Diet recommendations for short people
mrs_zilla
Posts: 34 Member
Hello. Anytime I use the MyFitnessPal calorie calculator, it puts me on a 1200 calorie diet.
I want to lose weight and I'm 4'10" (148cm). Any online calculator tells me that my basal metabolic rate is around 1200, and you're supposed to eat 500calories less than your daily calorie consumption to lose any weight. I'm not especially active due to illness and basic mathematics tell me I should consume 700 calories a day. But if I configure my profile for 700 calories it keeps telling me I'm not consuming enough calories.
Also, it's annoying that the MyFitnessPal calculator ignores how small I am and puts me on a "default" diet.
I want to lose weight and I'm 4'10" (148cm). Any online calculator tells me that my basal metabolic rate is around 1200, and you're supposed to eat 500calories less than your daily calorie consumption to lose any weight. I'm not especially active due to illness and basic mathematics tell me I should consume 700 calories a day. But if I configure my profile for 700 calories it keeps telling me I'm not consuming enough calories.
Also, it's annoying that the MyFitnessPal calculator ignores how small I am and puts me on a "default" diet.
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Replies
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renatarocha wrote: »Hello. Anytime I use the MyFitnessPal calorie calculator, it puts me on a 1200 calorie diet.
I want to lose weight and I'm 4'10" (148cm). Any online calculator tells me that my basal metabolic rate is around 1200, and you're supposed to eat 500calories less than your daily calorie consumption to lose any weight. I'm not especially active due to illness and basic mathematics tell me I should consume 700 calories a day. But if I configure my profile for 700 calories it keeps telling me I'm not consuming enough calories.
Also, it's annoying that the MyFitnessPal calculator ignores how small I am and puts me on a "default" diet.
I can't answer this for you but if it makes you feel better, it ignores height for tall people as well. My BMR is 1650 and it says to lose 2 lbs a week, I would have to eat 1200 calories which is way less than my BMR. No Way Jose!! I would put my body in a total panic if I ate that low.2 -
A couple of gentle corrections:
1. You're supposed to eat less than your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) number to lose, NOT your BMR.
2. The amount you take away from your TDEE is dependent on the rate you want to lose, not a standard 500 calories. It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound, so if you want to lose one pound per week, you'd aim for TDEE-500. To lose a half a pound per week, you'd do TDEE-250 on a daily basis, or TDEE-1000 to lose two pounds per week, etc.
3. MFP's floor is 1200 calories. It doesn't matter how tall you are or how many pounds per week you'd like to lose -- it will never recommend under 1200 calories for anyone.
Most people can't lose two pounds per week, although EVERYONE wants to lose as quickly as possible. Two pounds per week is really only achievable for people who have 50-75+ pounds to lose. When you set up your profile, how many pounds per week did you tell MFP you wanted to lose?14 -
Your BMR are your calories if you stayed in bed 24/7, so unless you are bedridden you use more calories.
Look up your TDEE (this includes activity + exercise).....take a cut from that.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
A 250 calorie cut is 1/2 pound a week. Close to goal (10-15 pounds) - a 1/2 pound a week goal is appropriate.
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You are supposed to eat 500 less than your TDEE, not your BMR. You may have to go a little lower than 1200 at your height, but I doubt you would need to go as low as 700. Mfp is also set up for you to lose with no exercise, so if you do exercise you should log that and eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories.2
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Well, as far as I can tell you are a statistical outlier that way - you'd have to weigh a fair bit to be able to lose a pound per week at 1200 calories and a sedentary level of activity.
I see how the app's 'one size fits all' approach that way might gall you; if it's fair to squawk at everyone regardless of height for eating under 1200 calories, it should be fair to squawk at everyone regardless of activity level for eating 5000+ calories a day (which I sometimes did, at my highest level of activity).
If it makes you feel any better, the app doesn't do a great job of handling good outcomes (for example, social feed posts congratulating you) for people who are actively trying to gain weight either.
If I were you I'd just eat at the level that the math comes out to (from a Mifflin-St. Jeor calculator or whatever) ignore the squawking from the app, and keep an eye on my health markers and level of energy to make sure I wasn't starving myself.2 -
when you set up the MFP calculator - what did you set rate of loss to? what is your current weight/goal weight? unless you are extremely obese - .5lbs a week is probably a good rate of loss for you
also MFP has your deficit built into the calorie recommendation - so you don't need to subtract additional calories from it
it also does not include purposeful exercise - so if you workout, you can eat back (at least) a portion of those calories1 -
A calorie deficit, same as for tall people2
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Eat off the kids menu. You might even get it for free since you're short.
