Is MFP cheating me out of food?

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shelbymkoenig
shelbymkoenig Posts: 59 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
First off. my stats:
Female
5ft 7in
207lbs (well around there, bloated and retaining water for lady reasons)
22 years of age

I have already lost 21lbs (woot) but since my second calorie recalculation my weight loss has drastically slowed down. Right now I'm allotted 1860 calories, down from 1930. Most days I don't even eat my full 1800 because I'm paranoid that I'll go over and those little red numbers murder my motivation. Anyway, I've tried calculating my TDEE, but every one I use gives me a different answer. Generally after subtracting my 20% I get an answer from 1900 to 2100. How much am I really supposed to be eating? Should I eat all of my calories everyday? I'm cornfused :(

Replies

  • happieharpie
    happieharpie Posts: 229 Member
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    Please help yourself to some of mine! I'm a fat little old lady, and after losing my first 27 pounds, MFP gave me MORE calories, even though it guilts me every single day with the fact that I'm not eating enough daily calories to start with!

    I've pretty much figured out what I have to do, and I'm slowly nudging up my exercise, so I still have faith in MFP that one of these days we'll come to some sort of truce.
  • chasetwins
    chasetwins Posts: 702 Member
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    Yes you should be eating your calories - but to note...after the first few weeks sometimes months your weight loss will slow down. I start at 3 - 4 pounds then to 2 - 3 pounds now down to .4 to 1.8 per week.

    The more you lose and the more time passes the slower it gets. You can go a little bit under goal calories (providing your not at 1200) but try your best. For your TDEE - if your nervous about which to use - average them and use that number. (I have found slight variation in calculations too)

    Most of all - remember everything is an estimate...your BMR, calories in food and calories burned.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    With MFP you're supposed to exercise and eat back your exercise calories. That way you're close to TDEE-20%. Although if you have more than 50 lbs to lose, you can do TDEE-25%.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
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    First off. my stats:
    Female
    5ft 7in
    207lbs (well around there, bloated and retaining water for lady reasons)
    22 years of age

    I have already lost 21lbs (woot) but since my second calorie recalculation my weight loss has drastically slowed down. Right now I'm allotted 1860 calories, down from 1930. Most days I don't even eat my full 1800 because I'm paranoid that I'll go over and those little red numbers murder my motivation. Anyway, I've tried calculating my TDEE, but every one I use gives me a different answer. Generally after subtracting my 20% I get an answer from 1900 to 2100. How much am I really supposed to be eating? Should I eat all of my calories everyday? I'm cornfused :(

    regarding the bolded part, what I did that seemed the most sensible to me was to google "TDEE Calculator," and select 6-8 calculators to enter my information into, figure out what all 6 told me, and then average them. I use THAT number as my daily calorie goal. Perhaps not accurate but certainly (in my mind) more accurate than it otherwise could be.

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