Petite girls is it true our calorie deficits are smaller?

[armour_101]

I’m 5’3 f/28. So two years ago I lost 80 pounds eating 1200 cal a day and doing cardio for two hours a day. Obviously I’ve been told that that is not a healthy lifestyle, two years down the line and I’m struggling to not gain the weight back I’ve gained about 15 to 20 pounds. I’d like to go back to this calorie deficit because I know that it worked for me and all calculator on the Internet tell me to eat between 1200 and 1300. But everyone says that that is not healthy or sustainable, what are y’all‘s thoughts on this and do you also struggle with getting such a low calorie deficit? I’m also going to try to go to the gym more but it’s difficult because I work full-time and go to school for 30 hours a week

 

[lufu]

@armour_101 Most of the comments here and the post are using the word deficit wrong. 1200 calories or whatever you eat is your intake. Your deficit is the difference between what you burn, and what you eat. Commonly you’ll see the advice to “eat in a 500 calorie deficit” — so if your TDEE (what you burn in a day; calculate online) is 1800 (that’s about where I am at 5’2) you’d have to eat 1300 to be in a deficit of 500.

Because petite women generally burn lower calories than taller people or men, it’s hard to already start with a low TDEE and go even LOWER with a big calorie deficit. So sometimes it’s recommended to just be in a 200-300 deficit and lose more slowly. 1200 is extremely low calories and like others have said can be hard to recover from or keep up long term.

I think OP you are asking if petites burn lower calories or have a lower TDEE so yea that’s often the case but it depends on weight (much heavier people burn more because it takes more work to get around) and muscle mass, activity level etc. Use an online TDEE calculator to find your own and subtract 300-500 calories from that (the deficit) to be eating less than you burn.

 

[rodneys]

@armour_101 It’s 100% individual. Your calorie intake depends on your height, yes. But it also depends on your lean muscle mass, body fat percentage, goals, and activity level. I personally lose fat at 1700 calories.

 

[crosswalk1991]

@armour_101 The other comments covered a lot of good information already on BMR, TDEE, and height.

Have you only done cardio and no weightlifting? Because the more muscles you have, the higher your caloric metabolism at the same height and weight.

 

[anxious]

@armour_101 Kind of, but it doesn’t have to be THAT small of a deficit!

You can actively work to make your deficit larger so that way you don’t have to restrict so much. Eating 1200 calories a day is not healthy or sustainable long term and often leads to regaining the weight because of that—which is exactly what you just experienced, it seems.

I am only 5’2 and went from 160 to 120 pounds eating over 2,000 calories a day. The first twenty pounds of that were lost eating close to 2,400 calories a day.

You can literally train your body to eat more. The girls who feel stuck at 1200 are the girls who deprived themselves for so long that their body adjusted to eating such a small amount of food, and now they have to put in the work to restore their metabolism to healthy functioning.

Believe me, I know because I used to be that girl. Eating disorders, extreme calorie restriction, weird and arbitrary diet rules…. I’ve been there. All those things can mess with your metabolism. But you do not have to eat such a small amount of calories for your whole life if you don’t want to! Life is so much easier for me now that I maintain my weight eating over 2,000 calories a day. I don’t stress about food, I eat when I’m hungry. I do make very healthy choices and focus on high protein 80% of the time, but I have balance now in a way that I couldn’t when I was eating 1200 calories.

 

[jakob1997]

@anxious Agreed. I used to think I had to do 1200 calories, a coach got me to slowly increase my maintenance to 1800 calories and now losing weight very slowly at 1400 calories, also eating at maintenance and tracking calories and weight daily gives a better idea of maintenance than using Fitbit . Calorie counting is not exact and my 1200 calories logged may be different than yours.

I did weigh myself most days so I don’t make any decisions to decrease or increase food based on daily fluctuations .

 

[timmygvsu]

@anxious How active were you though?

 

[megnat]

@anxious Logistically, how do you eat close to 2,400 calories and not gain weight? I’m 5’0”. I was once also 160 pounds and down to 120 (average-it fluctuates). I did it by counting calories in an App and walking and hiking. But in order for me to keep the weight off, I eat about 1500 calories and I’m only MAINTAINING. I walk my dog 3 times a day and lift weights 2-3 times per week. To lose weight I’d probably have to cut down to 1,200 calories a day (but then I’m super hungry and it drives me nuts). So what can I do to eat almost double the calories (like all my 5’5”- 5’11” friends)? What’s the secret?

