Advice please: how many calories should I be eating....?
Smuterella
Posts: 1,623 Member
Ok - I'm putting this out for all opinions as have had a couple of different suggestions in the past couple of days.
It isn't that I'm not progressing, more that I just want to be sure that I am achieving my goal in the most efficient and sustainable way.
Age: 33
Height: 5'5''
Body Fat%: approx 26% I think
Weight: 130lbs
Waist measurement: 29inches
How often you workout: 3 half hour sessions of fairly heavy strength training per week plus 1.5 hours cardio and 40 minutes dynamic yoga (Chalean Extreme programme)
I don't so much want to lose "weight" as I want to lose fat and inches. I set myself to MFP's recommended level for 0.5 lbs a week for a sedentary person (1370) and have been eating my exercise calories back as per my HRM but still find I'm regularly hungry. I am a fidget, so I think maybe I burn more calories than a sedentary person. hmmm.
Anyway - I have just upped to 1500 but I am interested in hearing other peoples theories on what I should be eating, so I can think about the different approaches. I'm curious like that.
Give me your recommendations. :-)
It isn't that I'm not progressing, more that I just want to be sure that I am achieving my goal in the most efficient and sustainable way.
Age: 33
Height: 5'5''
Body Fat%: approx 26% I think
Weight: 130lbs
Waist measurement: 29inches
How often you workout: 3 half hour sessions of fairly heavy strength training per week plus 1.5 hours cardio and 40 minutes dynamic yoga (Chalean Extreme programme)
I don't so much want to lose "weight" as I want to lose fat and inches. I set myself to MFP's recommended level for 0.5 lbs a week for a sedentary person (1370) and have been eating my exercise calories back as per my HRM but still find I'm regularly hungry. I am a fidget, so I think maybe I burn more calories than a sedentary person. hmmm.
Anyway - I have just upped to 1500 but I am interested in hearing other peoples theories on what I should be eating, so I can think about the different approaches. I'm curious like that.
Give me your recommendations. :-)
0
Replies
-
I'm 5'4" and I would more maintain I think on 1500 cals, I really have to go for 1200 to lose weight. Have you also thought about what you eat , and eating cleaner, as you seem to eat quite a lot of processed foods?0
-
1370 seems to be a little low maybe. I'm not 100%.
I'm a male, 19, 5'5", 120lb (Was 124lb, 30 inch waist. I do about about an hour of cycling, maybe 3 times a week if I can. I didn't do much strength training to be honest. I am in the same boat as you, you're not trying to lose weight, but you want to burn excess fat. I started a thread in the Fitness and Exercise section and what I have heard you should be trying to gain more muscle to not lose weight, but burn fat.
My goals were 1620kcal, 40/30/30 for Carb/Protein/Fat with a 250kcal deficit which would net me a 0.5lb loss a week. I seem to have lost a bit more because I didn't really understand it, I wasn't hitting my intake goal and was like 200kcal below my target on top of the 250kcal deficit set by MFP.
I have changed my goals because it's not weight I am meant to be losing, but rather I am meant to be building muscle. So I changed my goals to maintain so I won't lose any weight. My current calorie goal is 1837kcal a day and changed my Carb/Protein/Fat intake to 40/30/25.
I was adviced to start strength training and that is exactly what I am going to do and I will work hard to eat the amount of calories, carbs, fat, protein, etc. that is set for me. Going to get a set of Dumbbells and a Barbell with Weight Plates and start Strength Training, building the muscle, making it look a bit more defined and hopefully burn off excess fat and not lose the weight.0 -
I found this website to be incredibly helpful. Just through your stats into the calculator and it will give you a good place to start.
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm0 -
Eating at or near maintenance with strength training might make all the changes you want, without any changes on the scale. You know how much I love going by pictures instead of the scale.
0 -
How long have you been on this diet? How much water per day? And have you taken measurements with a tape measure to key body parts??0
-
I thought this site was good at recommending that0
-
I plugged your numbers in here http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ and got the following:Custom BMR Calculation
Thanks for checking your BMR here on Fat 2 Fit Radio. If you're not already subscribed to Fat 2 Fit Radio, consider doing so today. Please visit the Subscribe page to get the podcast delivered automatically to your iTunes, Juice, e-mail inbox or the podcatcher of your choice for FREE.
Entered information: 33 year old female, 65 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds.
From the information that you entered, you'd like to weigh 123 lbs.
Harris-Benedict Formula
There are a few different methods to calculating yourbasal metabolic rate (BMR). One of the most popular, developed in the early 1900's is called the Harris-Benedict formula. Based on this formula, your current BMR is 1371 calories.
Katch-McArdle Forumla
The numbers above are fairly accurate, however they don't take into account your lean body mass. A more accurate formula that does take your lean body mass into account is the Katch-McArdle formula. Since many of us have scales that will tell us our current body fat, this formula may yield more accurate results. Based on the information you provided, body fat percentage of 26%, you have a lean body mass of 96 lbs., and your BMR is 1313 calories.
