Confused

diddles19

I'm fairly new to MFP and its given me calorie count of 1200. I'm 53 years old, 5'2" tall and weigh 192 lbs. I would like to be 133lbs ish and I have an office job. This week I have been to the gym once for 50 mins, went on a 7.5 mile and a 3 mile walk and hope to continue exercising 3 times a week.

I thought with this amount of weight to lose if I stuck to 1200 cals I would lose steadily. I have lost 5 lbs over three weeks but this week I have lost nothing, so I thought I would look for help on the boards. Now I am totally confused. I've also looked at calculators and they all come out differently.

Can somebody tell me what my calorie intake should be.

yarwell

I'm fairly new to MFP and its given me calorie count of 1200.

Actually you gave yourself that, probably by specifying a sedentary lifestyle and asking to lose 2 lbs/week.

Sedentary is correct for an office job, and you will be allocated more calories to eat pro-rata with the calories of exercise that you log here. The so-called "eating back" of calories if MFP's way of accounting for, and "rewarding" calories expended in exercise.

Try a less aggressive weight loss rate in the Goal settings to get above the 1200 minimum setting.

diddles19

I put 2 lbs/week loss but its actually given me 1.5 lb/week. I changed the setting to 1lb/week lose and the calories changed to 1290.

Alta2000

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Try this one. It gives you BMR 1527 and TDEE sedentary 1832, 1-3h exercise TDEE is 2100. Set the goals/custom/calories consumed needed at 1581 and eat around there. Do not fall below 1527. When you do that you do not eat back your calories. Also, log all your exercise and times every day but put their calories as 1 so the macros do not self adjust on your daily total.

diddles19

Thanks you for the reply.

This is what is confusing me. Websites I've looked at say nobody should eat below 1200 cals but other places say don't go below BMR which my bathroom scales say is 1530, so not far off scoobys.

So basically eat around 1581 but never below 1530. If I exercise eat back to maintain 1530 and change calories to 1 on goals

Alta2000

Thanks you for the reply.

This is what is confusing me. Websites I've looked at say nobody should eat below 1200 cals but other places say don't go below BMR which my bathroom scales say is 1530, so not far off scoobys.

So basically eat around 1581 but never below 1530. If I exercise eat back to maintain 1530 and change calories to 1 on goals

Your floor, which is the BMR, is 1527, so do not fall below that whether you exercised or not, since this is the number you body needs for basic functions based on your weight and height, NOT your lifestyle. TDEE is the number of calories needed to maintain your selected lifestyle. If you just wanted to maintain your current weight, and just had an office job or couch potato then you need to eat TDEE=1832 every day. If you wanted to maintain the weight but also exercise for 1-3h weekly, then you need to eat TDEE=2100 calories every day, regardless whether that was an exercise day or not.

Since you want to exercise, you will cut from the calories needed to maintain that lifestyle TDEE (2100) - any percentage you want to cut your daily calories. TDEE - 25%=1575, so just set mfp between -20% and -25%, aka 1680 and 1575 calories respectively. Choose any arbitrary value between these numbers. I just picked 1581 but you can do anything in that range. After you set it at that, you do not eat back the calories. You eat every day around that level. That's one option. If in the future you become more active and exercise 5-6hours every week, you bump up to that TDEE and calculate similar %. Every 5-10 calories you lose, then you recalculate because your BMR and TDEE changes as well.

The second option would be to select the TDEE sedentary=1832, calculate the percentage of calories you want to cut, and set that in mfp as your daily goal. However, if you select this option, then you need to eat back the calories.

If you select the first option, that the exercises are included in the TDEE, then you do not eat them back. However, if a day you do an extraordinary strenuous workout than your usual one, then you eat more calories that day. For example, may be suddenly you went swimming for 3 hours, when you only did 1h cardio as your usual workout routine. You will do the opposite if for example a week you have a cold and you know you won't exercise, or you have something to do at your sedentary work and you won't be able to go to the gym that week. Then you will cut a few 100 calories from your daily number because that week your TDEE will be sedentary So set it at 1581 and eat that amount every day. Do not eat back any exercise calories. I suggested a large percentage cut due to the amount of weight you want to lose. As you start losing and changing your exercises, you can adjust what % you want to lose.

diddles19

Thank you again your help is much appreciated