What should my calorie intake be?

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Tionne31
Tionne31 Posts: 91 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Stats:
Woman, 5'6, 182.4 lbs and I get about 8,200 steps daily (shooting for 10,000 daily) 5 days a week (could be more or less on the weekends) depending on what is going on.

I am seriously considering working out 3x a week (home videos/YouTube full body or circuit training) since it appears that one can lose muscle as the weight drops and that seems to be what everyone says will prevent it. I used an online calculator to find my TDEE and received the following results. Note I chose activity level of sedentary since currently I only routinely get in steps.


Your Maintenance Calories

1,845
calories per day
12,913
calories per week
Based on your stats, the best estimate for your maintenance calories is
1,845 calories per day based on the Mifflin-St Jeor Formula, which is widely known to be the most accurate. The table below shows the difference if you were to have selected a different activity level.

Basal Metabolic Rate 1,537 calories per day
Sedentary 1,845 calories per day
Light Exercise 2,114 calories per day
Moderate Exercise 2,383 calories per day
Heavy Exercise 2,652 calories per day
Athlete 2,921 calories per day


I want to know what my intake should be if I only do steps AND what it should be if I start working out 3x a week? Furthermore, will I need to eat back any calories if I start working out 3x a week on those days?


Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post, trying to provide the information I think will be asked.

Replies

  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
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    I'd suggest entering this info into the MFP app rather than a different online calculator if you plan on tracking with MFP - you did it the right way choosing sedentary based on your everyday activity (type of work you do, etc), and then log your exercise separately. The app will tell you how many cals you should eat to lose weight. Log your food, and log your workouts, MFP will adjust your calories as you go.

    In theory you should eat back the extra calories you burn through your logged workouts, but keep in mind that burn is a very rough estimate, especially if you're not using a heart rate monitor of some type and an app that keeps track of your HR while working out. So it's a good idea to try eating back about half of those calories and see how it goes.
  • Tionne31
    Tionne31 Posts: 91 Member
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    Okay, thank you very much @extra_medium
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Tionne31 wrote: »
    Stats:
    Woman, 5'6, 182.4 lbs and I get about 8,200 steps daily (shooting for 10,000 daily) 5 days a week (could be more or less on the weekends) depending on what is going on.

    I am seriously considering working out 3x a week (home videos/YouTube full body or circuit training) since it appears that one can lose muscle as the weight drops and that seems to be what everyone says will prevent it. I used an online calculator to find my TDEE and received the following results. Note I chose activity level of sedentary since currently I only routinely get in steps.


    Your Maintenance Calories

    1,845
    calories per day
    12,913
    calories per week
    Based on your stats, the best estimate for your maintenance calories is
    1,845 calories per day based on the Mifflin-St Jeor Formula, which is widely known to be the most accurate. The table below shows the difference if you were to have selected a different activity level.

    Basal Metabolic Rate 1,537 calories per day
    Sedentary 1,845 calories per day
    Light Exercise 2,114 calories per day
    Moderate Exercise 2,383 calories per day
    Heavy Exercise 2,652 calories per day
    Athlete 2,921 calories per day


    I want to know what my intake should be if I only do steps AND what it should be if I start working out 3x a week? Furthermore, will I need to eat back any calories if I start working out 3x a week on those days?


    Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post, trying to provide the information I think will be asked.

    If you get 10000 steps, you would likely fall under the light active...sedentary accounts for up to 5,000 steps or equivalent activity. If you're using the TDEE approach, you would account for exercise in your activity level...if you ate back exercise calories, you'd be double dipping. The reason you eat back calories with the MFP approach is because they aren't accounted for in your activity level.

    Personally, I'd go with light and knock off 500 calories for a 1 Lb per week weight loss target and watch what happens over the coming weeks and make adjustments as necessary...ie if you're dropping faster than desired, up calories a bit...too slow, then drop them.

    Any and all of these calculators provide for a reasonably good starting point...but ultimately your own data is going to determine where you need to be.
  • Tionne31
    Tionne31 Posts: 91 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Tionne31 wrote: »
    Stats:
    Woman, 5'6, 182.4 lbs and I get about 8,200 steps daily (shooting for 10,000 daily) 5 days a week (could be more or less on the weekends) depending on what is going on.

    I am seriously considering working out 3x a week (home videos/YouTube full body or circuit training) since it appears that one can lose muscle as the weight drops and that seems to be what everyone says will prevent it. I used an online calculator to find my TDEE and received the following results. Note I chose activity level of sedentary since currently I only routinely get in steps.


    Your Maintenance Calories

    1,845
    calories per day
    12,913
    calories per week
    Based on your stats, the best estimate for your maintenance calories is
    1,845 calories per day based on the Mifflin-St Jeor Formula, which is widely known to be the most accurate. The table below shows the difference if you were to have selected a different activity level.

    Basal Metabolic Rate 1,537 calories per day
    Sedentary 1,845 calories per day
    Light Exercise 2,114 calories per day
    Moderate Exercise 2,383 calories per day
    Heavy Exercise 2,652 calories per day
    Athlete 2,921 calories per day


    I want to know what my intake should be if I only do steps AND what it should be if I start working out 3x a week? Furthermore, will I need to eat back any calories if I start working out 3x a week on those days?


    Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post, trying to provide the information I think will be asked.

    If you get 10000 steps, you would likely fall under the light active...sedentary accounts for up to 5,000 steps or equivalent activity. If you're using the TDEE approach, you would account for exercise in your activity level...if you ate back exercise calories, you'd be double dipping. The reason you eat back calories with the MFP approach is because they aren't accounted for in your activity level.

    Personally, I'd go with light and knock off 500 calories for a 1 Lb per week weight loss target and watch what happens over the coming weeks and make adjustments as necessary...ie if you're dropping faster than desired, up calories a bit...too slow, then drop them.

    Any and all of these calculators provide for a reasonably good starting point...but ultimately your own data is going to determine where you need to be.

    Oh gotcha, I am getting a better understanding of how all of this works. There is so much info out there on the web I wanted to make sure I was going about things in a way that wouldn't derail all or any of my efforts. Thanks for your response.
  • rmgnow
    rmgnow Posts: 375 Member
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    1845 sounds like a good start.
    Eat your exercise calories back if you want.
    -if you're extra aggressive you can not eat some back.

    Keep the activity level at sedentary, because you are not sure how many steps you can get in your day, so sedentary keeps you on the conservative side. And if you want to sit around and not do anything, you don't pay for it.

    You will lose some muscle with your fat if you hit the cardio hard, you can lift to keep some muscle, but that is a long process

    Key thing is to log all your food accurately, even if you blow your calorie allowance.
    Logging helps you know what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong

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