READ THIS Figuring out your calorie goals

justkrissy · April 2012

Okay, so my exercise varies, so would it work if I did this. My BMR is 1224, so what if I ate that much a day, and then ate back all the calories I burn during exercise in the day. Would that work? Or am I still eating too less? And how do you make your calorie goal without going over your "Fat" intake?

Just choose the one nearest to your overall activity level in the chart and eat that.
OR
Choose sedentary and eat back your exercise cals.
Not going over your fat intake is easy if you choose the right foods - lean meat, whole grains, fruit & veg, lower fat cheeses like mozzarella / feta / cottage cheese , skimmed milk etc.

Okay.. but I don't quite get it.. Because to Lose weight you need to take your TDEE and minus 500, right? so my TDEE is 1574, so i minus 500 and it is 1074. But my BMR is 1224 and I'm not suppose to eat under that, but I can't eat over 1074?

lol! I'm so confused!

em9371 · April 2012

So according to this my BMR is 1450 (bf% 14.7 woo)

Do I add 200 to that then?

The table below says 1699 at sedentary and 1947 at lightly active to get to my goal weight, is this wrong though as it seems a lot! I currenty eat about 1650 net when lightly active.

Thanks

Eat the numbers in the table. They include exercise already, so once you add exercise to the 1650 net you currently eat they will probably be around the same

So are you saying increase from 1650 to 1699 (sedentary in table) , or increase from 1650 to 1947 (lightly sedentary in table)?

I think I'm lightly active as I walk from college every weekday (30 mins brisk pace) and walk around college itself between classes and to and from town for lunch (about 10 mins each way maybe?)

Sedentary is pretty much no activity at all so I'd go with the lighty active, maybe higher if you do other workouts.

em9371 · April 2012

Man, i'm concerned. MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories, and F2F tells me to eat 1710. That's quite a difference! Since I started MFP, I have never eatten over 1400 calories, so i'm afraid to mess anything up!

It's down to exercise. Fat2fit it's already included, mfp you have to add and eat back exercise cals. Overall they should come out pretty much the same either way.

em9371 · April 2012

Okay, so my exercise varies, so would it work if I did this. My BMR is 1224, so what if I ate that much a day, and then ate back all the calories I burn during exercise in the day. Would that work? Or am I still eating too less? And how do you make your calorie goal without going over your "Fat" intake?

Just choose the one nearest to your overall activity level in the chart and eat that.
OR
Choose sedentary and eat back your exercise cals.
Not going over your fat intake is easy if you choose the right foods - lean meat, whole grains, fruit & veg, lower fat cheeses like mozzarella / feta / cottage cheese , skimmed milk etc.

Okay.. but I don't quite get it.. Because to Lose weight you need to take your TDEE and minus 500, right? so my TDEE is 1574, so i minus 500 and it is 1074. But my BMR is 1224 and I'm not suppose to eat under that, but I can't eat over 1074?

lol! I'm so confused!

Try running your numbers again sounds like something's gone wrong. Unless you are sedentary and do no activity / exercise at all, tdee should be a lot higher than that.
What are the numbers you put into fat2fit?

If the deficit puts you below bmr you need to go with a smaller deficit to stay above bmr.

jfaure23 · April 2012

First question, at one point in the original post, Dan said to measure your waist 1" below the belly button but the Fat2 calculator states "Note: Women should measure the natural waist circumference at the point of minimal abdominal circumference, usually located about halfway between the navel and the lower end of the sternum (breast bone)." That's above the belly button at the smallest point. There is a a couple of inches difference between these two locations for me so I think it matters which one to use.

I still had the above question......does anyone know the right answer?

You should be using the minimum circumference for waist measurements, which is above the belly button a couple of inches or so. 1" below belly button is known as the Upper Hip (and is about 3" below your waist).

jfaure23 · April 2012

Okay, so my exercise varies, so would it work if I did this. My BMR is 1224, so what if I ate that much a day, and then ate back all the calories I burn during exercise in the day. Would that work? Or am I still eating too less? And how do you make your calorie goal without going over your "Fat" intake?

That would work, as long as you are eating back all of the exercise cals. A good guide is to eat at least 100 cals more than your BMR, just in case your calories burned through exercise calcs are off.

To meet your calorie goal, try to increase your lean proteins, and reduce added fats, such as oils, butters and dressings.

watergirl626 · April 2012

Thanks for sharing....I have wanted to hear from people who have used these numbers with success. Would love to hear from some shorter women who have had success also.

I am 5'6.5" and have been following the F2F model, modified, for a little bit now. I decided to take the moderately active number and subtract 200 (because they say if you are close to your goal, you can, and I am only 10 lbs away). That was still an increase from where I was netting prior, by about 160 cals/day. My weight loss increased. In fact, I am losing too quickly for what I have left to lose, meaning I am losing muscle, so yesterday I bumped it all the way up to the 2200 they recommend for me, which is a 200/day increase. In mfp, just because I don't like to see red, I set my goals manually to a 2200 goal and then don't eat back my exercise cals. Even by changing my MFP to lightly active, it thinks I am set to gain 0.6 lbs/ week, but I just ignore that, as well as the what you'll weigh in 5 weeks numbers.

