Need advice finding my caloric intake for maintaning my weig

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Hi Everyone,
I am new to the message boards.
When I started out, I only had about 10 pounds I wanted to loose and didn't start using fitness pal till I had about 5 more pounds to loose. But, I love using it still because it keeps me accountable!
I have reached my goal weigh....as of today! YAY! Now, I want to maintain my weight. I'm not sure what to up my calories to. According to FP, I should have 1200 calories a day and that should make me loose a pound a week. Well, I actually lost a pound a day....the whole time! I work out pretty hard doing crossfit and weightlifting. Also, walk/run the dogs a few times a week.
Any suggestions on what I should start with as far as upping my calories? I do need to start maintaining....with my working out I don't think I can really (healthily) loose any more. I'm starting to feel weak. But, I don't want to over do it either and undo what I have done!
Here is my info:
36 years old
5'2 (1/2)
110 pounds
Thank you!!!!! =)

Replies

  • Tourney3p0
    Tourney3p0 Posts: 290 Member
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    First you need to get a reasonable idea of how many calories you're burning with your exercise and other activities. A heart rate monitor with a calories burned calculator will be good for this.

    Then you need to calculate your BMR (Tools tab at the top). Looks like it's around 1150 calories per day for your build.

    Add those two numbers together. Eat that many calories per day. You should approximately maintain your weight. Keep an eye on it over time in case you notice yourself gaining or losing (though give it a couple weeks to account for water fluctuations and similar) and adjust your caloric intake accordingly. Any weight loss or gain using that method should be minimal until you hit the right spot.

    Edit: You'll actually want to eat a bit more than that, because the BMR assumes you're doing nothing at all. You'll probably be doing at least "something" during most of the time you're not working out. You'll need to up your calories to account for that. I would suggest multiplying your BMR by 1.2 and adding it to your calories burned during exercise. Without knowing more about what you do, that should give you a decent jumping off point.
  • drewbransmama
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    Hmmm....maybe I am misunderstanding? As far as my calories burned I just looked it up online for my age, gender, weight and activity level. It said 1770. A few months ago, I wore a body bugg for a few days and that is right about what it was coming out at (I don't have access to the body bugg anymore).
    So you said my BRM is about 1150. So, I add those together??? That's 2920! I don't think I could eat that much (healthy) if I tried! haha!
    Did I read something wrong, or misunderstand what you were saying? It is late...so it's possible!
    Thank you so much for the feedback though, I really do appreciate it! =)
  • Tourney3p0
    Tourney3p0 Posts: 290 Member
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    It sounds like you're understanding it correctly. The more calories you burn doing exercise, the more you'll have to eat in order to reach a maintenance weight.

    I've found that a lot of online calorie burn calculators aren't all that accurate (even MFP's!), so it's possible you're not actually burning that many calories. A heart rate monitor will give you a much better idea, but 1770 isn't unreasonable if you're very active.

    In that case, you would need to eat about (1.2*1150)+1770=3150 calories. Actually slightly less since BMR and exercise will overlap. The 1.2 scaling factor will differ depending on your non-exercise activity level, but it should be pretty close while you work out the kinks.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Hmmm....maybe I am misunderstanding? As far as my calories burned I just looked it up online for my age, gender, weight and activity level. It said 1770. A few months ago, I wore a body bugg for a few days and that is right about what it was coming out at (I don't have access to the body bugg anymore).
    So you said my BRM is about 1150. So, I add those together??? That's 2920! I don't think I could eat that much (healthy) if I tried! haha!
    Did I read something wrong, or misunderstand what you were saying? It is late...so it's possible!
    Thank you so much for the feedback though, I really do appreciate it! =)

    Your BodyBugg estimate is decent, though it is sadly based on your BMR.

    Question on that eating level and great exercise routine, were you eating back exercise? Can't discern that.

    It will effect if your BMR really is 1150. Which would effect the BodyBugg estimate.

    And the only way you could lose a pound a day is not just fat, but muscle too. Because there is no way you burned 3500 excess calories over your eating level every single day.

    So I'm really thinking you got a lowered metabolism to some degree, just depends. So adding in cals could have an undesired effect.

    So do you know how many calories you burned in exercise on avg (using HRM), and did you eat them back?
  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
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    If you genuinely were losing a pound of fat a day when eating 1200 calories, then to maintain you'd need to eat at least 4700 calories a day. I'm thinking this is a bit unlikely, but who knows?!

