Calories to eat a day

[alexis1286]

Hi! I just had a quick question about my calories. I've been moving out of a diet of eating lower calories and i'm trying to get back to maintenance. I've slowly been increasing overtime trying to find how much I should eat in a day. I'm at 1,300 right now I just recently went up to 1,500. I do an hour of cardio a day, at 4.5 speed and 10 incline 4 days a week. Then I will do a 20 minute hiit on off days. I also have been lifting a little bit on the side. I'm 106lb and 5'2.  I count calories and macros on My Fitness Pal and it seems like every app or website tells me something different. I also wasn't sure what the calories burned on fitbit was and if I should eat over that amount or not. Any help would be great, thanks!

[emili]

To stay at maintenance your calories in have to equal your calories out but not exceed your total BMR + movement. So let's say your BMR is 1400 per day. You also burn 600 in activity. Your total for the day is 2000 calories out. You can eat 2000 calories and break even- no loss no gain. I am in maintenance as well. I can not eat equal every day because weekends are my "have some fun" days so the rest of the week is evening it all out (well first two days is and the rest is prepping for the weekend- vicious circle 😉 ). I hope this helps...

[alexis1286]

Thank you that helps a lot! Do you do mostly cardio or weights? How often would you say you exercise a week? And just out of curiosity, do you know if the number the fitbit says if thats the BMR or is it the BMR+TDEE? Thanks for replying, I appreciate it!

[Esya]

FitBit reports BMR+TDEE. For maintenance it really is about balancing the calories in versus the calories out. The more you burn due to exercise, the more you have to eat. So you could maintain while not working out. You mainly want to do cardio for good heart and vascular health and weights for strength and muscles (looking toned).