1 lb or 1.5 lb weekly loss?

SarahStarr86

Hello everyone! I've been doing mfp for a while but haven't really been following it the way should have been consistently. I'm recommitting but have one quick question..do I need to set my weekly loss at 1.5 or 1? Or even 2? I currently am 186 lbs, 5.4, and workout 5 days a week with Insanity Max 30. Goal is 138 lbs. I record my calories burned with my polar ft4. It seems like if I put my weekly goal at 1.5 or 2, it automatically puts me at 1200 calories a day...seems kind of low. But I saw other posts saying that if you have more than 35 lbs to lose, you can set an aggressive weekly goal. Any help is appreciated! Thanks

strong_curves

FYI - with mfp you're supposed to eat your exercise calories back. Most recommend 50-75%.

SarahStarr86

Hi! Yes, I'm aware. I just didn't know if my daily goal before exercise calories should be the 1200 (1.5 lb, 2 lb weekly loss) or the 1420 it's giving me for a 1 lb weekly loss. Thanks!

SLLRunner

sarahstarr0416 wrote: »

Hello everyone! I've been doing mfp for a while but haven't really been following it the way should have been consistently. I'm recommitting but have one quick question..do I need to set my weekly loss at 1.5 or 1? Or even 2? I currently am 186 lbs, 5.4, and workout 5 days a week with Insanity Max 30. Goal is 138 lbs. I record my calories burned with my polar ft4. It seems like if I put my weekly goal at 1.5 or 2, it automatically puts me at 1200 calories a day...seems kind of low. But I saw other posts saying that if you have more than 35 lbs to lose, you can set an aggressive weekly goal. Any help is appreciated! Thanks

I would tell MFP you want to lose 1 pound a week and start there. When you exercise, eat back a portion of your exercise calories as well because your deficit is already built into your initial goal (it does not account for exercise).

I think if you have 75 or more to lose, you are safe to set your goal to lose 2 pounds a week. It gets smaller with the less weight you have to lose, with 25 pounds or less being .5 pounds per week.

You can do this.

barryplumber

I would go with the 1.5 lbs/week as long as your getting enough to eat. The more you excersise the more important it is to eat some of your calories back about 50%. Once you are at 20lbs to goal drop 1 lb per week for your last 10 drop to .5. This is me and what i would do but the decision is yours and what your comfort zone is

Good luck

SarahStarr86

Thank you everyone so much! This forum is great

YorriaRaine

I'm not sure if this is helpful. But the way I figured out my calorie goal is I figured out what my TDEE would be at my goal weight, and subtracted 250 from that (which is .5lb week goal, which is what you should aim for as you are close to your goal). Then eat your exercise calories back.

So at 5'4" 29yr old female (from your profile), at 138 pounds your bmr would be 1336 (from mfp app), and mfp has sedentary be 1.25x that which is 1670, then subtract 250 from that for 1420 calories a day.

I like doing it this way because I am always eating the same calories, I find this number to be reasonable (personally). You should eat your exercise calories back (or atleast 50%).

So right now with your weight being 186 your tdee is around 1942 at sedentary, so the deficit would have you lose something like 1.044 pounds now, and will be .5ish pounds when you approach your goal weight.

Also I like staying at one number because it lets me pretty much know after awhile how much food is that amount of calories (should always weigh your portions though).

tomatoey

YorriaRaine wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is helpful. But the way I figured out my calorie goal is I figured out what my TDEE would be at my goal weight, and subtracted 250 from that (which is .5lb week goal, which is what you should aim for as you are close to your goal). Then eat your exercise calories back.

So at 5'4" 29yr old female (from your profile), at 138 pounds your bmr would be 1336 (from mfp app), and mfp has sedentary be 1.25x that which is 1670, then subtract 250 from that for 1420 calories a day.
.

sarahstarr0416 wrote: »

Hi! Yes, I'm aware. I just didn't know if my daily goal before exercise calories should be the 1200 (1.5 lb, 2 lb weekly loss) or the 1420 it's giving me for a 1 lb weekly loss. Thanks!

