Calorie Counting- How to decide my cal limit?

  • So I have calorie counted for awhile and I am trying to figure out what my limit should be. I am 5 feet 4 inches, and I weight 145 pounds. My goal is to loose 25 pounds by the end of march (my birthday) but I know a slow weight loss is better and easier to keep off!
    I use all the BMI calculators online- but I get confused with the level of activity. I am a receptionist and sit at a desk 7 hours a day- but I am active outside of work. I do boxing, run, trx, dance, etc. I work out for 1-2 hours a day at least. If I have a sedentary job, but I am active, what category would I fall under?
    Thanks for the help/advice. It is greatly appreciated.
  • Well... see how you do at 1500 calories... I think that would give you a slow weight loss and not be to difficult to follow. You can always adjust that as needed.
  • I do the same type of work - I calculated mine as "Sedentary" and then I record and eat back all my workout calories. You may have to tweak based on how you feel but that may be a good start point.
  • I think there might be a 5-6 moderate active choice. Did you see that one? I know, they do categorize it kind of funky. Sorry I'm not sure how best to answer this.
  • I do medifast and for maintenance they give us this tool to calculate our maintenance caloric intake based on our activity level. the activity levels are
    1.2 Sedentary
    1.375 Light Activity (Light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week).
    1.55 Active (Moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week).
    1.725 Very Active (Hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week).
    1.9 Extra Active (Very hard exercise/sports + Physical job or 2x/day training).

    By this chart it doesn't matter about what you do for your day, your activity level is dependent on your activity. Right now my activity level is Very active, as I do a high intensity workout for 35-40 minutes 6 days a week.
  • mabenda0 - I am in the same boat as you in goals and starting weight! I am using My Fitness Pal for a calorie counter - again. Hopefully this time works better! Good luck to you!