TDEE, Calories (Daily/Weekly), & Losing Weight

[aventador]

Hello. It's my first time posting here. I've learned a lot after reading people's experiences in their weight loss journey. I started my weight loss in January 2024. I have some questions regarding tdee & calories. I know there are plenty of posts & information about this, but I just want to confirm that I am understanding this correctly using my body specs as an example.

I'm 30 yrs old, 5'2" (157 cm), & 117 lbs (53 kg). I'm also skinny fat.

My goal weight is 108 - 110 lbs by the end of May. I'm going on vacation in May, so I would love to look & feel my best.

I started strength training with a personal trainer in January & I go 4x a week. Training takes about 1 hr. Before PT, I like to go to the park & walk. My step count is approx. 15k-20k steps depending on how long I'm there, but I at least walk about 5 miles. For the past 2 weeks, I've also started going to the gym after PT for about 1 hr of cardio (3x a week at the gym). I'll sometimes go on the treadmill (walk & jog on incline) or the exercise bike. The other 3 days, I am quite sedentary because of work.

I used the TDEE calculator to get an estimate of my maintenance calories. I set it to light exercise because I don't want to overestimate with moderate exercise (not sure if my workouts are considered to be moderate). For the sake of simplicity, I won't use exact numbers. It says my maintenance calories are about 1,500/day, which means I need to eat about 10,500 cal/week. If I want to cut, I would have to eat around 1,100 calories (7,700 cal/week) which I find to be difficult. This week I've been snacking a lot, so I would eat more than 1,100 calories everyday. On one day, I had about 2,000 calories & 1,700 on another. The rest have been around 1,400 calories. I also want to mention that I do IF (sometimes 18:6, but mostly 20:4) & OMAD. This brings me to my question...

Since my focus will be on whether I'm in a WEEKLY deficit, as long as I'm eating below 10,500 calories every week, I should still be able to lose weight?For women with similar stats, what are your calorie goals per day or week? Macros?

My goal was to lose a lb per week & burning fat, but eating around 7,700 per week isn't easy for me. I'm also looking into calorie cycling. Any tips & advice will be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: After reading the comments, I noticed a lot of people thought I was eating 1100 calories. I DO NOT eat 1100 calories. I typically eat between 1300-1400 or more, & was just wondering how others set their calorie goals.

https://preview.redd.it/42ml3tq9vno...bp&s=0a936a80ab76712d38bb535a86fd3216d3cfe6d9

 

[zastari]

@aventador You’re conducting moderate exercise, and no one should be consuming 1100 daily that is way too low

 

[aventador]

@zastari Thank you. I wasn't sure if it was light or moderate exercise, so I'll use the tdee for moderate. I understand that 1100 is low, which is why I wanted to ask about calorie goals other women have. I'd like to mention that I actually DON'T eat 1100 calories. Probably have been eating between 1300-1400.

 

[zastari]

@aventador No problem! And your TDEE for moderate sounds a lot more accurate to me based off what you’re doing/body composition. Also glad to hear you’re eating more than 1100 daily

 

[gladius]

@aventador If you are skinny fat, why are you cutting? A cut is for when you have significant muscle mass that will be revealed by fat loss. You're already at a healthy weight, so why not focus on recomping and building some muscle for a few months

 

[angelonline]

@gladius Well put. I’m very concerned that OP is heading in a dangerous direction and has a very unrealistic and unhealthy notion of how to improve fitness. Their plan makes zero sense.

 

[aventador]

@gladius Thank you for your advice. I thought that cutting was for losing fat. I'm not exactly sure how to recomp, but I will definitely look into that. I have also been strength training for a couple months now to build muscle & I will continue to do so.

 

[tmthy21]

@aventador Make sure you're eating at least 1gram.of protein per lb of weight, eat at maintenance (or maybe 50-100cal below) and strength train 3-4x a week (heavy weights)

This will help your body gain muscle and change your shape. You don't need to lose weight, you need to build a little muscle. It will change how you look but it may take months before you can see the results visibly.

 

[aventador]

@tmthy21 I've been trying to eat at least 90-100g, but some days were slightly harder to reach this because I ate more carbs & was trying to not be in a calorie surplus. On the days I do reach the protein goals, I found egg whites & protein shakes to be very helpful.

