When do you change your calorie goal?

kenziedriscoll

How often do you change your calorie goal when you've lost weight? I'm just curious. I've lost 10lbs in 3 weeks (yessss!!) Probably water weight, but how long do you stay at your initial calorie goal before you need to go lower to keep losing? I know I'm not there yet, just curious for future reference. I still have 35 more to go to hit my goal weight.

erinc5

If I had 35 lbs to go right now, I would put my goal at a 1 lb per week loss. I'd just stick with that until I reached 15 lbs to go and then change my goal to .5 lb per week. I wouldn't worry about adjusting my calorie goal between those two milestones.

andrektan

Sounds like you're doing pretty well so far (congrats!).

You might want to stick with it for a while and see what your body does. Technically, you shouldn't need to lower it at all, unless you lose so much weight that your TDEE drops significantly or you become less active.

kenziedriscoll

erinc5 wrote: »

If I had 35 lbs to go right now, I would put my goal at a 1 lb per week loss. I'd just stick with that until I reached 15 lbs to go and then change my goal to .5 lb per week. I wouldn't worry about adjusting my calorie goal between those two milestones.

Thank you. I have it set to 1lb per week- I think I've initially dropped those 10lbs just from eating much healthier and jogging daily- so I think I will do what you said and not change it until I've got 15 more to go. Thank you!

kenziedriscoll

andrektan wrote: »

Sounds like you're doing pretty well so far (congrats!).

You might want to stick with it for a while and see what your body does. Technically, you shouldn't need to lower it at all, unless you lose so much weight that your TDEE drops significantly or you become less active.

Ok that makes sense. I'm completely new to this and I lurk these boards frequently. I have seen more times than not about adjusting goals, but not really sure when to, ect. thanks for clarifying that for me!

MissusMoon

Personally I prefer to update my calorie goals every time I lose weight. Every couple of pounds makes a ten or so calorie difference, and I prefer easing into fewer calories rather than have a big jump.

Once it hits 1200 it doesn't get any lower, so no need to adjust after that.

CattOfTheGarage

The Android app has started doing it automatically - I lost a load of water weight in the first week this time and it knocked 40 calories off my allowance! I don't know if there's a setting to stop it doing this. But I probably approve of it, on balance.

Ws2016

I reset it once, when I plateaued.

kenziedriscoll

Interesting @MissusMoon. Maybe I will do that too. I agree on easing into it. Not sure I need to just yet but I may. Thanks!

kenziedriscoll

Ws2016 wrote: »

I reset it once, when I plateaued.

How long were you doing this before you changed it? I am only 3 weeks in so I think I probably don't need to worry with it right now but that makes sense.

cross2bear

I only weigh myself when I visit the doctor for other issues, so maybe once every 6-8 weeks. Thankfully, over the last few months, each visit has seen my weight reduced and so then I adjust the stats that then adjusts the calorie goals.

MissusMoon

kenziedriscoll wrote: »

Ws2016 wrote: »

I reset it once, when I plateaued.

How long were you doing this before you changed it? I am only 3 weeks in so I think I probably don't need to worry with it right now but that makes sense.

Probably a little more than ten pounds in. It's become a habit for me now. I have a lot to lose and I used to have a lot more calories to work with. I'm still at the point where it's appropriate to go two pounds per week, but that's leaving me at 1320 calories before exercise. If one day there's a 50 plus calorie drop now because I haven't adjusted in a while, it's gonna leave a mark That's why I'm adjusting for every pound. Personal preference. As long as you're losing, do what works best for you.

kenziedriscoll

Thanks!

kenziedriscoll

So, I usually just hit the + bottom on my home page and update my weight, however, when I went to my goals (and then current weight) I noticed it UP'd my calories by 30. I'm currently on 1530 a day, but it went up to 1560. I manually changed it back to 1530, but I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why it didn't just stay at 1530.

erinc5

kenziedriscoll wrote: »

So, I usually just hit the + bottom on my home page and update my weight, however, when I went to my goals (and then current weight) I noticed it UP'd my calories by 30. I'm currently on 1530 a day, but it went up to 1560. I manually changed it back to 1530, but I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why it didn't just stay at 1530.

I don't know the reason for this, but I also wouldn't worry at all about a 30 calorie difference.

kenziedriscoll

True dat!! Just curious why my calories increased. But yeah you're right.