Macro targets for a 5'1" female? (x-post from r/IF_Petites)

[djokica8]

Someone on r/womenshealth suggested I post here.

I'm a 5'1", 25F with a child-sized frame and a TDEE of around ~1300 . I'm interested in starting a fitness journey specifically to build lean muscle mass; I know nutrition is a key part of this, but confess I don't know a lot about nutrition or macros.

When I Google I can find plenty of range suggestions, but those seem to be targeted for men looking to bulk up significantly or for people of average height and build. That's definitely not me, so I'm looking for advice on setting targets appropriate to my size and goals.

How many grams of fat, carbs, and protein should I be aiming for daily? And what kinds of each? The tracking app I'm using (cronometer) lists a bunch of amino acid targets whose specific functions I don't know anything about and it is overwhelming. I'd hope my diet would support healthy cognitive function too as I'm a grad student as well.

Some advice? Thank you in advance!

 

[dawn16]

@djokica8 Are you concerned about under or overeating? Generally if you have a healthy appetite, it will change on its own once you start working out, and you will crave more calorie dense foods, as well as food that is rich in fats and protein.

 

[staywithme]

@djokica8 There's a comprehensive section in our FAQ here on how to determine your macro targets. This section on bulking will walk you through how to set them for a muscle gain goal.

 

[djokica8]

@staywithme Looks really good, thank you! Sorry I missed this.

 

[josho]

@djokica8 I'm also 5'1. I go for about 75g protein, 35g fat, and 450g carbs. I run long distances.

How do you get your TDEE so low?

I tried eating 1300 for a while in uni. Couldn't function at all mentally and quickly ended up underweight. I didn't deliberately exercise at the time.

It is almost impossible to avoid hitting the RDA for amino acids unless you're on some kind of weird fruitarian diet. If cronometer shows you as being too low in them, it's probably because some of the items you've entered have missing data.

 

[djokica8]

@josho I was tracking my intake and weight in the r/fitness spreadsheet for about 2.5 months and that's the average they gave me. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I figure it might be right given my height and that I have been SUPER inactive recently?

Pre-quaratine when I was racing around on campus all day, I was hitting 15k steps regularly...I am definitely nowhere near that since quarantine began. I'm also about to start exercising to try and tone up so that might bring my TDEE up too?

The screenshot I included is actually one I just pulled from the internet. I just installed cronometer yesterday and haven't logged anything yet, mostly because I had no idea what to finish entering for all the macro targets.

 

[staywithme]

@djokica8 If you’ve been using the adaptive TDEE spreadsheet you can keep using it. It will correct for inaccuracies in your tracking. Your TDEE could be higher, but if that’s what it’s given you that’s the kind of trial and error data you want as a starting point.

 

[josho]

@djokica8 If you get back up to 15k steps a day, you can add another 700-800 calories.

 

[djokica8]

@josho Semester is structured a little different but I'll be sure to take steps into account too once things pick up