Calorie advice please

With 20-30 pounds to lose, set your Goals at either "lose 1 pound per week" or at "lose 1/2 pound per week."

I would use the "Active" activity level in Goals.

Then when you exercise purposefully on those three days, enter that into your Exercise page and eat a couple hundred calories more on those days.

We all have to run the experiment, so do the above for 4-6 weeks and see how your weight loss compares to your Goals. Adjust at that time if needed.

I'm 5'5" 135, lightly active, and I would lose on 1700/day. You'd lose just fine on 1890, if you're weighing your food and logging accurately. Don't deprive yourself if you don't need to!

"Active", "lightly active", "sedentary", etc., are really just general categories to help people get started; it does take a bit of fine-tuning over time to figure out if the # MFP provides in the Goals tool is on the mark for your particular lifestyle and level of activity. You could build on what you've already done by putting in "Lightly Active" into the Goals tool, see what number it gives you, which will be lower than the 1890 and perhaps a lot closer to the 1700 your intuition tells you you should be eating, and then just take it from there and pick one, or split the difference. The basic idea is that the less active you are, the less calories you can eat. If you underestimate your activity level, you'll get a lil less food than you should have and lose a lil more weight; if you overestimate it, you'll get a lil too much food and lose a lil less weight. Neither will kill you, or adversely affect you in any way, at the kind of calories you're looking at.

In my case, being kind of a sedentary person, I chose 'Sedentary' but discovered over 6 weeks that I'm really half way between Sedentary and Lightly Active. So I lost a little extra weight those first 6 weeks, no harm done, and tweaked my calorie goal once I had a good understanding of how much I really burn. I don't really think 4 weeks is enough; you really need to see what happens over 6 weeks minimum to develop an objectively accurate understanding of your caloric burn rate, imho.

If they're giving you 1890 calories a day and you're finding you don't need that many, then why not just reduce it? If you find yourself happy eating 1400-1500 cal. daily then go for it or if you find yourself starving then up that count a bit. I find MFP goals to be a guideline, not written in stone. Right now, my daily count starts at 1200 but goes up depending on the exercise I add. I'm staying around 1200, for now. I feel whatever calorie intake you feel good at, and can still lose pounds, then you've found your magic number. Within reason, of course. But that's just my take on it. Good luck!!

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

I would use the "Active" activity level in Goals.

"Active" is for someone that is a waiter or otherwise on their feet all day. Parenting is tiring, but nod a calorie burner. I'd start with "sedentary," adding in for your workouts, then bump up if you are losing too fast or are uncomfortabley hungry.

Best of luck!

Alright, well YMMV. I like the way you took just one sentence and disregarded the entirety of the rest of my post. :sigh:

I'm retired. I live in a 600SF condo, no kids to care for. I use Active + Exercise calories. It's still a little on the low side for me. I'd rather have enough food than not enough. She will figure it out. AAMOF, looks like she already did. I think 1700 sounds like a good starting point.

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

"Active" is for someone that is a waiter or otherwise on their feet all day. Parenting is tiring, but nod a calorie burner. I'd start with "sedentary," adding in for your workouts, then bump up if you are losing too fast or are uncomfortabley hungry.

Best of luck!

I don't know what *your* experience with twins was, but last time I had my nephews, I had one with an ear infection in an Ergo on my back being soothed, one wanting to be held in my arms to see what I was doing, and the 3 year old experimenting with his mortality any time I turned my back. I got in 6k steps before their morning nap, just trying to soothe the 50 lbs of toddler I was carrying. The trip to Disney World was like 28k steps per day wearing an average of 65 lbs of child - up from a "lazy day" in the house where it was only 18k steps.

1700 calories may end up being a bit low, but if you're comfortable there and not losing weight too fast or getting too tired, it should be a good starting point, OP.

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

I would use the "Active" activity level in Goals.

"Active" is for someone that is a waiter or otherwise on their feet all day. Parenting is tiring, but nod a calorie burner. I'd start with "sedentary," adding in for your workouts, then bump up if you are losing too fast or are uncomfortabley hungry.

Best of luck!

I am in a desk job, don't have kids and I still get in 8-12000 steps per day, which would be considered Active, so IMO suggesting someone with 3 kids to run around after is sedentary, seems a bit crazy to me. Additionally I'd be wanting the energy I need to run around after those kids and lower it if necessary to lose weight rather than under-aim and feel fatigued.

You've received some good advice about calories. I just popped in to say, as a mother of twins myself, you have my respect! And you've got a 3 year old as well. Oy! Be kind to yourself, take care of yourself, and best of luck!