What should my caloric goal be?

[Bamda]

Hello everyone,,

I just got my fitbit today, because I'm hoping to lose some weight, and before getting it I would follow a 1200 calorie diet, unless I was exercising and then I would eat 1500. 

I am confused on what to put as my calorie goal, knowing that it includes my bmr, how would I decide what my calorie goal should be?

(I am 21, a female, 5'4', 165lbs if that matters)

Thanks so much for any help!

[Dominique]

Hello, and welcome to the community, @Bamda!

Like steps, calories burned are another measure of your overall activity level. Just like Fitbit gives you a default goal for steps (10,000 per day), it also gives you a default goal for calories burned. Based on my experience, the caloric goal tends to be more challenging than the step goal: in other words, when reaching your 10k step goal is not enough to hit your caloric goal. I believe this is intentional (just a way to motivate you into being even more active).

Although Fitbit sets goals on your behalf, you can modify them if you think they are unrealistic, or not challenging enough. Your caloric goal depends on your goal in terms of weight management (among other things): do you want to maintain, gain or lose weight from the current level? It also depends on the amount of food you want to eat: for instance, you can maintain by eating less and moving less, or eating more and moving more.

Just wear your Fitbit for a while, using the default goals. Once you have established your baseline for metrics such as steps and calories burned, you can modify your goals if you think it is appropriate.

[Dominique]

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@Bamda wrote:

I'm hoping to lose some weight, and before getting it I would follow a 1200 calorie diet, unless I was exercising and then I would eat 1500. 

(I am 21, a female, 5'4', 165lbs if that matters)

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Sorry, I didn’t see you did provide some info about your weight management goal. Based on your personal info, I would eat more than 1200 calories. Your BMR alone is about 1500. With light to moderate activity, you would easily burn 2000-2300 calories. This means you could lose weight at a sustainable pace eating 1500-1800.