How do you set your calorie goal?

iamburke

Hi all I just did my first week. I set my goal at 1500. I had some up and down where I was down two...but actually I'm down one. Do I wondered. How do you set your calorie goal. I decided to try 1400 this week. Any suggestions? Thanks !

earlnabby

I let MFP set my goal by telling it I want to lose 1 lb a week and also telling it I am sedentary. I then eat back 1/2 of exercise calories I burn most days. The days I swim plus do an hour of water aerobics gives me almost 1000 extra calories. I find it really hard to eat 500 more, so I generally eat about 200-300 of those.

Lounmoun

I told MFP my starting weight, etc and that I wanted to lose 1 pound a week and that I was sedentary (because I am). It gave me a number. I followed that and ate only a portion of the calories added from exercise I logged. Not complicated. I've lost about 1 pound almost every week and I'm not hungry all the time or feeling too restricted.

I've seen the following posted a few times when people are wondering what goal to set. Look at how much weight you want to lose total and see what a good goal is.

More than 75 lbs: 2 lbs/week
40-75 lbs: 1.5 lbs/week
10-40 lbs: 1 lb/week
Less than 10 lbs: 0.5 lb/week

cwolfman13

I input my stats and goals into this calculator and I let this calculator do it's job and calculate my goal...then I made sure I was as accurate as possible in my logging and also consistent.

For me, a goal of 1 Lb per week was sustainable over the long run...it takes a long time to lose weight, so you have to have a goal that is sustainable for you. It was slow, but steady.

iamburke

Well I put active so it said 1550 a week I just lowered it to 1400. I'm not active every day. But I am hungry!! A lot

LifeInTheBikeLane

iamburke wrote: »

Well I put active so it said 1550 a week I just lowered it to 1400. I'm not active every day. But I am hungry!! A lot

Try eating more protein and splitting your meals up into multiple snacks instead of large meals. I eat 1300 calories daily and was starving at first. I eventually realized small snacks instead of large meals was the way to go.

I set my MFP goal and stated that I am sedentary (I am not but I would rather overguesstimate then under). When I first began with the goal it started 1500 calories but after testing myself and trying multiple calculators all with different choices I found that 1300 calories was a better alternative. I am able to eat 1300 without starving myself and can still gradually lose weight.

sunshyncatra

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

I use this and don't record exercise calories. It has worked for me. MFP tends to set the goal low.

yesimpson

I found my maintenance calories by trial and error - MFP set me too low and I continued to lose weight until I ended up underweight. I set my own limits after that by finding the number at which my weight remained stable if I don't do a heck of a lot beyond incidental walking, and I log and eat back exercise calories on top of that. I'm trying to lose a few pounds gained from Christmas at the moment so I'm just eating 100 calories a day under my maintenance amount so it can slowly drop off.

MKEgal

In my newbie help post I compiled links to helpful info, including

A guide to get you started on your path to sexypants

Logging accurately

The basics, don't complicate it

You're probably eating more than you think

Important posts to read

Goal setting, including weight, calories, and macros

iamburke

Thanks for helpful info