5'1 Ladies- what are your maintenance calories?

I am 5'3", about 115, 38 years old with a desk job. I try to eat around 1500 a day however, at 110 pounds my stomach is flat and I have no butt (literally), but with heavy lifting and what not, I've put on a few pounds of muscle and now have a booty and fill out my jeans better. Unfortunately my stomach has a small pooch and there is a little "spillage" around the back (not sure what thats called). For me, its either eat more and have a butt, or eat less and have your jeans sag off you in the back.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

ILoveGingerNut wrote: »

Yes, being a shortie sucks, especially if you are no longer 20 and can't afford to hit the gym regularly. People who have 2000 cals a day are trolls and can keep their comments for themselves

How are they trolls?

I was wondering this as well.
Granted I have another 40 lbs or so to lose, but I'm 5'1'' and maintain on about 2500.

I would be interested to see how maintenance cals have changed as people got to goal weight. I'm down almost 40 lbs and there doesn't seem to be a huge difference at this point, but maybe that will change?

I think the troll thing was a joke. We all wish we could lose or maintain at 2k or more. Will try to join the petite group once I hit maintenance. Thanks for the link.

I am 5'1and a half. I was 5'2" but age has taken a toll. I am 65. I was in maintenance at around 1300 to 1400 calories a day. But I stopped maintenance and was eating anything that I wanted. Now I need to lose 18 pounds. MFP's suggestion of 1200 calories to lose weight is a joke for me. I need to stay close to 1000 calories in order to lose weight in any kind of timely manner. I tend to have some sedentary days but find myself busy many days. Right now I am walking for exercise. Does anyone else get frustrated when logging your walking speed and MFP says it is a leisurely walk and you have worked up a sweat and are walking fast?

SummerSkier wrote: »

@AgileK9 Not sure if you are asking about the spreadsheet ? In that I put the actual cals eaten per day. There is a way to export from MFP but I am not that smart...

I am eating between 1k and 1050 per day and not eating exercise back. My rate of loss to date has been an avg of 1.5 per week but I expect it to go more slowly the next month or so as I only have about 8 or 9 left to meet my planned goal. The TDEE cal says I can eat 1125 per day to lose at 1.5 per week so given all the margins of error (and with less calories they inflate quickly) I think that's about right. It says TDEE is about 1800-1900 but I am pretty active with jogging and horseback riding etc. I would probably gain weight if I ate back all my exercise calories allotted each day or just maintain. I am a REALLY good dieter. sadly. And honestly I don't ever remember ending a diet without a binge. So my focus this time is to research as much as I can about maintaining and keep an eye on the #s closely. Weighing all solids is really eye opening. Just comparing a cup of cereal to 21 oz shows the margins of error.

Thanks! Yes I was wondering about the spreadsheet...sorry

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

I'm 45 am 4'11 and weigh between 97-99 pounds on any given morning. I average 15,000 steps a day and seem to be maintaining at around 2000 calories which seems much higher than most others here.

Not too far off from me...on days where I run 5-6 miles at a harder pace or dance for 3-4 hours straight (mostly fast styles in a lead heavy venue) (either adding ~500 calories), I get ~14000ish steps. With net maintenance of ~1450-1500ish (this seems to largely match up with 1-wk buffered moving average of my weight compared with moving average of net calories over initial maintenance estimate), that brings me to close to 2000 calories on those days.

Unfortunately, I can't fit that much in on more than half of my days (have to fit in strength training several days; requires a lead heavy dance venue and a faster dance style; have to make time occasionally for adulting - ie food prep, laundry, dishes, groceries,..).

With additional dancing on run/weight training days and cycling to/between/from dance-only-day venues, it mostly balances out with the less active days above, though. My average exercise calories came out to ~400/day for the last few months. Usually a combination of a shorter run or weight training + dancing.

I'm still trying to lose some more weight (have met my initial goal, and with the weight training look better than I had previously at a slightly higher weight, but would definitely look better with a bit less weight), so not quite at maintenance yet. Currently at 115 lb (4'10").

maybe we could start our own group. I haven't tried to join because it is pretty specific that you have to be in maintenance and I am not quite there yet.

@Evamutt:
I bet you are hungry at 5'4 and 1200 calories bc I'm 5'0 and I am hungry on 1200 unless I workout and eat some of those calories back. My rate of loss is set at 1/2 lb a week, 1200 cal and I have lost 24lbs doing that, it just took me longer, but that's okay.
I just started getting back into strength training and I know this will change my body composition/ burn off some fat and I'm looking forward to that! Already seeing results with more muscle definition etc

lauren0930bush wrote: »

I'm 5'1 maintaining 95lbs eating 1700-1800 calories a day. They have online calculators that are really helpful to see how your maintenance changes with activity.

May I ask how active you are?

@thisisnewnow, I started losing at a similar point.

54, 5'1, 130lbs, with a goal of 102-107 lbs, revised to 100-105 after a year of maintenance.

My calories all the way through were 1200 for sedentary activity, but I ate back my exercise calories of about 200cals for an hour's exercise. (I have never step counted.).

It took a year to lose the weight and at some points, especially close to goal, it came off at a snails pace.

The down side of it all was my maintenance calories were 1200 too.

The up side, I was good at making 1200 go a long way.
I had learnt just moving more during the day could give me a couple of hundred more calories almost effortlessly.
That eating back my exercise calories, another 200 cals, was needed to have a healthy and sustainable maintenance where I could chose to take a break from exercise without having to drop my calories below 1200-1400.

I'm 64 now and have maintained my weight since that initial loss. Hang in there, it may be slow, but it is worth it.

Cheers, h.

I hit a plateau a few weeks ago...I upped my calories from 1200 to 1400...broke the plateau and I'm on 1300 atm. I am still losing 1lb per week and I am currently at 126.5lbs I love this thread

I'm 5'3" (36 years old) and bounce around between 120-125lb in maintenance. I eat 1650-1750 calories before exercise, closer to 1950-2000 when I walk for an hour or so. But I also find better success at higher calories with lifting 3 times a week.