calorie estimators say I would burn around 2050 a day with my activity level, so at 1825 I should have lost less then 1 lb a week. 3000 sounds reaaally high to me also but thats the number I got after doing the math of my weight loss. Its definitely a possibility that some is water weight so I guess I will just increase my calories to 2000-2200 and see if I keep losing. Thanks again :)
This discussion has been closed.

Categories