Activity level

i would not count 1-3 times a week in my activity level personally. id count it as exercise as a walk.

as far as your calorie goals, input the data (current weight and height) and activity level and set your activity level and then maintain to see the calories, then gain, to see what that is. sailrabbit is another one you can use that I like that gives more options and descriptions in the activity levels to help you get a better idea of the various activity levels and calorie needs before deciding on one on MFP (you can then set your calorie goals manually on MFP). https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Your home chores also count in your activity level: Cooking, cleaning, tending to your baby, shopping, all that stuff. It's somewhat unusual for someone with a home (even apartment) and children to be less than lightly active, though it is possible. Do you have any kind of step counter? For most people, the boundary between MFP's sedentary/not active setting, and the lightly active setting, tends to be somewhere in the vicinity of 3000-5000 steps.

That advice to use MFP to get an estimate, then following it for one or two full menstrual cycles to see what happens to your weight when averaged over that time period? Good advice.

My BMR is estimated lower than yours, around 1200. (I'm age 65, 5'5", 125 pounds.) Based on 6+ years of logging experience, I eat somewhere around 2100-2500 daily to maintain this weight. That won't be true for you, because we're all individuals.

It's really not possible to generalize from any one (or few) other person's experience, to figure out what will work for you. Start with an estimate from MFP and log your exercise separately, or use an estimate from Sailrabbit with exercise averaged into it. Those calculators at least start you out at a calorie level that's the average of lots of people, so likely to be closer to truth than anyone's individual experience. Use that estimate to run your own experiment for a month or two. Then you'll know.

Angelbunny111 wrote: »

Hi so just two questions my bmr is relatively low about 1300 , what would I need to eat to maintain and how much to gain ?

Your estimated BMR multiplied by your estimated activity level + your estimated exercise calories (+ breastfeeding if you are) would be your maintenance calories. More than that would be required to gain weight.

Not really enough information for anyone but you to choose between lightly active and active as that encompasses all your waking hours.