Are you discouraged by your TDEE
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I agree with OP. The maintenance calories for a smaller, lighter person are pretty low. I'm 5'1.5", and I use a Fitbit HR and am in maintenance. It's a rare day that I get over 1500 calories, and I'm fairly active, typically walking 10,000 steps a day. I'm on vacation this week and was "rained in" yesterday, and did a van field trip food tour. My Fibit showed me using only 1200 for the day, and I know I out-ate that on the foodie tour.0
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I agree with OP. The maintenance calories for a smaller, lighter person are pretty low. I'm 5'1.5", and I use a Fitbit HR and am in maintenance. It's a rare day that I get over 1500 calories, and I'm fairly active, typically walking 10,000 steps a day. I'm on vacation this week and was "rained in" yesterday, and did a van field trip food tour. My Fibit showed me using only 1200 for the day, and I know I out-ate that on the foodie tour.
oh boy. Well Cheers to us small folk! I'm so thankful my taste buds have grown from the more standard-americanized palate I used to have..
I'm going to figure out my fitbit today! I'm definitely going to keep a very low baseline and eat back exercise calories. It's been working for me for about a year now (slowly losing, now i can transition into maintaining soon) at least so I could certainly do it for life as long as a food and activity logger exists in some manner
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nordlead2005 wrote: »If you've been losing weight you should have kept accurate records and you wouldn't need an online estimate to set you up to maintain..
B-but that's what I've been using MFP for! I'm terrible at manual record keeping. I'll get there. I'm currently 6lbs away from my stretch goal but I want to get into maintenance mindset.
I just think... eating 1400 calories a day is kinda bleh! Social meals are calorie dense, I'll just always have to eat very lightly. I am just a small person living in a tall people world. People tend to think I'm under eating but they don't understand I can't do 2000 calories to maintain.
First make sure that is your real calorie need. It sounds a bit low.
Then don't compare yourself to others. You don't care what others may or may not think! Unless they can see that you are underweight, they have no business suggesting that you are undereating. As long as you are satisfied and healthy, you are eating what's right for you. Your perception may also be skewed by your old normal portions, if you have been overweight.
For reference (and that's what you asked for), I'm 45, female, 5'3", 122-127, quite sedentary, and maintain on 1775. I feel happy eating that amount of food. I'm totally satisfied, I think I eat what's right for me now. I feel different. The full feeling now isn't like it was, it's more of a "total body and mind satisfaction" instead of "stuffed, can't move". I used to eat very unstructured at times, and it takes time to adjust to regular meals and appropriate portions. I can still eat a lot more than I do (at least most days, but it varies; for the last few days I've been sooo full), but I can easily choose not to. And it doesn't matter if I overeat now and then, because I don't do it all the time anymore.0 -
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.0 -
My TDEE at goal weight (based on current daily expenditure) will be 2050.0
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Using the IIFYM calculator, my TDEE is 2439 calories per day. No, that certainly doesn't discourage me. My eating today, the past 2 days, and the next 3 days will be 1200-1300. If I go out to a restaurant Sunday my eating might get as high as 2000 calories. I've utterly failed and cheated a couple of times since I started this in January and I didn't exceed 2400 calories either time.0
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CalorieCountChocula wrote: »AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.
I'd say, you are probably eating more than you think.0 -
CalorieCountChocula wrote: »AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.
I'd say, you are probably eating more than you think.
I weigh and measure my food. I know you're giving the stock MFP answer but save it for the newbies. I've lost 140lbs and have been doing this for yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. I'm not eating bags of chips and pizzas by accident or eating 1 cup of cereal that really equals 7 cups because I took a heaping scoop.0 -
CalorieCountChocula wrote: »AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.
I'd say, you are probably eating more than you think.
Probably, or go to the doctor and show the doctor the logs.
Also, I eat 1700 calories (not for maintenance) and have been known to have ice cream and pizza.
To the topic of the thread, when I first realized what my maintenance calories would be if sedentary, it bummed me out. But then I realized if I'm reasonably active (including walking) it's really not bad. I think it would be a challenge for me if I didn't have the option of being active.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »CalorieCountChocula wrote: »AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.
I'd say, you are probably eating more than you think.
Probably, or go to the doctor and show the doctor the logs.
Also, I eat 1700 calories and have been known to have ice cream and pizza.
Been to the doctor. Literally no problems other than highish cholesterol and obesity. I just don't lose weight at the same rate as most people. It's crap.0 -
JeromeBarry1 wrote: »Using the IIFYM calculator, my TDEE is 2439 calories per day. No, that certainly doesn't discourage me. My eating today, the past 2 days, and the next 3 days will be 1200-1300. If I go out to a restaurant Sunday my eating might get as high as 2000 calories. I've utterly failed and cheated a couple of times since I started this in January and I didn't exceed 2400 calories either time.
Why are you eating so few calories?0 -
I'm trying to set myself up for maintaining for life and I just want to know how much other people eat to maintain. Mine seems so low, it's almost depressing!
Are you generally active? Do you exercise regularly? These things make a big difference. When I was truly sedentary, my TDEE was around 2,300 calories...with more general activity and regular exercise it's around 3,000. I have a desk job, so to an extent there are some things out of my control...but outside of work, everything is in my control.0 -
I agree with OP. The maintenance calories for a smaller, lighter person are pretty low. I'm 5'1.5", and I use a Fitbit HR and am in maintenance. It's a rare day that I get over 1500 calories, and I'm fairly active, typically walking 10,000 steps a day. I'm on vacation this week and was "rained in" yesterday, and did a van field trip food tour. My Fibit showed me using only 1200 for the day, and I know I out-ate that on the foodie tour. oh boy. Well Cheers to us small folk! I'm so thankful my taste buds have grown from the more standard-americanized palate I used to have..