 

[little_lamb12]

@megnat Not OP, but I'm 5'0" also eat 2400+ calories most days and still lose weight. But I do intense physical activity for 4-5 hours a day, with an elevated heart rate and sweating the entire time. My BMR is 1325 and on sedentary days my TDEE is right around 1500. So all those extra calories come from exercise.

People say you can't lose weight through exercise, only dieting can do that. Personally, I was never able to lose weight through dieting alone. Like you, I could not stand 1200 calories, and all I could ever think about was food. And I was struggling to lose weight. I only saw results through being more physically active. I do eat a very balanced diet, focusing on protein and fresh fruits and vegetables to make sure I'm getting all my vitamins and such. And I do track my calories to make sure I'm in a deficit. But for me, I found it easier to achieve that deficit by increasing exercise rather than restricting calories. That's not going to be a viable option for everyone but if you want to know how someone so short can eat so much and still lose weight, that's how it's been possible for me.

Edit to add: I'm specifically talking about losing fat, not just weight in general. I weigh 130lb now and my measurements are smaller than when I was at 110lb. And when I was "struggling to lose weight" I actually weighed less than I do now. The body recomp made me not only feel better about how I looked, but also just made me feel better in general.

 

[kjbbeliever]

@anxious I can’t exercise a lot cuz of my chronic illness, I still do maintain my muscle. But if I eat 2400 kcal I gain weight a lot. I used to eat over 2 k and was maintain 130-133 lb. I reduced to 1700 and then now I’m 120lb. I don’t know how to maintain my weight if I eat more.

 

[derelekt]

@anxious How do you train your body to eat more? Teach me your ways

 

[bubba777]

@armour_101 I hear ya! I'm so scared of gaining weight again after I've worked so hard (40lb loss, now at 108).

For me having the occasional lower calorie day to look the the weeks allowance rather than the day has helped. And looking at my natural fluctuations - can be 5lbs really helped my understand my body a bit more.

I hate weights and the gym so I do a lot of walking, and yoga as much as possible. I'm also trying to remember it's not all about the numbers but about how you feel in yourself

 

[niggler]

@armour_101 BMR and TDEE have more to do with weight than height. So if you're, say, 140lbs at 5'0 vs 140lbs at 5'5, there will maybe be around a 150 calorie difference in TDEE. (Obviously while controlling for things like muscle mass and activity.) So, personally, I'd recommend not worrying so much about needing to eat for a petite body specifically. You don't have to have eat as little as 1200 for you to lose weight.

 

[evuke]

@armour_101 Hard to say without knowing your current and goal weight. If you can get all the nutrition in you need you should be fine. It sounds low to me, but if you weigh like 100 pounds it is way diff than weighing 180 or something.

It also depends on your activity level and what you have to recover from.

 

[mihitt]

@armour_101 47-f 5'3' 126 pounds. (Office work but get up alot) I'm finding it impossible to lose weight at 1200 calories , walking 10,000 steps a day. We bought a home gym so I'm going to start that this wek and hope that helps.

When i was 144 pounds..eating 1200 I lost weight. Probably about 3 pounds month.

 

[bubble5]

@mihitt It can be tougher when older & petite for sure! I'm in miid-50's and I've had to get creative with my personal circumstances to lose fat weight. I've had a fair bit of success using the Lifesum app and following their guidelines. I have always been in healthy weight range but I prefer myself leaner because I have a small frame and extra pounds are unflattering on me. So, just vanity pounds which take longer it seems!

 

[mihitt]

@bubble5 I hear you on the vanity pounds.. those are what i'm trying to lose . I have twigs for arms and legs so when i have puffy thighs and a mummy tummy and puffy arms I really notice it. Other people are like oh youre fine. but me..I notice everything.

 

[dawn16]

@armour_101 i come up against this a lot but it’s proportionate to your weight and people don’t really get it hearing such a low number i’m 5’0 and have only lost weight twice in my life and sustained (had a rough spot where i gained it back but this over the course of a decade)

but i did the same thing i eat around 1k and do about 2 hrs of cardio, it takes that long bc i go slow though i do low impact i could def run for 30-45 instead but my knees won’t let me

my solution is i just don’t tell people bc they don’t get it tbh

 

[tashpauls]

@armour_101 Who is "everyone"? Do they realize that petite people exist, or just people their own size?

 

[dawn16]

@armour_101 Reverse diet back out of eating 1200 calories and then cut. i lose weight eating 2350 calories now, moderately active.