    If you did an online calculator and it said 1700, go with that. Then monitor your weight and measurements and see what happens. If you're gaining weight and size undesirably, reduce it a bit, if you're still losing, up it a bit. Repeat until what you desire is happening.
  • drewbransmama
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    Thank you so much for your input and taking time to try to help me out with this!
    I am new to all of this. I have been working out (consistanly) for a couple years now. But, honestly, I have never really had to worry too much about my weight. It was just very recently that I realized I was about 10 pounds more that what my normal weight has been. And yes, I had been weighlifting but at that point in time I had a few weeks that I really fell off the wagon...food wise. So, I don't think it was muscle gain.
    Since I am new to having to figure out things regarding my weight, I am having some trouble understanding everything you are saying. I for sure was not burning 4700 or 3500 calories a day! I do believe the bodybugg which matched up with the online calculator. One said 1700, the other said 1770.
    Fit day was telling me to eat 1200 a day. That is what I was eating. When I wore the body bugg, it was saying I was only burning around 160 during the actual workout. So I added that to the excersise are here and then my calories were (can't remember exactly) but around 1340. So, on days that I worked out I would eat around 1340. And I was loosing about a pound a day. The first few days I figured it was water weight...but then it kept going at that rate. I started out at 120 and got down to 110 in right at about 10 days.
    Sorry I am having trouble understanding when you all are trying to be so helpful. I hope this gives you some more insight on my side!
  • drewbransmama
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    Oh, and as far as my non activity lever...or what I do when I am not working out...I am a mommy to 2 boys ages, 6 and 4 So, even in my "non-active" time, I am probably still pretty active.
  • drewbransmama
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    Also, as far as loosing muscle...I have thought about that because it is important to me that I don't. I have been feeling weak....just the last 2 days. But, I lift pretty heavy (for a girl! HAHA) and I tested it. I bench press 3 sets of 5 at 95 pounds...and I am still able to do that. I have also been keeping up on my other lifts as well. I don't think I would loose that much muscle that fast anyway.
    Anyone think it's possible that I could loose a pound a day and it would still be water....for 10 days???
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Also, as far as loosing muscle...I have thought about that because it is important to me that I don't. I have been feeling weak....just the last 2 days. But, I lift pretty heavy (for a girl! HAHA) and I tested it. I bench press 3 sets of 5 at 95 pounds...and I am still able to do that. I have also been keeping up on my other lifts as well. I don't think I would loose that much muscle that fast anyway.
    Anyone think it's possible that I could loose a pound a day and it would still be water....for 10 days???

    Excellent info. Since you were feeding your workouts, you did not likely lower your metabolism much in only 10 days. If you can start eating more right now and prevent it, you'll like that best. Get up to that 1770 for sure.

    So for 10 days you had a huge deficit compared to before, what could be taken from fat was, and true that probably 3-4 lbs could be water weight.

    With that low calorie for your workout routines, you also lost glucose that was not getting topped off, which holds water with it too. So there was some of your loss, just normal energy stores. That will come back eventually and you'll gain weight, up to 3lbs, needed weight, back in your muscles.

    And you did lose muscle, there is no way with those routines and loss you could have avoided it. It's not the muscle you workout, it's other muscle. Probably not much. But actually, with just the right long intense cardio workouts combined with the right low carb/calorie diet, you can easily lose a lb of muscle in a week. Muscle only has 600 cal of energy in it - when it is tapped to supply energy because glucose stores ran out, it doesn't take much to drop a lb.

    So anyway, that answers the question of metabolism. Now the question is, is yours potentially higher than estimated, since you have more muscle than avg?

    Ever done bodyfat% estimate? www.gymgoal.com/dtool_fat.html
    First thing in morning following a rest day.
    What are the results of the Covert Bailey calc (the others are very rough)?

    So knowing your LBM allows for a better estimated BMR calc.
    Use that BF% in these stats now.
    http://www.gymgoal.com/dtool_bmr.html
    What is the BMR now?

    For comparison, leave BF% out of stats, and use the weight when you used the BodyBugg for a few days.
    What was the BMR then?

    So 3 figures needed:
    Previous weight daily activity burn - about 1750 cal.
    Previous weight BMR - ?
    Current BF% BMR - ?

    With those, we can figure out what multiplier BodyBugg was using when it estimated 1750 from the BMR value it used.
    With that multiplier and current BMR, we can estimate much closer what your current daily activity is that you should work back up to.
  • drewbransmama
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    Looks like I have some more to look into and figure out. For now I guess I will just slowly start upping my calories and see where it takes me.
    Thank you so much for your time and all your help. =)