Calorie allowance seems vary high

rpurcell7485

When I first setup my account I had a 2900cal. Goal? I'm a carpenter for a living. MFP suggested I enter vary active but I entered active and 1 pound a week weight loss. The I upped weight loss to 2# a week which brought the goal down to 2500 calories.
More days then not I'm 1000 calories short of my calorie goal. This sems like a large discrepancy.
I'm care full about logging my food and drinks
Any thoughts?

meritage4

How is it working for you? Has weight come off?

rpurcell7485

I like it so far. Just added an UP24

crisisplanning

If you also included fitness goals for exercise when you set-up your goals, by default MFP adds those calories expected to be burned back into your daily calorie goal so that your overall anticipated loss will not exceed the weekly weight loss that you set. If you did set exercise goals, you might want to set them at zero and see what your daily calories should be. Then, exercise can either be an added loss bonus or an opportunity to eat back a portion of those calories if need be.

loulamb7

MFP is set up to account for your gender, height, weight and activity level. So it's difficult to say whether these numbers are high or low. Also keep in mind that these are estimates, you should adjust up or down based on your personal experience. If you're losing faster then expected, eat more. Why do you find 2500 calories too high? How much were you eating before your started MFP?

rpurcell7485

No fitness goals addBy

rpurcell7485

By the end of the day and I've eaten well I get a not that says I maY not be eating enough. I can imagine eating another thousand calories

Daiako

Well you're a male with an active profession and so far you're down 12 pounds it looks like. How long did it take you to lose that? What do your fat and protein consumption look like? Are you happy with your rate of loss so far? Can you open your diary?

heybales

crisisplanning wrote: »

If you also included fitness goals for exercise when you set-up your goals, by default MFP adds those calories expected to be burned back into your daily calorie goal so that your overall anticipated loss will not exceed the weekly weight loss that you set. If you did set exercise goals, you might want to set them at zero and see what your daily calories should be. Then, exercise can either be an added loss bonus or an opportunity to eat back a portion of those calories if need be.

Very incorrect.

Those exercise goals has absolutely NO bearing on the eating goals at all.

Those goals are merely for the Exercise Diary page.

No exercise comes in to play until you do it and log it, then your daily burn increases, remove the same deficit, and whala! you eating level obviously goes up.

rpurcell7485 wrote: »

By the end of the day and I've eaten well I get a not that says I maY not be eating enough. I can imagine eating another thousand calories

To be at the point that you must lose weight now, frankly yes, you not only imagined but you actually did eat more than 1000 calories more than you eat currently.

So obviously not impossible, but you may have redefined what you consider "healthy" and could like many, have cut out healthy fats thinking fat is bad.

And it'll only cause a problem if you stress your body too bad, then that big deficit that appears to be about 1/2 what your body burns, will likely cause some muscle loss as most lose upwards of 20% of their weight as muscle mass.
You may still be able to do your work without issues, until it comes time to lift something heavy you used to be able to manage.

lynn_glenmont

heybales wrote: »

crisisplanning wrote: »

If you also included fitness goals for exercise when you set-up your goals, by default MFP adds those calories expected to be burned back into your daily calorie goal so that your overall anticipated loss will not exceed the weekly weight loss that you set. If you did set exercise goals, you might want to set them at zero and see what your daily calories should be. Then, exercise can either be an added loss bonus or an opportunity to eat back a portion of those calories if need be.

Very incorrect.

Those exercise goals has absolutely NO bearing on the eating goals at all.

Those goals are merely for the Exercise Diary page.

No exercise comes in to play until you do it and log it, then your daily burn increases, remove the same deficit, and whala! you eating level obviously goes up.

Just seconding this -- the exercise "goals" in your profile are not accounted for in your daily goal.

I'm care full about logging my food and drinks [\quote]

Do you weigh all solid foods? Volume measurement is not very accurate, and "eyeing" things is even less accurate. (You don't guesstimate measurements as a carpenter, right?)

rpurcell7485

1000 calories is , to me, a substantial amount of food. My food choice have not altered in a big way. Keeping a food diary make me think about what and how I cook.

rpurcell7485

I do measure a lot. Portion control is key. As a carpenter I guesstimate all the all the time.

nicolejo143

You are 1000 calories under your 2500 calorie goal. So thats only 1500 a day? Did you know that that is minimum the daily intake recommended for a man? Since you are very active surely you should be eating more than that.

_nice_

I am going through the same issue. I am active (a nurse) and tall and I almost never eat as many calories as MFP allows (2130 for me) and 2-3 days a week i get the "you may not be eating enough" message. When I chose healthy foods I only eat about 1400-1600 calories, and I'm not hungry. And that is with at least one extra protein that I wasn't eating before. And the days I do get close or go over are the days I eat stuffed cheese bread and drink beer! I am not worrying about it too much, I've lost a little weight in the 3 weeks I've been logging, and since I am adding muscle faster than the fat weight falls off it looks like I've lost more than 5.

brianpperkins

carlitice wrote: »

I am going through the same issue. I am active (a nurse) and tall and I almost never eat as many calories as MFP allows (2130 for me) and 2-3 days a week i get the "you may not be eating enough" message. When I chose healthy foods I only eat about 1400-1600 calories, and I'm not hungry. And that is with at least one extra protein that I wasn't eating before. And the days I do get close or go over are the days I eat stuffed cheese bread and drink beer! I am not worrying about it too much, I've lost a little weight in the 3 weeks I've been logging, and since I am adding muscle faster than the fat weight falls off it looks like I've lost more than 5.

It is highly unlikely that you're gaining appreciable muscle mass while eating at a deficit.

