Need Help Understanding

Angelz23

I've tried several different calorie calculators online. I enter my weight, height, activity level and gender, and hit calculate.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/calorie-calculator says my daily caloric needs are 2050. That would be 14350 per week. If I wanted to lose 2 pounds per week, which is a healthy weight loss, I would need to create a weekly deficit of 7000 calories, which would bring this to 7350 weekly calories, or 1050 daily calories. But MFP recommends that you not go below 1200 daily calories, and to tell you the truth, even that crazy low amount feels like starving. So the calculations above would lead one to believe that a 2 pound weight loss per week is either undoable or doable if you want to be completely hungry all. the. time. Something here doesn't seem right.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm is a little different, but I still don't understand where they're getting their calculations -

Looking at it logically (or so it would seem to me), I get this calculation:

2155 (daily calories for maintenance) x 7 (1 week) = 15085 (total weekly calories for maintenance) - 7000 (weekly calorie deficit for 2 pound weight loss per week) = 8085 (resulting weekly calorie total) / 7 = 1155 (resulting daily calorie needs)

Makes sense, right? I mean, the math is right. But they calculate 1724 daily calories for fat loss and 1293 daily calories for extreme fat loss.

Ugh. I'm so confused. Can anyone help me understand this??

Unknown

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jemhh

First, all of the calculators are estimates. None of them will be exact so rather than searching for the perfect one, pick one as a starting point and then tweak your numbers as you learn more about yourself via calorie tracking.

Second, losing 2 pounds a week without cutting calories uncomfortably low is difficult for most overweight to minimally obese women. Aim for a pound a week to start and you'll likely find it more sustainable.

emdeesea

So lose less than 2 pounds a week. The more realistic goal is about 0.5 pounds a week.

Angelz23

Thank you. I want to lose about 15 pounds. I'm trying to keep my calories at about 1200 per day, as recommended by MFP, but most of the time I'm just always so hungry. I guess I should probably do as you suggested, jemhh. But that brings me to another question - If I burn up a bunch of calories through exercise, I just consume additional calories, as long as I don't wind up going over my 1200 (or whatever)/ day limit? That doesn't seem right, though, either, because yesterday it said I had "earned" 495 additional calories? What...? I feel like a basket case trying to understand these numbers

Glinda1971

Did you get those extras by logging exercise into mfp? If so most people eat 50-75% of those back as mfp overestimates burns for most people.

If you have an activity tracker like a Fitbit you can eat them all if you like.

ETA - if you only have 15 lbs per week you should be set at 0.5 per lbs per week. It's healthier.

ndj1979

Angelz23 wrote: »

Thank you. I want to lose about 15 pounds. I'm trying to keep my calories at about 1200 per day, as recommended by MFP, but most of the time I'm just always so hungry. I guess I should probably do as you suggested, jemhh. But that brings me to another question - If I burn up a bunch of calories through exercise, I just consume additional calories, as long as I don't wind up going over my 1200 (or whatever)/ day limit? That doesn't seem right, though, either, because yesterday it said I had "earned" 495 additional calories? What...? I feel like a basket case trying to understand these numbers

First - the calculators are just that calculators and they are not 100% acquire for everyone, so it takes trial and error to figure out your gain/maintain/cut numbers.
second - what are your stats?
third - why are you trying to lose 2 pounds a week? Why not 1? If you set it to one pound per week loss that would give you 500 calories a day more.
fourth - if you are starving all the time you are not eating enough, period.

Angelz23

I have a Fitbit and the exercise was entered automatically.

editorgrrl

Angelz23 wrote: »

Thank you. I want to lose about 15 pounds. I'm trying to keep my calories at about 1200 per day, as recommended by MFP, but most of the time I'm just always so hungry.

The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off. That's just the way the human body works. Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight. Eating at too aggressive a deficit for your size will not get you to goal any more quickly. In fact, it usually leads to bingeing.

Food is fuel, and we should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight—never the minimum.

Your calorie goal has your deficit built in, so you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories. To understand how MFP works, read the Sexypants post: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

editorgrrl

Angelz23 wrote: »

I have a Fitbit and the exercise was entered automatically.

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE, the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, eating back your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Glinda1971

If those calories were from your Fitbit - yes you can eat them all.

Mine gave me 600 extra yesterday because I was really active.

Angelz23

ndj1979 wrote: »

First - the calculators are just that calculators and they are not 100% acquire for everyone, so it takes trial and error to figure out your gain/maintain/cut numbers.
second - what are your stats?
third - why are you trying to lose 2 pounds a week? Why not 1? If you set it to one pound per week loss that would give you 500 calories a day more.
fourth - if you are starving all the time you are not eating enough, period.

I see. I don't know....because I guess I would rather lose 2 per week? But yeah, maybe that IS too aggressive a goal...
I agree with number 4, this can't be good to be this hungry all the time

Angelz23

editorgrrl wrote: »

Your calorie goal has your deficit built in, so you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories. To understand how MFP works, read the Sexypants post: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

Thank you, I will check that out for sure.

ndj1979

Angelz23 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

First - the calculators are just that calculators and they are not 100% acquire for everyone, so it takes trial and error to figure out your gain/maintain/cut numbers.
second - what are your stats?
third - why are you trying to lose 2 pounds a week? Why not 1? If you set it to one pound per week loss that would give you 500 calories a day more.
fourth - if you are starving all the time you are not eating enough, period.

I see. I don't know....because I guess I would rather lose 2 per week? But yeah, maybe that IS too aggressive a goal...
I agree with number 4, this can't be good to be this hungry all the time

what are your current stats…height/weight/age/gender?