Coincidence, or math??

tomatoey

I agree with @SLLRunner about starting at 1 lb / week. If you get too hungry with that, even -0.5 lbs would be ok. The main thing is sticking with it, you'll see results as long as you do that.

Merkavar

I hear the recommended goal max is half a pound for every 25 pounds over weight.

I would aim for 1 pound. And eat 50-75% of exercise calories back.

dizzieblondeuk

I have almost the same starting figures as you - 5'5", 195lb and goal of 139lb. When I auto-set it for 1.5lb, it gave me 1200cals, which actually calculated out at 1.3lb per week, given my actual TDEE. So for the first couple of weeks, to ease in, I manually set my calories to 1400 (around a 1lb week loss), and then switched down to 1200, once I added exercise into my routine. I started very gradually - like, 1 pilates session in week 3, then pilates and 1 gym class the next, then pilates, a gym class and 2 gym sessions etc. Each time, I usually ate only a proportion of those exercise cals back, but I've never, ever felt hungry eating to this target.

The result, for the first 2 weeks, I ended up losing 3lb a week, because of the water weight drop, and then I settled into a 1-1.5lb per week loss. 12 weeks in, I've lost 17lb, and I'm really happy with that. For your own loss, you need to work out what amount of calories feels comfortable - don't do 1200 cals, if it makes you feel starving, even when you add in exercise cals, just so you can hit the arbitrary target loss number. If you can achieve 1200cals on a day when you don't exercise, and it doesn't feel like your stomach is being carved out(!), then it's the right number for you. Otherwise, adjust the goal target, but it's a case of trial and error to work that one out.

The way I see it, this is a long term lifestyle change, and I'll be eating to those numbers, and exercising 6 out of 7 days a week, for a very long time, given I still have nearly 40lb to go, and I'll be maintaining that lifestyle even when I hit my target weight. So, if it feels like I'm living in utter deprivation, and never being able to eat enough to make me full, I'd never stick with it. Like you say, you've not been particularly consistent with MFP, so I'd say your priority is finding a method that will make you stick with it - and being overly aggressive with your target may be a step too far. Give it a try, but don't consider it a failure to set your weekly target to 1lb or less a week - it IS a loss!

SarahStarr86

Wow! Thank you for all of your replies. I think I'll stick with the 1 lb loss for right now. 1200 just seems so low! I struggle with my 1420 sometimes...however I burn on average 350-400 calories per workout, so if I ate back half while being at 1200 calories, I'd still be at around 1350-1400 for the day. Why am I making this sooo difficult? Haha! Still a little confused at what to do. Maybe I'll do the 1200 calories while eating back 50% exercise calories and see how I feel...

SLLRunner

sarahstarr0416 wrote: »

Wow! Thank you for all of your replies. I think I'll stick with the 1 lb loss for right now. 1200 just seems so low! I struggle with my 1420 sometimes...however I burn on average 350-400 calories per workout, so if I ate back half while being at 1200 calories, I'd still be at around 1350-1400 for the day. Why am I making this sooo difficult? Haha! Still a little confused at what to do. Maybe I'll do the 1200 calories while eating back 50% exercise calories and see how I feel...

You've got this!

SarahStarr86

SLLRunner wrote: »

sarahstarr0416 wrote: »

Wow! Thank you for all of your replies. I think I'll stick with the 1 lb loss for right now. 1200 just seems so low! I struggle with my 1420 sometimes...however I burn on average 350-400 calories per workout, so if I ate back half while being at 1200 calories, I'd still be at around 1350-1400 for the day. Why am I making this sooo difficult? Haha! Still a little confused at what to do. Maybe I'll do the 1200 calories while eating back 50% exercise calories and see how I feel...

You've got this!

Thank you!

sheldonklein

Scale don't lie. Start with the higher calorie number. If you are unhappy with your rate of loss after 1 month, try lowering your calories.

Liftng4Lis

1 pound a week and see where you're at in a month.