Setting Diary to Maintainence

ftsolk

I'm just wondering if anyone here has their diary set to maintain their weight while they are trying to lose.

I'm just trying to figure out how I want to approach using MFP as a current Weight Watchers member. I love WW's Weekly Allowance, and I get freaked out on MFP if I go into the red, so I'm thinking I can set my tracker to maintain, and then just eat under that number. That way, I don't go into the red, and as long as I consistently eat less than I burn, I should lose weight- even if one day that means I eat my maintenance calories.

Obviously, I still need a minimum, but I'm not sure what it should be. 1,200 calories? Should I eat my BMR? Or is the important thing that I NET my BMR? The whole thing is confusing.

Right now, my tracker is set to sedentary, but I have my Fitbit synced to my account.

cwolfman13

i did that for awhile...problem i had was that even though i knew i needed to be under maintenance by 500 calories, I chronically ate more because I could see that I had that latitude..many days I ate all the way to maintenance and of course, this slowed down my weight loss.

generally females will get 1200 if they select sedentary (which most people actually are not, even if they have a desk job) and they select 2 Lbs per week...1200 is the floor, MFP won't suggest anything lower than that. You also have to understand that 1200 calories is before any deliberate exercise...exercise calories are added when you log that activity but keep in mind that you should have some kind of allowance for estimation error.

to lose about 1 Lb per week you need a 500 calorie deficit from your maintenance number...all MFP is doing is that math for you.

if you ate your BMR you would obviously lose weight as BMR is just the calories you require to exist, and we all do more than exist. keep in mind though that most BMR calculators base that calculation on total weight so if you're over fat, that number would be inflated. some calculators use your lean mass in the calculation which is more accurate as you do not need to feed your fat, just your lean mass.

ftsolk

I only have my tracker set to sedentary because my activity level varies so much, and I wear my Fitbit, so thst gives me a lore customized idea of my daily calorie burn.

I'm still playing around with thibgs to see which approach works best for me.