How many cals should I eat to lose? Calling all geeks

[crazyhead]

Am starting to track on my fitness pal and v confused (mainly about cals but also about goals). Any thoughts on how much you'd eat in in similar circs?

. Am 40, weigh 11 stone and 5ft4. Used to be 9 st 5 at which point I was pretty lean (runner, body fat 17%) so dunno how realistic now - but 10 stone would be nice
. Desk job 4 days a week but run round after small kids
. According to boditrax at gym have high muscle mass so bmr of 1500
. Run twice a week (total 10-15k) hiit training once, body pump once, Pilates once

So what should I eat to lose? I just started. Initially I set my MyFitnessPal at sedentary cos of desk job (cos you get extra for the formal exercise) which gave me 1200 plus exercise but this seems low given my Rmr and the days I spend going up and down the stairs all day after my kids! I felt terrible after a day on 1200 esp after my run! Very confused please help!

I'd have said 1300.

I'm on weight watchers and if I add up calories for my days points I've usually had about 1200-1300. I'd say if you're active to have the upper end of that. To lose a pound a week you need to use around 3500-4000 more calories than you take in, so around 500 a day. You probably need 1800 a day so if you have 1300 then that's 500 a day and 1lb a week you'll lose. I would eat more in days you run, you burn about 100 kcal a mile so I'd eat half of what you're burning of if I were you.

I hope that makes sense, I'm sure someone will come along and make more sense any minute now!

Take your weight in lbs and x it by 13.

The total is the number calories you can eat to stay the same to maintain your weight.

So, 11 stone is 154lbs.

154lbs x 13 = 2002

If you eat 2002 calories a day you won't lose or gain weight.

1lb is equal to 3,500 calories.

If you eat 500 less calories a day, you will have a deficit of 3,500 in 7 days.

That would mean that to lose 1lb a week, you should consume 1,502 calories a day.

Hope that makes sense.

Thank you! Somewhere in that range makes sense to me! Steady loss maintaining muscle would be way better

I always aim for 1200 i imagine some days it is more some less. My fitness pal is not an exact science. Good luck!

I used a site to work out my BMR and my TDEE, and set my target number of calories between the two.

BMR being the just the basal rate and TDEE being the typical daily expenditure for my level of activity (which I set as low, then add the exercise I'm actually doing). If actively seeking to reduce, the I don't eat back the exercise calories - though may drink them and if just keeping an eye/maintaining them I probably would.

Fairenuff is spot on

Whatever you do, DO NOT USE MFP'S "CALCULATIONS", they are an utter joke. It's a good app for tracking because they have a huge database, but that's it. Oh and don't be tempted to log your exercise either, their guesstimates for calories burned are ridiculous

Interesting article here on MFP calorie estimates

www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/2tjl64/an_explanation_on_how_myfitnesspal_mostly_doesnt/

I started a thread last year, when I noticed it was giving me fewer calories for exercise (and was wondering if it had fixed the issue about netting off the BMR) but no-one seemed to know.