How Many Calories Should I Eat?
Based on your goal weight, the following chart was generated. The chart shows the number of calories that you should eat on a daily basis to reach your goal weight. At Fat 2 Fit Radio we advocate eating like the thin, healthy person that you want to become. The calorie levels you see in the chart are not extreme, but they do create that all important caloric deficit that is required to get you to your goal weight in a safe manner. Once you reach your goal weight, you will continue eating the same number of calories for the rest of your life to maintain that weight. You'll never be on a diet again.
Based on how much activity you do on an average day, the calories in the right column will be the number of calories that you will be able to eat at your goal weight. If you start eating those calories right now (eating like the thinner you), you will eventually become that thinner person. As you get closer to your goal weight, your weight loss will start to slow down. It is OK to eat a few hundred calories less per day (200-300) to speed up your weight loss at this point.
Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1608
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1843
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2077
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2312
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2546
Those numbers would be for you to maintain weight at your final goal which I sort of had to extrapolate from your ticker.
If you workout like you do, that would put you in the Lightly to Moderately Active groups so between 1843 and 2077 to maintain, or take on 250 for a .5 pound per week loss. Please note this would include your exercise calories already.0 -
I thought this site was good at recommending that
The goal tool is only as good at the input it gets. Often people put themselves in a sedentary when they are really lightly active, and sometimes when they are very active. If that is done, the calories recommended would be too low.0 -
I'd think you could go as high as 1700.0
-
Maintenance less 250 cals/day. You may want to look into your activity level to see if your really are sedentary or if light active would be a better gauge.0
-
It is hard to judge how much someone else should be eating. A lot of people struggle to figure out their own needs, let alone recommend something to someone else.
I'm 5'4", 36 years old and 145lbs. I can easily lose weight while consuming 2100-2200 net calories a day. I easily maintain while consuming 2300-2500 net calories. I work on my feet 4 days a week (3/ 9 hour days and 1/5 hour day). I try and go to the gym at least once, sometimes twice a week for 60 mins. Right now, I'm taking it pretty easy to try and give myself more time to heal from some injuries.
The best thing for you to do is to find out your BMR and your TDEE (the calculators will be guesstimates, but they are better than nothing) and then start playing around with numbers. It is what I did to find out what worked for me. No one can really say "Oh, well.. you should eat this much or that much" because everyone is so different.0 -
With your work outs wouldn't your calories be raised to at least 1500 already? How long did you say that you had been doing this. Make sure that you are taking in enough protein. If you don't want to lose why don't you change your goal to maintanence?0
-
You and I are similar! I'm 34, 5'5" and current weight is 138. I would like to get down to 130ish and like you said, maintain and tone. There is a small group of us on Facebook that are going to be starting a Beachbody Challenge Group using Insanity if you are interested! I hear that it is a great way to get toned. As far as calories go I'm at 1350 but still looking to lose a little more weight so I have it set at losing 1lb a week. I'm looking forward to the maintenance faze though so I can have more calories (I like to eat!).0
-
I had Dan run my numbers and he came back with 1900 for me. I am trying to get as close to that as I can. I think that his recommendation is basically TDEE -500 for a pound a week. You can find your TDEE here http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html. Include your exercise. When you find your TDEE then subtract 500 calories and eat that much a day. Do not worry about exercise calories. Just eat that amount. It will help you lose a pound a week and I found that even though it is just a pound and sometimes I really wish it was 2 pounds a week, my Body Fat % according to my scale is actually moving down, which is good because that means it is a pound of fat not muscle mass because I am starving myself. I have been having some trouble upping my calories while eating healthy food and have been having sugary snacks to up my calories. This is not good and I know that. The calories need to be upped but by eating healthy foods. This week I am trying to focus on eating the extra calories in fruits and veggies. Good luck.0
-
I would say go around 1800 on lift days, 1500 on rest days, and keep protein high every day.0
-
bump0
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation
try this it worked for me... google is ur best friend0 -
Being hungry doesn't necessarily mean you're not eating enough. It might mean you're eating sugary foods, or not eating enough lean protein and fresh vegetables.
Your food diary is set to private, so it's hard to offer help.
But you don't have much to lose, if what you're doing is working, stick to it. 0 -
I thought this site was good at recommending that
The goal tool is only as good at the input it gets. Often people put themselves in a sedentary when they are really lightly active, and sometimes when they are very active. If that is done, the calories recommended would be too low.
I have a desk job (8-4:30) but I work-out 3-4 days a week. I do a boot camp 3 days a week and I run or do elliptical on my days off. So what should I set mine as?0 -
Mifflin-St. Jeor BMR equation:
Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) – (5 × age in years) – 161
Customized for you:
(590) + (1032) - (165) - (161) = 1296 BMR
Add sedentary multiplier (x 1.2)
1296 x 1.2 = 1555 TDEE
Maintenance is likely to be somwhere around 1555 for you. Of course, individualities in your metabolism mean this can only ever be a ballpark figure.
