Hi, I've been lifting for about a year now. I started with BFL but have moved on. I also do cardio 4 days per week. I am 5'6 and weigh 138. I am looking to lose a bit more body fat but am finding it hard to balance the need to lose weight with a genuine need for food. I eat fairly clean but I was wondering if anyone would have any suggestions for a calorie range I should be aiming for.

go to fitday.com and register for a free account. You can enter the foods you eat and the activites that you do for a report on how many calories you burn vs. consume.
I have found it extremely helpful.

Thanks for the reply Samantha. I track my food intake obsessively on Fitday already and I am aware of the recommended intakes etc. I just don't seem to be able to find that happy medium between maintaining my weight and losing weight but feeling undernourished. Although I have been down between 135 and 145 for over a year now I started out over 200 pounds and eating properly is still something I struggle with.

The only way you can tell what you REALLY need is to have your metabolism tested. I don't know if this is available in the UK, but here in the US there are health centers and fitness centers who use the BodyGem or MedGem test. You can go to www.healthetech.com (the company that makes the devices) to see if it's available where you are.

Failing that, you can use a formula to ESTIMATE how many calories you need. Of course, if your physiology is different than "average" it will be off, but it's a good place to start. You can use the Harris-Benedict calculator on Jim Karas's site for that:

http://www.jimkaras.net/loss_math01.cfm

funniegrrl - I checked out the website that you reccomended and found it to be pretty acurate according to other information I have found.

Hi Alberta! Congratulations on the weight loss and maintenance.

Boy do I hear you on how hard it is to lose those last few pounds! I can’t seem to pry one more lousy pound off my body now regardless of how clean I eat, how carefully I control my calories (like you, I'm an obsessive Fitday user), and how much I exercise. It can be SO frustrating!

Some thoughts — you’re pretty small already at 138 and 5’ 6” — that’s about what I weigh and I’m two inches shorter. Do you really think you have weight left to lose? Or could you already be at the right weight for you? Have you had your body fat % checked? — that might tell you if you’re at the right weight or still have fat left to lose.

As for how many calories to eat, I’ve always heard not to drop under 1200 calories a day — how many are you eating now? For most of us, it’s a trial and error process to discover what’s maintenance and what lets us lose fat. I’ve found that 1400—1500 is maintenance for me, unfortunately, and it’s hard for me to go lower without being hungry all the time, so I’m stuck where I am.

My experience with metabolic testing is that it’s interesting but not very accurate, at least in my case. I did the BodyGem test twice (about nine months apart) — the first time I got a RMR of 1490 and the second came in at 1600. Now that’s supposed to be the number of calories that I’d burn if I laid in bed all day, without even considering normal activities and exercise. I do at least 45 minutes of cardio every day and lift weights five days a week, so theoretically I should be able to eat over 2000 calories/day and maintain my weight. In reality, if I eat over 1600 calories, I gain. Mel and Jiffypop here at LWL have also had the BodyGem testing done and both got results way higher than their own personal experiences with weight loss and maintenance. Same thing for me with mathematical calculations. I WISH that I could eat that much and maintain, but I know from experience that I can’t. So — I think it comes down to experimenting, tracking, and seeing what works for your unique body.

One thing you might consider as well is this software called DietPower (www.dietpower.com). It's very similar to FitDay, but it has a few more capabilities that make it a little bit more robust. If you track your food, exercise and weight accurately, over time it gets a sense of your metabolic rate and adjusts your calore intake to match your goals (it even has an adjustment for time of the month, if you choose to use it). In the short term, it's not very accurate (because it doesn't have enough "data") but if you continue to use it over time, it really can be helpful in determining the "right" number of calories. I've been using it for a little while now, and every day I see it adjust my metabolic rate and then the calories based on the weight I've lost/gained. I've been very pleased so far.

Just a suggestion!

Thanks again for all the responses.
Meg, you may be the same weight as me but you look thinner in your picture. I am not deluding myself that I am huge or anything. I have worked so hard on my muscles and I just don't think you can see them enough through the remaining fat. My arms, abdomen, back and inner thighs are still chubby and hiding my beautiful muscles.
I keep my calories between 1200-1600 for the most part but sometimes I just feel starved. Its funny I haven't yet felt that I am maintaining because I'm still trying to lose.

Alberta,
My experience has been exactly what Meg described. My RMR based on the Metacheck and BodyGem machines is 1380-1400. On 1400-1600, with 4 days of cardio and 4-5 days of lifting, plus a non-sedentary job, I maintain. If I cheat on food or exercise, I gain. Since that means I'm usually hungry, i tend to cheat and so maintenance for me is more like yo-yo dieting, but with 3-5 pounds.

No matter what the charts and machines say, I think you really just have to experiment with not only calorie levels, but the types of food that you eat and the macronutrient ratios. I can't eat calorically dense food or I'm ravenously hungry, no matter how many calories I eat. I have to keep my fat levels at 25% minimum or I feel like I'm starving. It's all a big experiment, and to make things even more challenging, the results seem to change all the time. Time of the month, your age, stress levels...everything affects appetite and metabolism!

Post a few menus and maybe we can make a few suggestions.

Mel

Thanks again for all the information.
It was actually really heartening to realize that its not just me who finds maintenance the same as losing. I had always imagined that people who worked out, did intense cardio and lived active lives (people like me) could eat whatever they wanted. So untrue. Mel, I am a vegetarian so I end up eating a lot of cottage cheese and egg whites and try to eat carbs that also have protien like chick peas. I eat sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and barley as well. On a good day I have between 1200 and 1400 calories but sometimes I get so hungry I eat a big bowl of homemade popcorn. I try for at least one green veg per day and I can eat 2 or 3 apples a day as well. I also eat quorn which is a low fat, protien source available here in the UK and whey powder as well. Having read your post, Mel, I looked at my Fitday entries and sometimes my fat is as low as 5 percent and I wonder if this is making me hungry.

Hmmm... real quicky reply since I'm about to dash to work. The clients I train who have the most problems losing the last 10 pounds are mostly vegetarians. That's the bad news. The good news is that you do eat LF CC and egg whites and pp- great protein sources. Just off the top of my head, I'd say try in lower the starchy carbs. I know the ones that you are eating are healthy, but they are calorically dense. I'd up the good fats to at least 20% and add a truckload of green vegies. I find I make the best progress when I stop starchy carbs (even the good ones) but 3 pm and switch to just lean protein, lots of vegies, and good fats for meals 4 and 5.

Hope that helps,
Mel