What am I doing wrong? Calorie allotment seems too low.

wordcakes33

So I've been dieting again for about 3 weeks and started tracking with MFP 8 days ago. It's been good, I've tried to log as accurately as possible, and I have been losing, so I'm not complaining.
The problem is that my calories seem low and while I've stayed within them, I don't want to set myself up for failure. My entered stats at the start were: 174lbs, 5'9", lightly active, goal of two pounds loss per week. This started me at 1130 calories and that went down to 1110 calories today. I changed my activity to sedentary and that put me back up to 1130.
I wouldn't have thought much about it, except I hadn't been completing my diary entries for the day, I just let them roll over. But today I hit complete and I got a message that I wasn't eating enough calories. I've looked at my goal and profile settings and they all look correct, I even changed my weight loss goal to 1.5lbs a week, but it didn't make much of a difference.
Any suggestions?

Sued0nim

Glitch on app

Go to website and reset your settings there

bigres20

Hi wordcakes how are you?

So you mentioned that you're losing weight but is it in line with the weight loss per week you set? Sounds like it is not, but let me know. Also, what do you during the day (is it a sendentary lifetyle) and are you exercising? Didn't see anything about that in your post.

Have a good one!

steeheart

i had the same thing happen to me. on my iphone it kept lowering my calorie goal until i was at 1120 today! i went on my ipad and updated goals and it put me back to 1200. 1200 is the lowest it should give anyone.

wordcakes33

Thanks! I'd only ever used the iPhone app. Just went to the site and it upped me to 1200. Plus there were some cool things on their that I didn't know about. I'd lost 3.8lbs in 8 days, which was nice although likely water weight, but the 1200 should be much more sustainable than the 988 I had today! I might sneak out of bed for a 1/8 cup of walnuts so I can sleep without being so hungry, thanks for your help!

mathandcats

If you're eating at 1200, you should definitely be eating back exercise calories. You can also probably eat more - it's more sustainable for most people. Slower and consistent is better than giving up. I know I couldn't eat at 1200 long term. I'm 5'3", 22, 148lb, and eat 1650 to lose 2-3lb/month. I started at 1500 and 212 lbs last April - it was a bit too low, I think. I don't eat back exercise calories, but I only exercise about 30 min/day.