Maintenance Calories???
For starters, about a decade ago I totally wrecked my gut health and metabolism via intense and constant cardio paired with anorexic eating habits for a few years - yes I somehow maintained that for years. About 5 years ago I started eating more due to health issues - however nothing more than I felt necessary.
Fast forward to now, I’m at a very healthy weight and I eat quite healthy (whole foods, at home cooking only, no fast food, minimal alcohol consumption, mindful macros, etcetc). While I’ve continued in my passion with running, I’ve shifted to focus more on strength building. I’ve further increased my calorie consumption specifically to include more protein so I assume I’m in a natural “bulk” phase and I have noticed a good bit of muscle growth so I’m not concerned. I don’t count calories explicitly - but it’s approximately around 1,700.
QUESTION: As a 5’3, 118lb girl working a sedentary job, according to Apple fitness my calories burned just existing is only about 1,300… Is this an accurate number and is this what I should be using to calculate a caloric deficit or caloric surplus??? It sounds low to me based on the little research I’ve done and it concerns me for when I want to start looking at doing a cut. Or would this be more accurate as I believe I’m still retraining my appetite/metabolism from the damage I did when I was younger?
Sorry for the long post!