To ask how many calories I should actually be eating?

[regnanEmahc]

I'm 5'10 (female) and I weigh around 130 lbs, and I can't seem to make sense of any of the online calculators, they all say different things!
posting for traffic

[AuntieStella]

Try this calculator, which is easy to use to find your estimated TDEE

tdeecalculator.net

It needs your age and roughing his active you are, but using age 35 and low activity levels, it gives a bit over 1800, so if you eat about that amount you should maintain weight.

I've played around with various online ones, and found the answers vary but not by that much.

[AlmostAJillSandwich]

Honestly those calculators are crap as no two people of the same height/weight/activity level are equal. One person your height, weight and who does equal exercise to you, might have a much faster metabolism and more muscle, less white fat cells etc, all of which play a role in how many calories you need. So whilst your statistics are similar, you could need several hundred calories more or less than they do to maintain a certain weight. You could have your own individual body tested but it would be costly, and any weight loss or gain or diet changes could affect metabolism etc and then no longer be accurate.
The easiest thing to do is start at the recommended 2000 calorie average for a woman, and decrease it by 100 calories every few weeks until you find your weight starts to go down. If it gets to 1400 before you start losing weight you know about 1500 is all you need, where as if you start losing weight at 1800 you need closer to 1900

[User145382677]

I use iifym.com - if you go to the calculators bit and then go to tdee thats what i use to get my 'usual' dailt calories then ill go lower or higher on if im bulking or cutting...no one can really answer whats best for you as it deoends on so much... if you're 130lbs of mostly lean muscle and woek out everyday then youll need more than if you never work out/ not very active.
Then it depends on your goals as well so do you want to maintain your current weight, do you want to gain weight in either muscle or fat or loose fat/muscle.... definitly try that calculator and see if it works for you!

[Gallavich]

The TDEE calculators are close enough. Why would she start at 2000 and spend weeks reducing when she could start at 1500 and assess after a week? Blimey.