Calorie goals?

[Charlotte92]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some nutritional guidance for an active person. I have a history of an eating disorder (restrictive eating and over exercise) but I've been in therapy and doing well for almost two years now. I am looking to really cement my position in being very well and healthy with no restrictions at all on my eating. One of the things I am working on currently in therapy is closing the gap between what I eat and what I use in energy. I have used some calculators online (NHS, BBC, Bodybuilding.com etc) which average to eat around 2200 a day and lose weight as I am wanting to reduce my fat %. I have a few concerns that this is still just not quite enough for what I do. If I provide some information, I am hoping some of you can offer some advice/ guidance/ personal stories etc. 

So I am a dog walking and walk for 2hrs a day at an active walk. 

I also have my own horse who I spend approx an hour a day mucking out/ caring for and 1hr about 4 times a week riding. 

During the week I strength train 3 times for an hour each time and 20mins of Hiit on the treadmill 2x per week. 

I also cycle twice a week for one hour doing about 25km. 

I swim either twice a week for an hour or 3/4x a week for 30mins. 

I work at my stables at weekends which involves 5 hours of mucking out horses etc so active work and I generally walk my own dog for an hour each day too. 

I know it may seem like a lot but I just love being active and challenging myself physically. I do get a couple of hours of rest in every day and a good night's sleep each night as I am aware of the importance of all of that too. 

Energy wise I am feeling quite good at the moment and have a healthy appetite. I just am very keen to be completely free from my eating disorder and I feel my last step is ensuring I am eating enough every day. 

I have no concerns about my diet, I am nutritionally aware and my macros are quite good and I was brought up to make healthy choices so I'm not one for eating fast food or sugary things aside from the odd treat here and there! 

[Charlotte92]

One thing I should have added is that I have recently had a body composition scan and got "standard muscular" for my build with muscle % at 67.9% and fat % at 28.5% body weight 82kg and my height is 172cm. BMI calculators would always label me as overweight which can be very frustrating as physically I am so fit and healthy but this composition scan came back as green for all aspects of my body with my visceral fat rating being almost non existent. It stated my BMR to be 1772. With the only thing I need to work on is getting my metabolism healthier but after a decade of disordered eating that didn't come as a surprise. 

Just in case this extra information can help anyone give more informed advice for me personally. I know it's very long but I'd be ever so grateful for any input. 

[Dominique]

Losing fat requires you to be in a caloric deficit. Since your activity level is very high (much higher than for the average person), the main way to create that deficit will be by reducing calories you’re eating. The question is by how much and for how long. I would suggest losing no more than 1% of your body weight per week and for no more than 3 months before switching to maintenance. 1% of your body weight is 0.8 kg in your case, which implies a daily deficit of about 900 calories. Given your history of disorders, it’s probably a good idea to keep it smaller than that, maybe half that amount. That would be what Fitbit calls the "medium intensity" food plan, if you want to use Fitbit as a tool. So keep your activity the same if your routine is well established and you’re comfortable with it, and take 400-500 calories off from what you’re currently eating. This should result in a drop of 4.5 kg in 3 months. Nothing crazy, but should be feasible/sustainable. You can reiterate later if you want to further lose fat.