Calorie allowance seems low?

ashilda

Have put my weight and height into MFP and it recommends I stick to 1200 cals, I'm eating 3 healthy meals a day but going quite a lot over calories, never been close to 1200! Not snacking on sugary foods, making low cal choices, if I were on ww or sw they would say I'm not eating enough, I have been quite hungry! Checked weight and despite MFP saying I will maintain at current calories consumption I have lost 2lb in 5 days. Does anyone else think the allowances are too low? I'm going over on everything not just cals! who knew skimmed milk had so much protein and sugar!!

malibu927

Did you set your goal to 2 pounds a week? Change it to 1-1.5 pounds a week to have a bit more room to work with. Some people can handle eating 1200 a day, others can't.

TeaBea

Calorie allowance is a formula based on "I want to lose XX pounds per week."

Because 1200 (before exercise) is MFPs lowest default minimum....1 of 2 things happened.
1. You chose an aggressive weekly goal and MFP bottomed out there.
2. You are a very petite, older lady and your TDEE (maintenance) is fairly low.

2 pounds in 5 days....much of that is water weight. Set a moderate weekly goal, and /or add in some exercise and eat some** of those calories back. Make sure your daily allowance is something you can live with awhile. 1200 is no good if it makes you want to binge.

Protein is a good thing! Sugar...I don't even bother to track it (no medical issues)...MFP treats all sugar the same anyway. I'm not about to skimp of fruit...candy that's another story. I changed my settings to track fiber instead.

**Some exercise calories - MFP gives generous estimates.

ashilda

I've just changed it to 1lb a wk and its saying 1370 cals now, it was set at 1.5lb a wk, still seems low to me! changing it to 1/2lb a wk will be over 1600 cals, I will try a bit harder to keep cals low and see how I get on. I've only ever done ww or sw before, cal counting is hard!!

malibu927

What are your stats? Do you have them and your activity level set correctly?

DeguelloTex

The problem with a .5 pound a week target is that the margin for error is much smaller. That doesn't mean it isn't appropriate, but you'd have to be that much more accurate so that the .5 per week doesn't get swamped by inaccurate measurements, resulting in no loss or even a gain.

ashilda

I've got it set at sedentary, I definitely need to exercise, I've done a little bit of walking but not much else this week. Kids back to school tomorrow so hopefully will find a bit more time to exercise! I was very tempted to set it to .5lb because 1600ish seems to be what I am sticking to but I do want more than .5lb loss a week, I know this first wk will be mainly water loss but hopefully I can up the exercise and drop cals slightly somehow to see 1lb a wk loss going forward.