Is there a certain amount of carbs & fats I should be eating as well?

 

[tmthy21]

@aventador For me, I plan my day around getting protein and fibre and the rest kind of falls into place. If you're not following low card or keto, I definitely think you should have some carbs in there. Fats are calorie dense so will eat away a deficit fairly quickly.

Currently I'm eating 1730 calories (completely sedentary recovering from abdominal surgery) so my food profile is 30% of calories from protein, 25% from fat, 45% from carbs

My protein and fibre are my only targets I consistently try to hit/exceed, and I try to stay within my calorie limit of course (though post-op I've been more relaxed and sat between 1700-2000 most days since I shouldn't be dieting while recovering). Carbs and fats can sort themselves within my calorie limit.

When I am allowed to be active again I'll consider myself healed enough to go back into a proper deficit (so eat 1500/day against a TDEE of 1920) my protein will be 30-35% of my calories - basically I'm aiming for the higher of 0.6gm of my current weight, or 1gm per lb of goal/maintenance weight.

 

[iamfavored2015]

@aventador jeez. look. i hate to come at you like this, as you sound reasonable at the start of your post, but this is all coming off as disordered thought processes and choices.

you can’t drop what you’re saying you want to lose (9 lbs?) in any healthy way within the time frame you’re saying you want to. you should not even want to try to lose weight that quickly (isn’t that 9 lbs in 2 months?)

you will be starving yourself (eating OMAD and ~1.100 cals a day? that’s too harsh) just to try to see your scale weight go down. you will very likely lose muscle and water weight in the process and not really enough fat in such a short period of time to make the attempt even worth it. in the end, you’ll wreck your metabolism and worsen your skinny fat body composition with such extreme exercise and little calories. you’re 30 so i doubt you want to start another weight loss journey with LESS muscle mass than you started??

step back and think about what you really want. you want to look toned and not skinny fat. focus on gaining some muscle mass and do those PT sessions you’re doing and sure, walking is good. but ease up on too much cardio and DONT starve yourself by eating anything like ~1,100 calories.

use the TDEE adaptive spreadsheet and eat at maintenance or only a little below (200-300 calorie deficit AT MOST). and forget about losing ~10 lbs over the next two months just to look cute on a vacation and try to shift your mindset to a healthy lifestyle change

 

[wellsja]

@iamfavored2015 This. I also want to emphasize that even if you do get to whatever number on the scale, (and 9lbs in 2 months is aggressive for petite, already low-weight women) you may still be unhappy with your appearance bc cutting without much muscle mass to reveal afterward will result in just a lower number on the scale but likely similar appearance as starting point.

 

[aventador]

@iamfavored2015 Thank you for your advice. I understand 9 lbs in 2 months is a lot. I probably should have mentioned that my starting weight was 117-118 when I started 2 months ago. Didn't really mean to say that I'm trying to lose 9 lbs in 2 months from now. I also DON'T eat 1100 calories. I eat between 1300-1400, & I was wondering how others set their calorie goals.

 

[iamfavored2015]

@aventador no problem and i'm sorry for coming off harsh in my original reply.

i can't tell people enough: ditch the calculators. use the TDEE adaptive spreadsheet. direct link to the spreadsheet is here. track your weight + calories daily over a few weeks (at least) to see what your TDEE really is and only *then* go into a deficit from there.

you want to know what your actual maintenance is so you can work from that baseline. those calculators just aren't very accurate. i just used it and it's telling me my TDEE is 2,068 cals. way too low for my activity (and i have a good amount of muscle mass). i've been maintaining on ~2,450 calories. so i'd be unnecessarily eating too little if i used that calculator's suggestion. using that spreadsheet is how i set my calorie goals and i'm only trying to lose 0.5 lbs a week and it's slow going because i know i'm building muscle too.

finally: i know it's hard but don't worry so much about getting to a certain scale weight for a certain event. i've let that sort of thinking go myself. i have to be ok with weight loss taking the time it needs to take. gradual, sustainable weight loss with small deficits will feel easy and give you more food freedom (you wont need to intermittent fast or do OMAD if you dont want to) when you truly follow petite fitness principles: grow muscle mass, boost your metabolism / aka increase your TDEE, fuel your body, and maintain that lifestyle for a healthy fitness & aging over time. (omg sorry again for long winded reply)

GOOD LUCK OP you got this ;_;

 

[aventador]

@iamfavored2015 No worries!