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I recommend focusing on the kinds of food you eat with a such a low caloric intake. IE, focus on eating vegetables with every meal and some kind of protein option. See how those numbers add up and if you're losing weight, then go from there.
It's hard as a shortie to focus on numbers when so many foods available and marketed are so calorie dense.0 -
You don't need to eat 500 fewer calories every day to lose weight, that's the estimated amount to lose a pound a week. Smaller people will generally lose weight at a much slower pace than that. If you are sedentary and your BMR is 1200, then it is my understanding that to maintain your weight you should eat 1.2 times your BMR. So you should lose fat eating fewer than 1440 calories per day. There are a lot of petite people on this site that have lost eating 1200 per day, but everyone is different. So I would recommend eating 1200 per day to see how you fare. Note,that although MFP recommends not eating below 1200 for women, the National Institutes of Health opined that women can safely eat between 1200 -1000 calories per day for weight loss. So if you are aiming for a healthy BMI but find that your body responds best to eating between 1200-1000 calories per day, you should still be able to do so without any harm. And everything except the daily calorie goal functionality will still work on MFP. Best of luck!0
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According to the calculator that was posted here, my daily caloric intake to lose 0.7lb or 300g/week (which I have done before and had no problems following at all) would be 1080, considering my current weight and activity level - which is still 120 calories under MFP's recommendation. If I want to lose 1lb/week at the beginning, I'd have to cut even further.
It means that, when I lose weight, that recommendation should be even lower, since my metabolic rate decreases with less weight. Calculating from my target weight, it tells me to not go over 1300 to maintain weight.
Every time I've tried eating more than 1000 calories a day I have gained weight and it happened FAST, about 1.5lb per week.
I'm a paid user and it really feels degrading to not be taken into consideration because of my size.1 -
istruggle to believe that...and MFP uses 1200cal beause that is the NIH recommended minimum daily caloritic intake to avoid health issues from nutritional deficiencies...
I also know 5'0" women (and shorter) who can maintain or lose weight on 2000cal a day1 -
what is your current weight and goal weight - you still haven't answered...1
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I'm 50kg and I'm targeting 43kg. My healthy weight ranges from 54kg to 40kg, I used to be 43kg and it was GREAT. I was super healthy and have never looked better.
The women you know who are 5' or under who lost weight on a 2000kcal diet are likely running/cycling/swimming at least one hour a day every single day of the week, since their daily expenditure excluding exercise is around 1100kcal - meaning that they're spending at least 900kcal in exercise on a daily basis. Otherwise the math doesn't add up. Anyway, that's anecdotal evidence, which doesn't help when we're looking for science.
Seriously, do the math yourself. I know it's hard to believe, but being small and inactive means lower calories.
Link here http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
It's numbers!0 -
i know - i've done the math - i've also seen folks eating 2000+ and losing weight at your height/weight - the nutritionists I work with have clients like that
i also ran your stats through Scooby (the link you provided)...
selecting sedentary and 5% calorie reduction gives you:
BMR - 1307
TDEE - 1568
Goal Cal - 1490
if you change it to 10% - then you get a goal cal of 1411
so where are you getting the less than 1200 cal from...3 -
you are also within the healthy weight range for your height - your goal weight will put you at the lower end of the range - so you might want to consider getting a BF assessment done and doing something more like recomp - where you focus on losing fat and gaining muscle which gives you a leaner look than just losing weight
4' 10" - 91 to 118 lbs.1 -
renatarocha wrote: »
Every time I've tried eating more than 1000 calories a day I have gained weight and it happened FAST, about 1.5lb per week.
How long did you engage in this experiment? Many women can have water weight fluctuations of up to 5 lbs over the course of a month. Also, when a person has been eating a very low calorie diet and then suddenly increases calories, it can result in a spike in water weight.1 -
I recently got a BF assessment and I was told I am at 24% BF. Am I allowed to lose weight, even if it's within my healthy range?
I'm using a 25% calorie restriction. That's where I got my data from.