If you're not looking to lose weight but just to tone and shape up, I'd start somewhere around 1400-1600 cals per day, eating more on the days you're lifting... perhaps as high as 1800-2000 depending on how hard you work out.0 -
Thanks people, as I said I'm really just curious to hear different peoples opinions rather than there being anything majorly wrong in what I'm doing. It is working, I've lost 2 inches off my stomach which is exactly where I wanted to lose.
As far as diet goes, I do eat more processed foods than I would like (I can't seem to get into the swing of making lunches to take to work) and have also been ill for a week or so which made me lazy. Oh dear. I'll work on that.
I think I'll try the 1500 and not eating calories back for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. I suppose trial and error is the best way for everyone.
:-)0 -
As someone who loves the science and loves the numbers game you might be surpised to know that I am very low tech when it comes to weight/health. Despite being a newbie here I've been doing this off and on for a few years and I have a simple system based upon the fact that we are all different and monitoring cals in and out is at best a "finger in the wind".
My system
1 Monitor your cals in as best you can.
2 Moniotor your cals out as best you can.
3 Measure weekly (and mix of weight, body measurements, clothes, appearance)
If over a 2 to 3 week period things are progressing the way you want them to repeat steps 1, 2, 3.
If over a 2 to 3 week period things are NOT progressing the way you want them to tweak cals in, cals out, or both then repeat steps 1, 2, 3.
The key point for me is not to make changes weekly. Wait until you can see the trend of what is currently happening. I'm not saying I've got it all sorted... I fall off the waggon as much as the next person and we all know that sometimes life gets in the way of our goals but keeping the above system in mind keeps me from stressing when I'm hitting the numbers dead on but the scales are not playing ball.
Best wishes0 -
Ok - I'm putting this out for all opinions as have had a couple of different suggestions in the past couple of days.
It isn't that I'm not progressing, more that I just want to be sure that I am achieving my goal in the most efficient and sustainable way.
Age: 33
Height: 5'5''
Body Fat%: approx 26% I think
Weight: 130lbs
Waist measurement: 29inches
How often you workout: 3 half hour sessions of fairly heavy strength training per week plus 1.5 hours cardio and 40 minutes dynamic yoga (Chalean Extreme programme)
I don't so much want to lose "weight" as I want to lose fat and inches. I set myself to MFP's recommended level for 0.5 lbs a week for a sedentary person (1370) and have been eating my exercise calories back as per my HRM but still find I'm regularly hungry. I am a fidget, so I think maybe I burn more calories than a sedentary person. hmmm.
Anyway - I have just upped to 1500 but I am interested in hearing other peoples theories on what I should be eating, so I can think about the different approaches. I'm curious like that.
Give me your recommendations. :-)
To figure what your calorie intake should be use equation 12 cal per pound for example. I weigh 123 so 123 x 12 =1476. my calorie intake should be 1476 calories a day. you want to keep in mind your metabolism level.-Jullian Michaels0 -
Ok - I'm putting this out for all opinions as have had a couple of different suggestions in the past couple of days.
It isn't that I'm not progressing, more that I just want to be sure that I am achieving my goal in the most efficient and sustainable way.
Age: 33
Height: 5'5''
Body Fat%: approx 26% I think
Weight: 130lbs
Waist measurement: 29inches
How often you workout: 3 half hour sessions of fairly heavy strength training per week plus 1.5 hours cardio and 40 minutes dynamic yoga (Chalean Extreme programme)
I don't so much want to lose "weight" as I want to lose fat and inches. I set myself to MFP's recommended level for 0.5 lbs a week for a sedentary person (1370) and have been eating my exercise calories back as per my HRM but still find I'm regularly hungry. I am a fidget, so I think maybe I burn more calories than a sedentary person. hmmm.
Anyway - I have just upped to 1500 but I am interested in hearing other peoples theories on what I should be eating, so I can think about the different approaches. I'm curious like that.
Give me your recommendations. :-)
To figure what your calorie intake should be use equation 12 cal per pound for example. I weigh 123 so 123 x 12 =1476. my calorie intake should be 1476 calories a day. you want to keep in mind your metabolism level.-Jullian Michaels
Just like everything that equation doesn't work for everyone. I did mine based on my weight today (which is a little high due to my period) and based on that I should be around 1800 calories a day. I know, from past experience, that 1800 calories is far too low for me.
There are a lot of variables to it and the best thing to do is to get a general idea of your numbers, follow it and see what happens. If it doesn't work, adjust it.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 394K Introduce Yourself
- 43.9K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 432 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.1K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.9K MyFitnessPal Information
- 15 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.7K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions