5’6” ladies - what are your maintenance calories?

Kittyy1994
Kittyy1994 Posts: 108 Member
edited December 22 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
And how active are you??

I’m 5’6” set to lightly active, 1930 cal a day. Also hit the gym 3x a week and walk an hour daily.

I have only just switched to maintenance and I feel like this seems high. Anyone else eating this much and NOT gaining?

Also- should I be eating exercise calories back? I thought I might just not log these to create a “buffer” if I am eating more

Replies

  • corysmithsmail
    corysmithsmail Posts: 166 Member
    My stats are similar except I'm 5'5.

    I workout 3-4x a week and aim for 10k every day. MFP is set to lightly active and gave me 1930ish for maintaining. I didn't gain weight for the 2 months that I ate this way. I usually don't eat back calories to account for logging error. Only tried it for 2 months though because I decided I wanted to lose a little more weight after all.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    Is that 1930 cal total or without exercise? Either way it sounds normal to me. I am 5'7 and last I checked I maintain around 2600-2900 total (this includes exercise).
  • Roza42
    Roza42 Posts: 246 Member
    I am not at maintenance yet, but I had my resting metabolic rate tested. It's a little over 1800 kcal. So for weight I eat between 1800 and 2K. Their projection is that maintenance will be 2400. I'm 54 5'6" and 173 lbs currently.
  • Mcwi3681
    Mcwi3681 Posts: 67 Member
    I recently took a 2 week diet break and my maintenance cals were 2110. I ate back all of my exercise calories and I didn't gain anything during those 2 weeks (I actually lost a pound!). I'm 5'6", 133 lbs, set at active.
  • justanotherjenn
    justanotherjenn Posts: 64 Member
    I think your current weight will determine your maintenance calories, but I doubt that's too high. I believe the last time I checked, mine were around 2,200-2,300 and I am 223 lbs.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    I'm 5'5", weight mid-130s pounds, soon to start into year 4 of maintenance, currently age 63. In summer (now), I row on-water 4 days a week for about an hour, go to 2 spin classes, and otherwise am reasonably close to sedentary, maybe just into lightly active during summer. (Garmin says I averaged 6,841 steps in the past 7 days. In winter, I have days at 2000-some steps pretty frequently.)

    I maintain somewhere around 2000-2100 net, probably 2200-2400 gross. (I'm being approximate because I eat very unevenly, and the bigger days are hard to estimate; plus exercise varies.) This is unusually high for my demographic, for reasons I don't know (but I'm healthy: It's not a medical condition).

    Here is a thread about various ways to estimate maintenance calories:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level

    Whether to eat back exercise calories depends on whether you are using a TDEE method of managing eating (want to eat the same number of calories daily, even if exercise differs between days), or a NEAT method (eating back exercise calories on the day you generate them, or budgeting them more explicitly across days by logging them separately from base non-exercise activities). If you use a NEAT approach, you eat them back, after working out how to estimate them with reasonable accuracy.

    If you use a NEAT method, and don't eat exercise back, you'll either keep losing weight, or your activity level will subtly shift over time so that you're less active in daily life and burn fewer calories (adaptive thermogenesis). I have some suspicion that some women my age have low calorie needs because they've done nearly everything possible for decades (though unintentionally) to down-regulate their calorie needs through cumulative, persistent adaptive thermogenesis and compromised body composition. Don't do that.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    You don’t mention your current weight or age, which are big factors. But I’m 5-6.5, 54 yo and weigh 140-145. I walk 60 mins a day and lift 4 days a week and maintain at 2000.
  • Kittyy1994
    Kittyy1994 Posts: 108 Member
    nowine4me wrote: »
    You don’t mention your current weight or age, which are big factors. But I’m 5-6.5, 54 yo and weigh 140-145. I walk 60 mins a day and lift 4 days a week and maintain at 2000.

    Yes forgot to mention that! I am 25yo and at 135 lbs
  • noodlesno
    noodlesno Posts: 113 Member
    I am 5'6", 160lbs and 24% body fat. I do about 7.5 hours of dedicated exercise a week (cardio, heavy lifting, HIIT, pilates) and then try and hit 6km of walking a day. My maintenance is at about 2600. I have been in maintenance since March, I have gained a few pounds but have lost a dress size so it is just more body fat coming off and the muscle going on. Which I am ok about.

    I used this calculator to work out my needs https://tdeecalculator.net however, the link @AnnPT77 sent is really good with excellent advice.
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,492 Member
    edited August 2019
    5'5 and eat 2100-2600. I burn 300-600 in exercise 2-5 days a week depending on my schedule.
  • beulah81
    beulah81 Posts: 168 Member
    edited August 2019
    5'5.
    120-125 lbs.
    37 y.o.
    TDEE is 2000-2200 calories.
    My main form of exercise is walking with bodyweight exercises sprinkled in.
  • Anna022119
    Anna022119 Posts: 547 Member
    Hi.

    5'6 here too.
    Lift four days a week, do light cardio the other days.

    Late 40s, post menopausal. Lightly active in normal life.
    Maintaining my weight at 125 lbs.
    2500 calories a day, exercise included.
  • rlfrausto
    rlfrausto Posts: 23 Member
    5'5 63 y/o 2500 to 3000 once in a while I eat low carb walk 60 minutes a day and have lost 20 pounds in the last three months, averaging 2 to 3 lbs weight loss per week.
  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
    5'5" 143 and I burn on average 500 calories a day between running and lifting and average 11K steps per day. My maintenance is around 1850 per day without exercise.
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