Angelz23

editorgrrl wrote: »

Angelz23 wrote: »

I have a Fitbit and the exercise was entered automatically.

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE, the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, eating back your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Thank you!! This is another thing that confuses me, that the numbers in MFP and Fitbit are different. But I just got my Fitbit recently and don't fully understand everything about how that works, so thank you for the link, I will definitely give it a read!

Angelz23

Glinda1971 wrote: »

If those calories were from your Fitbit - yes you can eat them all. Mine gave me 600 extra yesterday because I was really active.

So did you wind up eating those? What do you usually do?

Angelz23

ndj1979 wrote: »

what are your current stats…height/weight/age/gender?

5'8" / 161.6 / 52 / F

ETA: I walk at about 2.5 - 3mph on the treadmill every day for 90 minutes, broken down into 3 half hour segments. And care full time for a very active 3 year old Granddaughter

Glinda1971

Angelz23 wrote: »

Glinda1971 wrote: »

If those calories were from your Fitbit - yes you can eat them all. Mine gave me 600 extra yesterday because I was really active.

So did you wind up eating those? What do you usually do?

I have 50 lbs to lose and technically I could be set at 1 lb per week to lose, but I'm short and sedentary and don't like only having 1300 calories to eat. So I set myself a goal of 0.5 lbs per week to start with more calories per day. That being said, I don't generally eat all my Fitbit calories back because I like losing 1 lb per week and it motivates me to move more in order to meet my 1 lb loss.

Some days though I eat them all because I'm hungry.

I hope that helps and doesn't confuse you more!

Edit - I'm 5'3", 188 lbs and 44 years old. I've been losing at a good rate at 1500-1600 calories per day.

bwogilvie

If you want to lose 15 pounds, take it slowly. I lost my first 28 pounds at 1.1 pounds per week. The next 19 pounds came off at about 0.75 pounds per week. The next 13 pounds were at 0.5 pounds per week, and the last 5 pounds at about 0.2 pounds per week. I was able to do that without feeling in the least bit deprived, and only occasionally hungrier than when I was slowly gaining.

Angelz23

Ok, so I enabled negative calories (I didn't even know you could do that!) and changed my weight loss goal from 2 pounds per week to 1.5 pounds per week. It now says I can have 1480 calories per day, and has given me 25 extra calories after calculating the calories just "earned" from exercise. So according to MFP, I have 1135 calories remaining. So if I don't consume OVER the amount MFP says I have left, I'm doing ok?

Angelz23

Glinda1971 wrote: »

I have 50 lbs to lose and technically I could be set at 1 lb per week to lose, but I'm short and sedentary and don't like only having 1300 calories to eat. So I set myself a goal of 0.5 lbs per week to start with more calories per day. That being said, I don't generally eat all my Fitbit calories back because I like losing 1 lb per week and it motivates me to move more in order to meet my 1 lb loss.

Some days though I eat them all because I'm hungry.

I hope that helps and doesn't confuse you more!

Edit - I'm 5'3", 188 lbs and 44 years old. I've been losing at a good rate at 1500-1600 calories per day.

So which calorie amount do you go by, those in your Fitbit dashboard, or those on MFP? Because on mine, each website shows a different amount...?

editorgrrl

Angelz23 wrote: »

Ok, so I enabled negative calories (I didn't even know you could do that!) and changed my weight loss goal from 2 pounds per week to 1.5 pounds per week. It now says I can have 1480 calories per day, and has given me 25 extra calories after calculating the calories just "earned" from exercise. So according to MFP, I have 1135 calories remaining. So if I don't consume OVER the amount MFP says I have left, I'm doing ok?

Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight.

Angelz23 wrote: »

So which calorie amount do you go by, those in your Fitbit dashboard, or those on MFP? Because on mine, each website shows a different amount.

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal & follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. Your deficit is built into your calorie goal, and undereating will not get you to goal any more quickly.

TavistockToad

With 15lbs to lose you should be aiming for 0.5lb - 1lb loss per week max

Angelz23

editorgrrl wrote: »

Angelz23 wrote: »

Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight.

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal & follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. Your deficit is built into your calorie goal, and undereating will not get you to goal any more quickly.

Where do you get that .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight? Just curious.
And as for which calorie thing to follow - thanks, that clears that up

Glinda1971

Angelz23 wrote: »

Glinda1971 wrote: »

I have 50 lbs to lose and technically I could be set at 1 lb per week to lose, but I'm short and sedentary and don't like only having 1300 calories to eat. So I set myself a goal of 0.5 lbs per week to start with more calories per day. That being said, I don't generally eat all my Fitbit calories back because I like losing 1 lb per week and it motivates me to move more in order to meet my 1 lb loss.

Some days though I eat them all because I'm hungry.

I hope that helps and doesn't confuse you more!

Edit - I'm 5'3", 188 lbs and 44 years old. I've been losing at a good rate at 1500-1600 calories per day.

So which calorie amount do you go by, those in your Fitbit dashboard, or those on MFP? Because on mine, each website shows a different amount...?

I use what mfp gives me. I track my food on here and my exercise on the Fitbit.

You can message me if you have any more questions and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

Or send me a friend request - my diary is open to friends.

Angelz23

Thank you, Glinda1971, I've sent you a friend request. I think I will go by what MFP says for calories as well, however, right now it says I have 523 calories left for the day (I've already eaten my meals for the day and even logged my dessert), even though I don't think there's any way I can eat all those. I understand you don't *have* to eat all your calories back, but it sure is nice to have that many left instead of feeling all starved and going "hmmm, what can I have - oh, I know, water" because your calorie limit is up!

Liftng4Lis

I use MFP for calories and my Jawbone for tracking exercise.