5’3” ladies over 30, what are your maintenance calories and activity level?

[escapewoman]

@jacob2848 At 48 im feeling it get harder now despite my efforts to offset it. Energy levels and managing injury id say are my biggest challenge rather than blaming just “age”.

 

[jacob2848]

@escapewoman Totally agree on the injury factor. I consider it a lot more now. I'm starting to get to the point where I can't just bounce back from injuries, and it sucks. My main goal is to be mobile in my later years, so I try to listen to my body about injuries,

 

[soldier_of_god]

@freds I'm 38, 128 lbs, maintain at 2300-2400 calories. But, that's been built up over years. I used to be a cardio bunny who gained weight if I so much as looked at a donut. Strength training and adequate protein will build muscle and get your metabolism roaring.

 

[freds]

@soldier_of_god I smell donuts and I feel myself gain fat lol sigh but yes that’s what I’m trying to do is gain muscle and hopefully my metabolism wakes up!

 

[jaz2001]

@soldier_of_god

cardio will impair your ability to build muscle

This isn’t true. If you’re eating and training right, adding cardio as a secondary priority will not impair your gains. You can’t train for a marathon and expect to gain muscle but you can moderately jog, cycle, elliptical, etc., and of course walk all you want.

 

[soldier_of_god]

@jaz2001 It absolutely does, unless you're genetically gifted. And, the vast majority of women are not eating and training correctly.

 

[jaz2001]

@soldier_of_god

not eating and training correctly

That’s the actual problem. If you don’t have that, you’re not gaining anything significant, cardio or not. The only people still spouting that cardio kills your gains are bro science brahs.

 

[iamfavored2015]

@soldier_of_god this is helpful! i am trying to grow more muscle now and prioritize walking / getting my steps and trying to do elliptical on the weekends. i hope it doesn’t hamper my muscle growth too much

 

[freds]

@soldier_of_god It does??? Oh lord. What do you think about walking on incline?

 

[jaz2001]

@freds It doesn’t, don’t worry. Focus on your eating and lifting but don’t feel like you have to give up cardio also.

 

[freds]

@jaz2001 Whew I thought I was sabotaging whatever I had gained lol

 

[philm]

@freds I’m 5’4 135. My BMR is 1380 but I can’t eat below 1800-2000 for more than a week before I feel voraciously hungry. I don’t even do that much exercise - 5K steps/day, 2-3x lifting, 1x yoga per week. Somehow it’s easy to maintain and extremely hard to go below my current weight.

 

[jedisobe]

@philm Me too. I feel most comfortable eating around 2000. I can tolerate 1800 but it feels like I’m on a diet. Anything less and I’m hungry, feel cold, start to lose energy, and move less.

 

[dmhanson511]

@philm I feel this. I strength train 2x and run 2x a week but recently I’ve been so hungry that I can’t eat below 1700. I’ve tried 1500 and always go over. I’ve been maintaining forever. Trying to lose 30 lbs. my BMR is very close to yours!

 

[philm]

@dmhanson511 I’ll alternate between trying for stretches and then giving up. I don’t really go lower than 133 though. Oh well!

 

[freds]

@philm The problem with me is I can be satiated with 1400/1500 depending on what I eat like if I stay home eating as clean as I can I can be fine with 1500/1400 but when I go out or I’d want some sweets especially when it’s that time of the month I can easily go 2000 lol

 

[amicrazy90]

@freds Same

 

[simsodep8388]

@freds This could be a big range depending on how much everyone weighs.

I'm 5'3.5" and 115-120 lbs (I don't count my calories as strictly anymore). My BMR is 1300, I walk about 6-8 k steps (100 calories) and do CrossFit (300 calories) almost every day so my maintenance is about 1700. Some days I'll throw in an extra workout like yoga, Pilates, or an aerobics type class as burn another 200-300 so on those 2 workout days, my maintenance is 2000 calories.

Edit to add that I'm 38.

 

[freds]

@simsodep8388 When you say “not as strictly anymore” what do you do instead? Like eyeball food?

 

[simsodep8388]

@freds No unfortunately I can't eyeball food - whenever I do that I go back up to 135 lbs within 2-3 months - that is where I seem to stay without much effort which isn't bad but I feel the best least low 120's.

I basically weigh, count, and track "as much as I can" which usually means most weekdays from morning to night, and only weekend mornings. So I'll start the day tracking but I might not end up tracking Friday, Saturday, Sunday night. Or I won't track on a weekday if I go out for lunch with friends or coworkers. Or sometimes if I just feel like I need a few days break then I won't track. But then I'll go back to tracking 75% of the time. The meals I don't strictly track, I might eyeball but often I just don't even bother putting it in or pretending to track.

I weigh myself every few days, but at least once a week. I won't sweat it if it's between 115-120 but if I see it creep up to 121-123 then I go back to tracking 100% of the time into it's back to at least 118-119. I realize now typing this out this sounds strange maybe? I don't know. I just couldn't bear the thought of tracking 100% of the time for the rest of my life and this became my solution.

I have managed to maintain a very active workout routine though so I also try to focus on being stronger, faster, etc, as goals too, rather than killing myself trying to stay exactly at 115 lbs.