Petite women, how many calories help you lose or maintain weight?

[QuickPearlFox]

For all my fellow petite women …
how many calories do you eat daily to lose weight? And how many calories to maintain? Actually realise being just under 5ft is damn hard when trying to lose weight and restrict calories

I’m 5’3 and 54 years old. I’ve a busy sedentary job and making time for exercise is hard.

If don’t exercise my basal metabolic rate is 1300-1400 a day. I manage to add an average of 300 cals a day by being really disciplined with exercise (2 gym sessions and one yoga/ Pilates session a week , and 9-10k steps on average a day.) This is all I have time for.

Realistically this gives me 1700 a day maintenance which is shit.

I cut calories where I can. I haven’t eaten breakfast in nearly 3 years. I prob under-eat Mon-Fri to give myself a bit of wiggle room at the weekend if we go out for a meal or see friends. Realistically though everyone else eats steak and I have the fish.

Over the last 2.5 years I’ve lost 6 stone. 2 “naturally”, 4 on Mounjaro. I’m now 10 stone. Losing the last 4 wouldn’t have been possible without WLI- I needed to eat around 1000-1200 a day to lose and even eating that amount my average weekly loss is only 1.2lbs. I worry endlessly about stopping the injections. However without them I was fat for 20 years eating significantly less than my taller peers!

People do not realise how much harder it is being short. Portion sizes when we’re out are the same for me as for my 6’1” husband. He managed to lose 3 stone by cutting out beer (average 8 pints a week over 5 days ), his afternoon biscuit and peanut butter on his toast (he switched to marmalade). I felt quietly aggrieved.

There are some interesting creators around talking about this. On TikTok / Insta there’s “Maggie- petite dietician” who’s very perky and American (and also under 5’) but makes some good points. She focuses on your relationship with food which didn’t work for me initially as I needed to calorie count obsessively, but which is something I’m considering more as I stop my weight loss journey.

Good luck. It’s hard being short….

Agree it’s about 1300-1400. Exercise if 1400.

I’m 5ft 1. 1300 to lose weight. 1500 to maintain.

Im 5ft1. I find 1200 loses weight. Not sure on maintenance as whenever I've successfully dieted I have put it back on at varying speeds. Obviously my maintenance is lower than I want as I think when I'm trying to maintain I mostly eat really well and healthily still. Not much margin for short women. I exercise quite a lot.

Is there a way of successfully increasing your BMR? On my scales app it says mine is 1122 which is awful ….

5ft3 and 70-75kg.

Approx 1600 to maintain and 1000 to lose 0.5kg pw average....

The only way to increase your BMR is through getting heavier! Ideally, by increasing muscle mass.

1200 to lose I'm 5ft 1 I've been on Mounjaro for just over a year and lost 5 stone. I can not keep my calorie intake that low without wli, I run a lot and do weights.
I think I'll be on wli for a very long time as I'm not sure how ill maintain otherwise I already eat a very healthy diet

161 cm (5ft3?) and I lose weight on 2000-2100 kcal. I am breastfeeding now and I have to eat between 2500-2700 to maintain. I’m lean, visibly toned.

5ft 1, mid 40s, office job. I need to stick to around 1000 calories to lose weight.

5’1. 1200 to lose gradually, 1500 to maintain with exercise.

4ft 10, 1250 to maintain, can't manage to eat under 850 so weight loss is very slow! Only slightly overweight BMI is 26.5

5ft here.

I'm so sick of being this short. Im now at the top end of healthy BMI and would ideally lose a stone but can barely shift a pound! I need 1100 calories to loose, which I struggle with...the usual starve myself then get so fed up and hungry I binge and the cycle continues. I walk 10000 steps a day on average as I have a fairly active job and a dog but also trying to add the habit of regular gym and swimming in... again, I do it for a couple of weeks then get tired and come out of the habit.

Tall people are so lucky!

And exercise?
Not sure why everyone is talking about BMR on this thread when they mean TDEE but you increase your TDEE by gaining muscle and increasing physical output.

Less than I am currently eating. I find it so depressing to think that, in order to stop gaining weight (I’ve almost given up on actually losing weight), I need to obsessively count calories, never eat many of the foods I enjoy and still be hungry.

I eat 1400 calories a day and I can see the weight coming off (slowly). I’ve lost 7lbs and have 2.5 more to lose. Tired of being in the obese BMI category and not recognising myself in the mirror! I walk 30-45 on a treadmill with a weighted vest and do as much movement in the day as I can (take the stairs, park further away from work etc). I’m 5’ 1” and used to be a size 10 - size 16 these days.

5ft 4 (not sure if that counts as petite - top end probably). Anyway, I’m 8 stone 9, average activity and can eat approx 1400/1500 to maintain. However to lose any, I would be down to 1000 a day which is a struggle.

5’1 (and a half)! It was about 14-1500 with exercise to maintain and about 1200 to lose. Now I have absolutely no idea as the weight is piling on. I tried to stick at 800 to maintain, but some weeks I gain several pounds and some weeks I lose. I’m back on 11-1200 again now and still gaining/losing erratically. Long covid has done something to my metabolism too and obviously I can no longer exercise which doesn’t help.

I’m 5’1” and 65 which doesn’t help. Except that I’m retired so I have time to exercise - we try to walk at least 5 miles a day. I log in Nutracheck because it’s so easy to gradually gain. I’ve got it set to a base 1200 calories, and linked to my Apple Watch so I can eat around 1500 cals - more or less depending on how much exercise - and try to keep within that. My weight is steady at a shade above bmi 25 - it’d be a struggle to lose any.

I am 52, really active, 5ft 4 and approximately 54kg. I maintain at 1,400-1,500. But I exercise pretty much every day.

Following as I am struggling to lose anything. Think I am seriously gonna have to go low carb as it’s the only thing that works 😭 It seems that all I need to maintain is like 1600 calories, and they can’t be junk either, otherwise I gain, and I need to be exercising to have 1600 as well. To lose it’s 1200.
5ft4 here

1200 sadly.

5ft 2 and only drop weight on 1200 a week :( i find it ok to manage generally but hard when eating out

I have to go down to about 1000-900 to lose. I think I maintain on about 1300 which is lame. But I do hardly any exercise.