BTW, I use their original BF% calculator, not the military one. The military one seemed way off from the other results, which all seemed close to one another. When I went in and did the Bod Pod test 2 months ago, that reading was only 0.1% off from the F2F original BF% calculator, so I will continue to use that one.

See, I need some convincing and this is helping a lot! Love to hear this working. Just to be sure I got it, you are 5'6" and now eating 2200 calories a day and losing weight? Amazing!!

That's right. In MFP language, I net around 1900.

watergirl626 · April 2012

This doesn't seem accurate to me because there is one flaw I can see - bone structure. I don't see how body fat can be calculated based on your hips, neck and waist. I know the neck can show bone structure some because it doesn't carry as much fat, but that doesn't mean someone can't naturally have very large hips and a small neck. Just weird.

If you use their original calculator, it uses wrist and forearm measurements. Wrist would help account for bone structure.

chelledawg14 · April 2012

bump great info explained very well if you take the time to read it!

justkrissy · April 2012

Okay, so my exercise varies, so would it work if I did this. My BMR is 1224, so what if I ate that much a day, and then ate back all the calories I burn during exercise in the day. Would that work? Or am I still eating too less? And how do you make your calorie goal without going over your "Fat" intake?

Just choose the one nearest to your overall activity level in the chart and eat that.
OR
Choose sedentary and eat back your exercise cals.
Not going over your fat intake is easy if you choose the right foods - lean meat, whole grains, fruit & veg, lower fat cheeses like mozzarella / feta / cottage cheese , skimmed milk etc.

Okay.. but I don't quite get it.. Because to Lose weight you need to take your TDEE and minus 500, right? so my TDEE is 1574, so i minus 500 and it is 1074. But my BMR is 1224 and I'm not suppose to eat under that, but I can't eat over 1074?

lol! I'm so confused!

Try running your numbers again sounds like something's gone wrong. Unless you are sedentary and do no activity / exercise at all, tdee should be a lot higher than that.
What are the numbers you put into fat2fit?

If the deficit puts you below bmr you need to go with a smaller deficit to stay above bmr.

Yah put it at sedentary becaus I have a desk job and was just playing on adding my exercise as i do it and then eating those calories back. I always plan my days ahead so that works for me, and my numbers were

Age: 22
Height: 5'0
Weight: 164
Goal: 110 (I have a small frame)
Fat per: 47

Craigggggggggg · April 2012

First time posting here so bare with me. I have been following this thread and I think I have everything correct. just a few questions.

HB BMR: 1915 (This should not be important because I entered my body fat percentage using a tape measure. correct?)
KM BMR: 1656

So I need to multiply my KM BMR(1656) by 1.4 for something near moderately active to give me my suggested calorie intake? If thats correct I came up with 2318.

SUGGESTED CALORIE INTAKE: 2318

Then to get my TDEE I need to multiply my suggested calorie intake(2318) by 1.2 giving me 2782.

TDEE: 2782

So IF all the information I have entered is correct, then I need to eat about 2300 calories every day, even on days I work out and on my rest days? Or would it be better to eat around 2300-2500 calories on days I do work out and my rest days around 2000 calories?

Basically I need to eat under my TDEE(2782) and over my KM BMR(1656) and I think I read something about making sure your net calorie intake is at least 200 over your KM BMR making that 1856.

Is everything I listed above correct? Open to any corrections or helpful advice, thanks!

AutumnBreeze07 · April 2012

Bumping!

WifeNMama · April 2012

Things that go BUMP in the night.

bolteja · April 2012

BUMP! for later! :flowerforyou:

Ravenesque_ · April 2012

Okay. I am epically confused.

My stats:
BMI 38.7
168 cm tall
103.8 kg atm
goal weight is 55ks
body fat = 56.3%

I put all my stats in and got :

BMR = 1352 (1552 if you add the recommended 200cal over)
TDEE = 2270 (lightly active)

I understand that these are the min and the max of what I should be eating to lose weight. I need to be in the middle somewhere.

What I dont understand is MFP has put me on 1510 daily max. Any exercise I do I should eat back the calories of -according to this site-? Or should I only eat back only enough calories to bring me up to the 1500 ish total?

Basically If I trust this site to know what I should eat, its not going to screw me up, is it?

I've only been here a couple of days and while It's brilliant, its confusing at the same time.

sugarsquare · April 2012

OK I just found all of this information this morning and I went to the fat2fitradio website and completed the calculations. The body fat calcs. were all different ranging from 14.5% to 30.7%. I used the 30.7% which was the military calc.

Age 26
Female
Weight 145
Goal Weight 135
Height 67 inches

Harris-Benedict Formula 1478
Katch-McArdle Forumla 1352

Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1722
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1973
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2224
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2475
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2727

I have been at a base of 1280 on MFP and eating back 1/2 of my fitness calories, usually 100-150 each day. I work out 30 mins doing 30 day shred and shred it with weights by Jillian Michaels alternating DVDs 6 days per week plus I am doing the Couch 2 5k and I am in week 6 jogging/walking that 3 days per week. If I were to follow this I would need to eat 224 calories a day!

Today I attemepted to eat at the sedentary level (note: I decided this after I had packed breakfast and lunch for work today) and it was near impossible! I was forcing down food when I wasn't even hungry. Most days I am STARVING at my previous calorie intake and my weight loss has stopped for over a month and a half. I am just trying to figure out what I should be eating to lose these last 10 pounds and tone up!