Thanks for telling me about the spreadsheet! I've started using it & input data for 3 days so far. Do you input the EXACT amount of calories or do you round it up? Do you think it would still work if I round the calorie numbers up to the 10s or even 100s?

 

[iamfavored2015]

@aventador Sure thing!

And I would just put the exact number of calories because it's easier for me (in my brain)... having to round up by 10 is fine I guess but I wouldn't round up too much. I just plug in the total calories I ate and keep it moving. For example yesterday I see I ate 2302 total calories, I put that in the spreadsheet. Done. It is a little odd weighing yourself that morning and plugging in the calories at the end of the day but it all averages out in the end.

(not sure if you use My Fitness Pal but the calories section on the app is (More > Nutrition > Calories). I put in the total calories I ate for the day, not net calories.

 

[sandralois]

@aventador You're already a perfectly healthy weight and trying to get to an unhealthy weight in an unrealistic timeframe. Losing weight isn't the best way to lose fat. Instead, focus on eating enough calories (youre doing moderate activity) and building muscle. You only just started in January, by May you could even be starting to see some good results as long as you eat enough.

 

[dawn16]

@aventador You’re doing a lot of activity on more days than not. You really need to look at your caloric needs on a day by day basis.

Example - you mentioned you are sedentary 3 days a week, if your TDEE on those days is 1500 I would NOT eat anything less than 1200. That’s still a good deficit.

On your very active days, what would that bring your TDEE up to? If you’re doing an hour of cardio and then another hour of strength training? And then walking another 5 miles at the park? You need to eat to support the physical demands of your body on these days. That’s a heavy amount of exercise. YourTDEE on these days is probably going to look more around 2000-2400 calories. Again, if you want to make a difference in your body comp, you need to be eating enough to support muscle repair and growth. I personally would not drop below 2000 cal on these heavy activity days, but that’s just me.

 

[angelonline]

@aventador Doing OMAD with a big deficit on an aggressive timeline is already a bad idea, and doing it while working out that much at your weight? I’m sorry but that is ridiculous, this is the recipe to lose what muscle tissue you do have, plus other tissues too. This is the OPPOSITE of what you need to be doing if you are skinny-fat or care about your health.

Strongly agree with the other commenters that you need to prioritize building muscle over losing fat. I say this as someone doing a similar journey in my mid 30s— building your muscle (and bone density) at this age is gonna pay off dividends as we approach our 40s and 50s. This is gonna be WAY better for your metabolism, health, and fitness than becoming an over exercised under muscled waif.

Please be responsible. There is a way to avoid being “skinny fat” that actually sets you up for success so you can stay energized, strong, mobile and active for the next 3+ decades to come.

 

[soulriderx]

@aventador From reading the below comments I'm glad a lot of us share similar thoughts.

To answer your initial post I'm replying by sectioning my answers in according to your post.

I'm not entirely sure what weight you started losing from, but I can understand that you may be uncomfortable with sharing that online.

Based off your current weight at 117lbs though, to me that sounds like a really healthy number (by all means if you wish to hit 108-110lbs then that's fine too). However, following another comment if you're aiming to drop 9lbs in 2 months I would strongly recommend to broaden your time frame as to me it seems unreasonable and borderline unhealthy.

Looking at your post, going training 4x a week with additional 15-20k walks is pretty huge and resting 3x week is fine.

I would say though when "resting" to maybe do light exercise or at home exercises but based off your unknown time schedule, its just a suggestion.

I wouldn't recommend using the TDEE Calculator constantly, like how you shouldn't measure your weight every day to see whether you see changes in your body. I would recommend to use it as a basic guideline and ask other health officials (like your PT) for more accurate information rather than trusting an online calculator.

With that said however, based off your current fitness levels, I'd consider you to be more of a high moderate fitness level than light exercise.

You've clarified that you don't consume 1100 calories / day and I hope you sincerely don't as that sounds incredibly unhealthy.

Overall my 2cents would be that, your current weight is healthy and by any means, dropping more weight is a personal preference but please understand that no one should be aiming to hit any weight goal using an unreasonable timeframe.