🙋🏻‍♀️ How Many Calories Should I Be Eating?☀️

alexhomeandcoffee
alexhomeandcoffee Posts: 33 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How many calories should I be eating?
I’m 5’6 / female / 205.8 pounds / 29 years old and I’m strength training 5 days out of the week

I used to eat 1000-1200 and wasn’t seeing any improvement

When I start here with the group, I started eating 1600 and started to see a change in my weight lowering

I’m strength training 5 days out of the week and don’t know how much I should actually be consuming.

Replies

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,786 Member
    If you're eating 1600 and seeing results, I'd stick with that. MFP will calculate how many calories you should eat for you if you put in your height, weight, and desired rate of loss.
  • Mugsdevo12
    Mugsdevo12 Posts: 2 Member
    What’s your activity like otherwise? Do you have an active job and/or do you walk and move a lot throughout the day? If you’re fairly active I’d probably shoot towards the 1400-1600 calorie a day range. 1200 calories is ideal for someone mostly sedentary.
  • glorious4545
    glorious4545 Posts: 1 Member
    Sollyn, I like your suggestion on calculating calories by height, weight, and desired weight loss. How do you calculate this?
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,786 Member
    glorious4545 wrote: »
    Sollyn, I like your suggestion on calculating calories by height, weight, and desired weight loss. How do you calculate this?

    MFP will do it for you. Go into your settings. Under your profile it should ask for your height and weight. It should then ask your desired rate of loss per week (.5, 1, or 2 pounds). Then, in your diary part of MFP, it will show you how many calories you have available.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,786 Member
    Oh, you have to go into settings, then "goals" to set your desired rate of loss.
  • BriansTrident
    BriansTrident Posts: 483 Member
    Are you sure you’re actually not over eating? It’s possible the calories are actually more than what you think they are
  • alexhomeandcoffee
    alexhomeandcoffee Posts: 33 Member
    @BriansTrident
    I’m seeing progress with weight loss eating the 1600 cals, whereas I saw little to no progress eating 1200.
  • BriansTrident
    BriansTrident Posts: 483 Member
    alexhomeandcoffee wrote: »
    @BriansTrident
    I’m seeing progress with weight loss eating the 1600 cals, whereas I saw little to no progress eating 1200.


    Are you sure it was a true 1200? Maybe your calorie numbers are off because the app isn’t giving you the correct amounts? It’s also possible your body is just burning them better at 1600 and not dipping into your “fat reserves” I think.

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,881 Member
    edited July 2023
    Or 1000-1200 calories was putting undue stress on the body, causing water retention.

    OP, if you are losing weight at 1600 calories, why do you feel unsure?
    You can do some math and figure out how many calories you need, based on your own data (which is better than what any calculator can tell you - calculators look at statistical averages).

    An example: if you're losing 1lb per week eating 1600 calories, you have a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day and your maintenance calories are 2100 calories per day. If you wanted to lose 1.5lbs per week, you would have to eat 250 calories less per day: 1350 calories per day. If you wanted to lose 0.5lbs per week, you'd have to eat 250 calories more per day: 1850 calories per day.
  • AbhishekDas08
    AbhishekDas08 Posts: 5 Member
    Please try Carb cycling.Hardly I was able to see any weight loss during low carb diet.After following carb cycle,I am able to see change in weight scale.

    My Carb cycle:
    Mon:High carbs
    Tues:Low carbs
    Wed:No carbs
    Thurs:High carbs
    Fri:No carbs
    Sat:Low carbs
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,881 Member
    AbhishekDas08 wrote: »
    Please try Carb cycling.Hardly I was able to see any weight loss during low carb diet.After following carb cycle,I am able to see change in weight scale.

    My Carb cycle:
    Mon:High carbs
    Tues:Low carbs
    Wed:No carbs
    Thurs:High carbs
    Fri:No carbs
    Sat:Low carbs

    Well yes, you'll see scale changes, carb cycling will cause fluctuations in water weight. If you feel good doing this, by all means, but it's not actually necessary for weight loss if you're eating the right amount of calories.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,455 Member
    I am 5'7" - 5'8".

    I am also female.

    I started at 220.

    I lost almost all of the weight I needed to lose at 1500-1600 (PLUS Exercise calories.)

    I'm now at 140-145. I eat 2300 - total - per day now. I've maintained my weight for 15 years. I am retired, I walk and do light resistance work and stretching.

    You'll have to run your own personal experiment, like we all have to do. There is no "right" number for everyone. Every person has a different amount of calories they use per day. Maybe you have kids. I don't. Maybe you work, that uses calories. Maybe you don't keep track of your calories in very closely, maybe you eat out a lot. Lots of variables and your own personal habits will matter more than us giving you some random number.

    Weight lifting has an entry in the Exercise journal under, "Cardio." Use that and eat a little more on those days.
  • ReReNotMe
    ReReNotMe Posts: 63 Member
    I love me some maths.

    It takes 7700 calories to lose 1kg so if you want to lose 0.5kg a week (steady and sustainable for your size) you need a net calories of -550/day.

    I'm 19, 173cm (5'8") and started at about 110kg (240lbs) with a BMR of about 1900cal/day (I just googled BMR for someone my size) so eating 1800 cal/day and burning about 6-700 cal through a mix of weightlifting and cardio like cycling, running and dance is enough to meet that goal.

    Not overloading myself has made weightloss fun and sustainable as it's doable through small changes. If anything I'm able to push myself to a net caloric intake of -1100cal/day to aim to lose 1kg/week since I know 1800cal gives me enough energy to do so sustainability.

    Just make sure to adjust as you go and set goals that work for you. I like fitness goals as well as weight goals. Hope this helps. Good luck! :)
  • charlene_268
    charlene_268 Posts: 6 Member
    alexhomeandcoffee wrote: »
    @BriansTrident
    I’m seeing progress with weight loss eating the 1600 cals, whereas I saw little to no progress eating 1200.

    I'm guessing you increased your work outs? Cute baby 😊

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