TDEE 1300 - how many calories to lose weight?

[tiredmumofboys1]

I'm only 5ft tall and although I'm in the healthy weight range I have put on 10 pounds and now I'm struggling to do up my jeans. Eating 800 calories a day just isn't sustainable to me, how many should I try and eat a day to lose weight?

Reduce by 15-20%, although is 1300 definitely correct?

I think that's without doing anything / so just to keep you alive

Tdee I know is the maintenance calories. It just seems quite low, unless op is 50, 8 stone 8 and in a sedentary job I suppose.

Don't count calories. Try time restricted eating, eat within a 6 hour window, if you can. Eat lots of veggies, nuts, seeds, fruit, yoghurt, pulses, small amount of protein, fish, lean meat, eggs. Sleep well. Do strength training, walking. Maintain this long-term.

1. Download an app like calories.appdvision.com
2. Put your profile info to calculate your calories
3. Take photo of anything you eat and stop eating before passing the TDEE

Hey👋 (fellow 5ft nothing club) I would start by checking how many calories you maintain your weight on. Include ALL food and drink. Most women are maintaining their weight on much higher calories than they think they are. (Which is great because it means you can diet on higher calories and still lose weight).
Instead of picking an arbitrary number of calories from my fitness pal etc.- track as if you are NOT dieting at all for 1-2 weeks (include any food you might be embarrassed about (this is often something people try not track due to feeling like a failure but it's your biggest weapon!) & Alcohol. Once you know how many calories you are maintaining your weight on take 10-15% away and BOOM you're on a calorie deficit. Example: Imagine if you are maintaining on 2500 calories but you whack your calories down to 1200 when dieting - this WILL lead to a binge / "f*ck it" moment because your body NEEDS more calories (you're not failing the diet, the diet is failing you) whereas if you take 250-300 calories off then it's much more doable in the long run (meaning you sick to it longer) & are way less likely to feel like you are dieting and therefore means your be able to be consistent. I hope this helps ❤️ x PS the more honest you are in those first 2 weeks the better this will go for you.

Do you think 1300 calories is right? It sounds low even for a short person. I’d probably go for 1200 but also exercise but do not eat the exercise calories back.

To give you some perspective 1200 /1400 calories is about the recommended daily intake for a 6 year old girl. Not many women realise this unfortunately. Obviously your overall activity will effect things but I have previously maintained weight at 2200+ (when I was quite active ) and successfully dieted on approx 2000-1800. Anytime I have attempted to go mich lower has resulted in a me giving up and some form of "binge" style screw it moment( because my body was genuinely hungry not because I didn't have willpower). But everyone has a different level of muscle/ activity / previous diet history that will effect how many calories they can successfully diet on. This is why I recommend finding out your personal "maintenance" calories first. The higher they are the more food you get to eat when dieting. ❤️

I'm 5'1" (and 63, which doesn't help), sedentary job.
If I don't do any exercise, my Apple Watch estimated my total calorie expenditure for a day at ~1550 - 1650 Cals. If I do a decent walk (>8km) it can be over 2000. Today with a 6.5 km (flat) walk it got to 1880. (Pilates class estimated at 60 cals).

So for me the difference between slowly gaining weight and slowly losing does depend on whether (hence weather) I'm racking up the kilometres.

You would have to be a low weight already for your TDEE to be genuinely 1300 or completely bed bound with no activity

is that not your BMR? Your TDEE is different to a BMR.

The op is only 5 foot tall.
I'm 5'1" - but 63 which doesn't help. If I put my activity as sedentary the calculator I just tried gives TDEE 1,335, bmr 1113