BMR = 1221
TDEE = 1465
Daily calories based on goal in step 6 = 1098
A 10% caloric restriction would lead me to lose 100g a week. I'm aiming at 300g and that's absolutely ok according to health standards.
I don't have hormonal fluctuations due to my birth control and therefore my water weight can be considered average.
I've engaged in the 1000+ calories experiment multiple times because I've been told that I must eat 1200kcal a day. I ended up gaining 5kg in a month instead of losing the weight I wanted.
I'm not young anymore and my body is slowing down.2 -
You don't have to have a 500 a day deficit. 250 would mean you could lose 0.5lb a week. Depends on how much you have to lose.2
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25% calorie restriction is likely too aggressive - that is a quarter of your given calories in a day
you are within normal weight range for your height - so weight loss is going to be slow and what seems miniscule at times...that is why people are recommending looking at what numbers you are running
focusing on losing BF and gaining lean muscle will help and bonus, you get some (although not huge) extra calories from increasing muscle mass
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to gain 5k in a month - that means you had to eat 38500 cal over maintenance - which is approximately 1250 cal a day....1
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The problem here lies on the fact that there's nothing wrong with wanting to lose up to 1lb a week, and I just want to lose 0.7/week (which accounts for approximately 300g). THAT'S PERFECTLY HEALTHY.
So why people are insisting that I should lose 100-200g a week is beyond my understanding. I'm not trying to force any of you to lose 0.7lbs a week or trying to do something out of the healthy boundaries.
Yes, I can gain muscle and lose fat. But what if I just want to focus on losing fat right now? Am I allowed to do that?
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renatarocha wrote: »The problem here lies on the fact that there's nothing wrong with wanting to lose up to 1lb a week, and I just want to lose 0.7/week (which accounts for approximately 300g). THAT'S PERFECTLY HEALTHY.
So why people are insisting that I should lose 100-200g a week is beyond my understanding. I'm not trying to force any of you to lose 0.7lbs a week or trying to do something out of the healthy boundaries.
Yes, I can gain muscle and lose fat. But what if I just want to focus on losing fat right now? Am I allowed to do that?
I think the general idea beyond people's recommendations is that, if it requires a very low, unpleasant, and potentially unhealthy calorie goal for you, a smaller deficit would be better. Even if you're not interested, it's good info for others who read your thread & identify with it.5 -
we are saying what we are saying because you don't have that much to lose - your goal is less that 20lbs (110lbs to 94.5lbs) which has a .5lb per weight loss (6oz)
because when you diet and cut your calories extremely low you don't just lose fat - you lose muscle as well and if you do it for prolonged periods of time you can have health issues (hair falling out, brittle nails, long-term heart damage since your heart is a muscle)...2 -
deannalfisher wrote: »
because when you diet and cut your calories extremely low you don't just lose fat - you lose muscle as well and if you do it for prolonged periods of time you can have health issues (hair falling out, brittle nails, long-term heart damage since your heart is a muscle)...
I was just about to say this too.1 -
renatarocha wrote: »The problem here lies on the fact that there's nothing wrong with wanting to lose up to 1lb a week, and I just want to lose 0.7/week (which accounts for approximately 300g). THAT'S PERFECTLY HEALTHY.
So why people are insisting that I should lose 100-200g a week is beyond my understanding. I'm not trying to force any of you to lose 0.7lbs a week or trying to do something out of the healthy boundaries.
Yes, I can gain muscle and lose fat. But what if I just want to focus on losing fat right now? Am I allowed to do that?
I think the general idea beyond people's recommendations is that, if it requires a very low, unpleasant, and potentially unhealthy calorie goal for you, a smaller deficit would be better. Even if you're not interested, it's good info for others who read your thread & identify with it.
This. OP, if you are convinced that something we are all telling you is not a good idea is actually fine for you, then obviously you can go ahead and do it. But in general, it is extremely difficult to get adequate nutrition on less than 1200 calories, so if an otherwise reasonable deficit puts you under 1200 cals, it is usually a good idea to eat more and lose a bit slower.
Considering your stats, if you were my friend asking for advice, I would suggest you set your goal to lose half-a-lb per week, log your exercise and eat back some of those calories, and use a food scale to ensure accuracy as you don't have much wiggle room.