Sued0nim

crisisplanning wrote: »

If you also included fitness goals for exercise when you set-up your goals, by default MFP adds those calories expected to be burned back into your daily calorie goal so that your overall anticipated loss will not exceed the weekly weight loss that you set. If you did set exercise goals, you might want to set them at zero and see what your daily calories should be. Then, exercise can either be an added loss bonus or an opportunity to eat back a portion of those calories if need be.

No it doesn't

Fitness goals are excluded ..MFP is a NEAT method

Sued0nim

Over what time frame have you lost 12lbs

You're logging 1500 calories a day, you need to work out what your TDEE is and what your actual cut is ...easiest to do by the back of hand 3500 calories = a pound

Average it over the length of time, account for the water weight in the first couple of weeks of up to 10lbs

Then if you're left with losing more than 2lbs a week ...eat more ..easily done, add oils, nuts, avocados, butters, cheese, chocolate, beer, chips whatever you love to your diet and just log them until you hit an appropriate defecit

You can worry about macros later, get your calorie balance right first so you maintain as much as LBM as possible.

If you have under 75lbs to lose then your target goal should be under 2lb a week, under 40lbs it should be around 1lb, under 14lbs around 0.5lbs

rpurcell7485

I need to go back and edit my starting weight. my scale is upset by uneven floors and how I stand on it. I believe i have actually lost about 9# since Jan 25th. more data over a longer time will help.
I have a large frame (one Dr. told me i have Neanderthal bones) and, I think, a relatively slow metabolism.
I also feel that most of the "ideal weights" are quite low. Some suggest I should weight 190#.

Thanks for all the info
Things are looking up

vicky1947mfp

How do you go back and change your starting weight?

focused4health

rabbitjb wrote: »

crisisplanning wrote: »

If you also included fitness goals for exercise when you set-up your goals, by default MFP adds those calories expected to be burned back into your daily calorie goal so that your overall anticipated loss will not exceed the weekly weight loss that you set. If you did set exercise goals, you might want to set them at zero and see what your daily calories should be. Then, exercise can either be an added loss bonus or an opportunity to eat back a portion of those calories if need be.

No it doesn't

Fitness goals are excluded ..MFP is a NEAT method

What is NEAT method?

focused4health

rpurcell7485 wrote: »

I need to go back and edit my starting weight. my scale is upset by uneven floors and how I stand on it. I believe i have actually lost about 9# since Jan 25th. more data over a longer time will help.
I have a large frame (one Dr. told me i have Neanderthal bones) and, I think, a relatively slow metabolism.
I also feel that most of the "ideal weights" are quite low. Some suggest I should weight 190#.

Thanks for all the info
Things are looking up

So is mine. I have overcome it by marking the floor and putting the scale in the exact same position as previously. If your house hasn't moved you should get a consistent reading.

heybales

focused4health wrote: »

rabbitjb wrote: »

crisisplanning wrote: »

If you also included fitness goals for exercise when you set-up your goals, by default MFP adds those calories expected to be burned back into your daily calorie goal so that your overall anticipated loss will not exceed the weekly weight loss that you set. If you did set exercise goals, you might want to set them at zero and see what your daily calories should be. Then, exercise can either be an added loss bonus or an opportunity to eat back a portion of those calories if need be.

No it doesn't

Fitness goals are excluded ..MFP is a NEAT method

What is NEAT method?

It's actually BMR, TEF, and NEAT method. But that's a rather long way of putting it.
BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate
TEF - Thermal Effect of Food (about 10% of calories eaten burned in processing it).
NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or Spontaneous Physical Activity (SPA) - your getting up and moving around for normal daily functions.

TEA - Thermal Effect of Activity or better EAT - Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - formal exercise done.

Those 4 added up is what you burn in a day.
MFP uses some recent studies to take your BMR x activity factor you selected to account for the BMR + TEF + NEAT = daily calories for maintenance. Otherwise called TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

The EAT is left out until you do it and log it, then it's added in. Now it's TDEE including exercise.

So you burned more, you eat more.

Easy concept, lost on many though. Probably because they aren't eating enough.

I think MFP is more accurately considered a daily TDEE method, because if you do it right, that's what it's estimating, each days TDEE, with deficit to cause weight loss.

This is compared to other sites that ask for your PLANNED exercise routine, hours weekly if good site or method, then that weekly calorie burn is averaged out daily, so you eat the same amount daily, exercise or not, it balances out.

Usually ends up the same. But it leads to the confusion where people think that exercise causes weight loss, because with that average TDEE method, you better do the exercise you said you planned to do, or you indeed would lose no weight.

MFP doesn't matter, you miss it - you eat less. You do it, you eat more, reward almost - but still same weight loss deficit.

heybales

carlitice wrote: »

I am going through the same issue. I am active (a nurse) and tall and I almost never eat as many calories as MFP allows (2130 for me) and 2-3 days a week i get the "you may not be eating enough" message. When I chose healthy foods I only eat about 1400-1600 calories, and I'm not hungry. And that is with at least one extra protein that I wasn't eating before. And the days I do get close or go over are the days I eat stuffed cheese bread and drink beer! I am not worrying about it too much, I've lost a little weight in the 3 weeks I've been logging, and since I am adding muscle faster than the fat weight falls off it looks like I've lost more than 5.

Ya, even if you were eating in surplus doing a very progress weight lifting routine and were a man with better hormones - you could not add enough muscle to mask the rate at which fat could be falling off.
Of course eating in surplus means you'd be gaining some muscle and fat.

Sorry, female in a deficit, ain't happening.

There are many reasons that the normal side effect of exercise causes weight gain - and it's all related to water first.