mfp too generous with calorie allowance and tracking?

getinmabelly

Hi there

I've been at this a week, and I have about 50lbs to lose. I get my first weigh in this evening, and I'm interested to see the results.
I've been trying to lose weight for some time now. Since I started a new job 3 years ago that meant driving to work rather than walking, I've put on about 4stone, which is making me miserable, especially as by walking to work before I had lost about 2 stone and was down to a size 12! Never been happier!

But now I'm back up to a size 18, and have been trying to shield myself from the on set of Belly - but to no avail! I've tried weight watchers, I've tried tackling the problem myself by watching my diet and exercise, but lack of enthusiasm and will power have been the big killers there.

So my sister put me on to this, and I am now a week into it. My difficulty with it so far is that mfp has given me a daily calorie allowance of 1200, but even with only slightly moderate changes to my diet, I don't seem to reach my quota each day. The nutritional allowances for each item of food I log seem very small compared with what I would have expected.

Similarly, whenever I exercise, it seems to give me well over what I would expect would be the number of calories burned. An example is the Elliptical trainer. I have been on this a few times over the last week, and according to that, when I train for 40 mins, I have burnt about 470 calories. Heading on over to mfp, and it tells me that this is well over 600.

So I suppose I'm wondering if anyone else thinks mfp is a little too generous to the user when giving calorie allowances for foods and exercise? And was it right to give me a quota of just 1200 per day? I should point out, I'm aiming for an average weight loss of 2lbs per week.

jrich1

Keep in mind these arent exact sciences esp for the exercise. I would recommend if you are really going to be working out to spend $100 or so and buy a HRM so you can accurately track how much calories you are burning. I got one and was actually not giving myself enough credit.

noneya2010

I have checked the calories right to labels and various other sites for accuracy and find MFP to be very reliable if you plug in the correct items.

For exercise, I have been walking and doing circuit training and also have plugged this into other places and get right about the same for calories burned. It is based off how much you weigh and what your daily requirements are, etc.

Try plugging in your eliptical on another calculator and see what you come up with.

I'm also on a 1200 cal diet before exercise and some days I use up all my calories (with my exercise ones) and sometimes I am just below and I'm going on week 3 and have lost 12 pounds in just over 2 weeks, so I know it's working for me.

lilchino4af

MFP will not put you below a calorie allowance of 1200 calories per day because that is the minimum amount of calories your body requires to function. To go below 1200 on a consistent basis will cause your body to go into starvation mode, which is basically your body slowing down your metabolism to burn calories slower because it's not getting enough fuel to function.

With regards to exercise calories, it all depends on your height/weight/age/physical fitness. Some people find MFP to be fairly accurate for them, other (me for example) find MFP to be too high. I have a HRM which I use to calculate how many calories I burn per workout and when compared to MFP, my HRM is 80% of what MFP says I burned. So if you don't ahve a HRM and use MFP to log exercise, begin with only eating 50-75% of your exercise calories back. Regardless of what method you use, you need to eat your exercise calories because MFP already puts you at a deficit and exercise just increases that deficit. So to ensure you get at least your 1200 calories a day, eat your workout calories.

Hope this helps clarify/answer your questions! Good luck!

getinmabelly

12lbs! Congratulations, that is a great start!

Thanks for all replies, keep em coming if you have other suggestions. We'll see what happens when I weigh in this evening!

getinmabelly

HRM = heart rate monitor, right? My cross-trainer has one of those, based on beats per minute. How could I calculate that in the exercise section on this (apologies if its spelled out in a really obvious way on the 'track exercise' buttons!)

itsmenatalie

I agree with the comments above. Over the last 9 months I have become MUCH more fit and now find that the calories burned on MFP are too high since my heart is not working that hard. I just wear a heart rate monitor which calculates the calories for me and enter those. There's really no way for a web site to know exactly what you burned, they just have to take an average.

As far as the calorie allowance goes, I actually find MFP to be too low. I see all kinds of people who are at 1200 calories per day which is not even equal to their BMR and I think many of them run the risk of being tired or hungry and failing. I started out at a calorie allowance of 1485 which was my BMR and was able to lose 20 lbs in 12 weeks and another 10 lbs in the 12 weeks after that. I am now at my goal weight of 125 and eat more like 1600 a day without a problem - and that's NET calories - I always eat the majority of my exercise calories. Obviously there's no magic formula that works for everyone, but that's my experience.

jrich1

HRM = heart rate monitor, right? My cross-trainer has one of those, based on beats per minute. How could I calculate that in the exercise section on this (apologies if its spelled out in a really obvious way on the 'track exercise' buttons!)

Yes my wife got me one for Fathers day, its really nice, its a Polar FT7, and she has a Polar F7, we both use them now.

Samantharose8akaDebbie

I started this in February on 1200 calories per day with a loss of 2 lbs per week. I have lost 30 lbs and still going strong. I was very disciplined at first and only at the 1200 calories. Now with exercise (3) times per week, I eat back some of the calories and induldge once per every week or every other week in a guilty treat for me. This site works wonders. I hope you will give it a chance to prove itself...................good luck! Remember to only weigh yourself one time per week and on the same day each week. If not, you will drive yourself crazy as the weight WILL fluctuate.

pixiestick

The food database is pretty accurate. I have only ever had to adjust a very few items--and that has only ever been by 10-15 cals. As for the exercise database, the calorie expenditure given there is calculated off of what a middle-aged, medium build, white male would burn if he did x exercise for x amount of time with x amount of effort. Since I am a petite, white, female, I found that the exercise calories awarded were usually too high.

At the recommendation of fellow MFPers, I purchased a Polar F6 (HRM). This has been the single best investment for my weight-loss. It keeps me honest and takes the guesswork out of my hard work at the gym.

:flowerforyou:

simonba18

I found the same thing, specifically with the elliptical. The machine would post 500 calories burned and mfp gives me 585. The more you weigh, the more calories they give you as burned. I also put in I wanted to lose 2 lbs/ week and I was given 1200 calories/day. Let me tell you, when you don't work out, those 1200 disappear really fast! But I agree, you need to watch that you stay under what they give you to really be effective. I add up my total calories burned for the week and I will tell you, over a 4 week period, I averaged 1700 calories/week (-250 calories/day) less than what mfp said i could have to (theoretically) lose 2 lbs. week. In that 4 week peiod, I did lose 7 lbs., so I would say be very generous with how many calories you alot for your food and stingier with what you give yourself for exercise and you'll stay on track. Good luck!

LBNOakland

bump to later

LBNOakland

I have had the same questions as you! My persoanl trainer tells me to eat 1200 calories and NO exercise calories. She then bumped me down to 1100 calories. I will lose for a while than stop but I am losing very slowly! I want to lose 2 lbs a week but I can't seem to! Has anyone tried cycling? That's where you stick to your goal most days but on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you jump up the calories. I have experimented with that and it seems to have gotten me through this plateau. I may try it for a while.

stahlight

Late to the party as always, but when the elliptical says I do 45 mins and say 500 calories, I just enter both into MFP, rather than its guess about the matter. My $0.02

LBNOakland

Excerpt from Sparkspeople. Good information. It said not to have more than a 1000 calorie deficit in a day.

Putting It All Together

When you put all this information together, the picture you see is very familiar. There aren’t any gimmicks or shortcuts. To burn fat, the variables are simple. You need to:
Be as active as possible
Exercise at a moderate (60% MHR) to high (>70% MHR) intensity level when doing cardio
Include strength training two to three times per week
Keep your total calorie intake below your total energy expenditure (without exceeding a 1,000 calorie deficit per day)
Provide your body with plenty of quality fuel from healthy foods