I'm going to figure out my fitbit today! I'm definitely going to keep a very low baseline and eat back exercise calories. It's been working for me for about a year now (slowly losing, now i can transition into maintaining soon) at least so I could certainly do it for life as long as a food and activity logger exists in some manner
My wife is 5'2"ish and she maintains on a range of about 2000 - 2300 calories. She's an avid runner and lifter though...plus we have two young kids that we chase around and outside of our desk jobs, we're always up and about cooking or cleaning or fixing stuff or doing yard work or playing with the kids in the park or walking around the zoo, etc. Basically we end up spending very little time on our butts outside of work.0 -
I chose MFP over doing TDEE.
When I looked it up there were 3 formulas that are all accepted for calculating TDEE. And the output is significantly different. Since it takes into consideration all your exercise for the week and divides it up. It assumes you can eat TDEE everyday and it will balance out. That worries me as my weeks are not the same. I was doing cardio with limited weights about 5x (30min) sessions / week. So 2.5 hours. Then I went to splitting strength every other day with cardio in between. I bounce between 5-6 workouts a week. So now about 5 hours a week of workout time. We walk at night a lot. We go hike or bike some weekends. This doesn't all fit neatly into TDEE. We log them all into MFP though.
I setup MFP and went a little low. So my number to maintain is something like 1920. So I can eat back some of my workout calories every day I workout. Not all but a chunk. That keeps me at maintenance +/- 3lbs. WE log all our food info, weigh a lot, eat cleaner. Having numbers each day that more reflect how each day went feels more comfortable. Even if it is only a mental thing.
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CalorieCountChocula wrote: »AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.
It's all relative (though I do realize this is on the low side for a male with your stats. And awesome job on the weight loss so far!). For me, maintenance is (I hope; I'm currently gradually increasing calories) around 1700-1800 with exercise. I ate 1350/day to lose weight, so 1800 sounds pretty good. I can definitely fit in pizza and/or ice cream with 1800/day, as long as serving sizes are reasonable.
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I never know what to set my activity level to on those TDEE sites.. The only exercise I do is walking, and I "try" to aim for 15kms (9.3m) 7 days a week, not always successful though. So I usually pick lightly active.0
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Christine_72 wrote: »I never know what to set my activity level to on those TDEE sites.. The only exercise I do is walking, and I "try" to aim for 15kms (9.3m) 7 days a week, not always successful though. So I usually pick lightly active.
I never know what to pick either! I walk about half that, but strength train-and choose lightly active. It's usually about right. I'd say if you're losing/maintaining/gaining at the rate you have set, you made the right choice. It is annoying though, I'm always tempted to choose "active" but when I see the calories it gives me...I know it's a bit high.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I never know what to set my activity level to on those TDEE sites.. The only exercise I do is walking, and I "try" to aim for 15kms (9.3m) 7 days a week, not always successful though. So I usually pick lightly active.
Same here. I usually have to "extrapolate" my activity level from how much I eat and my weight/height/age/gender. This one is brilliant, bordering clairvoyant, though; I plug in "very light" "physical activity at work or school" and "light" "physical activity at leisure time", and get the exact amount of calories I eat on average: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/weight-loss-calculator0 -
CalorieCountChocula wrote: »CalorieCountChocula wrote: »AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN.
I'm a 5'11" male. 224lbs. I shoot for about 1800 calories a day. Been coming down from about 250lbs. My trend app says at my current rate of loss (.8lbs a week) I'm eating 422 calories below my TDEE. Let's do the math on that. So my TDEE is 2222. That's insanely low. "Oh but you're probably sedentary and practically move as much as someone in a coma." Nope. I work out 4 days a week. It's total crap. The whole "you get to have pizza and ice cream and still lose weight" thing is out the window. None of that for me. Salmon. Broccoli. Chicken. Broccoli. More chicken. Yawn.
I'd say, you are probably eating more than you think.
I weigh and measure my food. I know you're giving the stock MFP answer but save it for the newbies. I've lost 140lbs and have been doing this for yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. I'm not eating bags of chips and pizzas by accident or eating 1 cup of cereal that really equals 7 cups because I took a heaping scoop.
Well I still have doubts, because you're not logging everything. Those days you are eating 1000 calories under your goal, well, there's no way to know if you're not just eating 2000 calories extra and just not logging them. And I'm the first to know that it's very easy to think you're doing so well but to actually end up eating much more than you think when you're not logging everything.
So yeah... I still think you're eating more than you think. And I see you just reduced your goal a couple weeks ago, so it really doesn't mean anything that you haven't lost more since.
Also... exercising 4 days a week, even for an hour, isn't much if you're not active the rest of the time.0 -
OP, my TDEE is pretty low in the winter time (1650-1700), because I'm very inactive. It's a few hundred calories higher when the weather warms up. My method for maintaining is a deficit during the week, so I can go higher on the weekends. It makes it easy to enjoy social events where there is a lot of food and drink involved.
Definitely start using your Fitbit so you can get a better idea of what your weekly average is.0
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