Mixed reviews

mitz2727

Hello.
I'm trying to figure out how many calories I should be consuming to lose weight? I have been researching and after imputing the same info into different calculators (websites) I'm getting different numbers. Help!

RowingBill

Find one and stick to it. This site has really took hold and helped me tremendously.

viblanco

There are so many factors that determine the different calculations.

1. If your only goal is to lose weight the calorie calculator on here is pretty accurate.

2. If you want to build muscle and lose fat. Those calculations would look a lot different. Depending on how much muscle and how much fat you want to lose the calculation vary.

3. Depending on your height and weight your calories could vary. if you 5 or taller your calories really should not jump lower than 1200 in order to stay healthy.

I am no expert this is just information I know from my own personal research and experience. Hope it helped.

kgirlhart

I agree, just pick one and use it. Or take an average of what they all say. The estimators are just that, estimators. None will be 100% accurate. Just be consistent. If you are using mfp's numbers then you should eat back at least half of your exercise calories. If you are using a TDEE number then you don't eat back the exercise calories as they are already included. I was using mfp's numbers and it gave me 1200 calories but I felt that was too low, so I just manually entered my goal as 1300. I'm still losing at a rate of 1.4 pounds per month so I think that was pretty good. I have my activity level as sedentary because of my job but I think I am probably a little more active than that so I increased my goal.

HonestBuddha

I use the one here with MFP. I too have also checked other sites and some suggested a larger deficit for 1-1.5 lbs a week. Don't go too low at first, you'll experience even worse headaches and fogginess. I'd find an average number, or use the MFP number, and see how that works after a couple weeks

Good luck! We're all here for you!

cwolfman13

Different calculators use different methodologies...for example, MFP does not include exercise as part of your activity level and thus no calories related to exercise will be included in your targets which is why with MFP you log exercise after you do it and "earn" additional calories to account for that activity...other calculators do include exercise in your activity level and thus you will get a higher calorie target as a result.

You also have to make sure you're comparing apples to apples in RE to rate of loss goals.

Beyond that, any of these calculators are estimates....pick one and go with it...be consistent and watch the trends and adjust as per your real world results.