I would also add that birth control doesn't stop water weight fluctuations. In fact men and post-menopausal women will have water weight fluctuations, though obviously not related to a hormonal cycle. Your weight fluctuates every day for all kinds of reasons unrelated to how much fat you have.
I used to swear I ate 1400 cals per day and couldn't lose weight. Then I got a food scale and realized I was actually eating more like 1700-1800 cals.
If you are sure you know better, then feel free to disregard this. Best of luck.4 -
The MPF community sure can be frustrating sometimes, giving orders, unsolicited judgments, and off-topic advice. It's an emotional risk asking for help sometimes, but there's some good support and listeners in there who aren't just going to copy paste the same thing they've probably said a million times to anybody and everybody. You're "allowed" to do whatever you (and possibly your doctor) deem is best for you.
It seems you have a good approach of using percentages instead of absolutes. It seems you're already aware there's plenty of professional advice that speaks in terms of percentages, making it make sense for you. I hope some short people show up with some personal experiences to share.
Hang in there. Keep trying. Success isn't a straight line.6 -
Feed_the_Bears wrote: »The MPF community sure can be frustrating sometimes, giving orders, unsolicited judgments, and off-topic advice. It's an emotional risk asking for help sometimes, but there's some good support and listeners in there who aren't just going to copy paste the same thing they've probably said a million times to anybody and everybody. You're "allowed" to do whatever you (and possibly your doctor) deem is best for you.
It seems you have a good approach of using percentages instead of absolutes. It seems you're already aware there's plenty of professional advice that speaks in terms of percentages, making it make sense for you. I hope some short people show up with some personal experiences to share.
Hang in there. Keep trying. Success isn't a straight line.
I have to say, this comment baffles me. I actually went back and read through every comment looking for the orders & judgments you mentioned (why on earth did I do this?). All I saw were very kindly suggestions geared at helping the OP stay healthy & comfortable. We know there are outliers, but the OP is taking a difficult situation and making it worse by trying to be so aggressive with her goals. What's the rush?
And the experienced users who take the time out of their days to "copy & paste" the same advice to millions of people who are asking the same questions over & over again, every day? I'd say that's pretty cool of them to expend so much time & effort to help others.9 -
Feed_the_Bears wrote: »The MPF community sure can be frustrating sometimes, giving orders, unsolicited judgments, and off-topic advice. It's an emotional risk asking for help sometimes, but there's some good support and listeners in there who aren't just going to copy paste the same thing they've probably said a million times to anybody and everybody. You're "allowed" to do whatever you (and possibly your doctor) deem is best for you.
It seems you have a good approach of using percentages instead of absolutes. It seems you're already aware there's plenty of professional advice that speaks in terms of percentages, making it make sense for you. I hope some short people show up with some personal experiences to share.
Hang in there. Keep trying. Success isn't a straight line.
Yes, shame on those seasoned MFP veterans who have patiently answered hundreds or thousands of questions, many of which are redundant because people don't use the search feature, trying to provide helpful advice and encourage people from making some of the most common dieting mistakes. Things like engaging in an aggressive calorie deficit which can result in loss of lean body mass, hair loss, brittle nails, sallow skin, fatigue, and often is unsustainable not to mention difficult to get adequate nutrition.
Why should OP listen to people who have either done this themselves and are still working to overcome the negative impacts of adaptive thermogenesis and yo yo dieting cycles, or seen countless others do this over the years?
The approach of using percentages doesn't negate the fact that a 25% calorie reduction is too aggressive for someone who is already at a healthy body weight and wants to lose less than 20 lbs.
And since you're looking for short people to share experiences - I'm 5'2 and my TDEE is 2200 because I make a concentrated effort to increase my NEAT. Cutting to the bare minimum calories (which I tried for a period of time) left me starving, lethargic, and ready to give up on weight loss to Just Stay Fat. Learning from the bossy, off topic posters on these boards that being petite is not an automatic sentence to 1200 calories, that it is possible to eat more and still lose weight is exactly what I needed to hear in order to find a modest deficit that I could stick with AND which gave me enough energy and motivation to become far more active than I'd ever been in my life.
And I will continue to use the same words and phrasing that I've used on these boards for the last 4 years because I've actually heard from quite a few people that my experiences have been helpful to them. But please, stick around and share your words of wisdom as well.....5
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