Question about the goal and calories

jbitakis

I just started today and my question is this; My weight is 240 and I want to lose 2lbs/wk. I do moderate to heavy activity each day. I put those parameters in and it says my goal is 2190 cal/day. So does that mean that if I stay at 2190 cal/day with moderate-heavy exercise that I should lose 2lbs/week?

James

deannalfisher

yes and eating back a portion of your workout calories (MFP will automatically adjust them for you)

LarryChuYatTung

Hi I have been a successful weight loser (17 kg in 6 months) and my advise to you is to better assume a sedentary lifestyle when setting up your goal. In this case I reckon your target cal is ~ 1500 / day. However do note that this has to be re-calculate every time you input your new weight

deannalfisher

^^ no - if the OP doesn't have a sedentary lifestyle, then don't recommend they select that, they need to ensure that they are fueling correctly for their level of activity which selecting the right activity level on MFP will do

loulamb7

jbitakis wrote: »

I just started today and my question is this; My weight is 240 and I want to lose 2lbs/wk. I do moderate to heavy activity each day. I put those parameters in and it says my goal is 2190 cal/day. So does that mean that if I stay at 2190 cal/day with moderate-heavy exercise that I should lose 2lbs/week?

James

MFP differentiates between "activity" and "exercise". For MFP activity is your normal daily activity without exercise, for example your job. This is what MFP uses to set your calories and deficit. Exercise is only taken into account after it is done and added to the MFP diary.

malibu927

deannalfisher wrote: »

^^ no - if the OP doesn't have a sedentary lifestyle, then don't recommend they select that, they need to ensure that they are fueling correctly for their level of activity which selecting the right activity level on MFP will do

Not to mention that 1500 is the lowest amount given to a male so he wouldn't be able to recalculate without lowering the rate of loss.

TimothyFish

deannalfisher wrote: »

^^ no - if the OP doesn't have a sedentary lifestyle, then don't recommend they select that, they need to ensure that they are fueling correctly for their level of activity which selecting the right activity level on MFP will do

I'm not sure where I stand on this answer. The OP talks about "moderate-heavy exercise". The way MFP works the exercise calories are supposed to be added in later and the activity level is only the non-exercise activity. The activity level would be different for a grounds keeper who doesn't exercise than an office worker who trains daily, even thought their daily calorie burn may be the same.

SusanMFindlay

As long as the OP doesn't double-count*, it really doesn't matter that much whether they just pick an appropriate overall activity level and target calorie level (in other words, the TDEE approach) or whether they pick a lower activity level that doesn't account for their exercise then log the exercise separately (the NEAT approach).

It's not clear to me from the original post whether the original poster is active based on lifestyle (active job) or based on planned workouts.

*Double-count: What you must NOT do is call yourself "moderately active" based only on workouts and also log the workouts. Either they are part of your activity level OR they are logged as exercise. If you want to just have a flat daily calorie goal and not worry about logging exercise, check your stats at a TDEE calculator like http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ to make sure your calorie goal is a reasonable one.

jbitakis

Let me clarify my "activity". I work as a floor RN and do about 10000 steps/day 40 hours/week. In addition to this, I go to the gym and do weight lifting 2-3x week. 1x/wk I also throw batting practice for HS baseball players. I throw about 300 pitches at 50-75% level. I am dripping sweat after this.

James

StaciMarie1974

Yes, that is what it means. Your body uses energy (calories) to live and move thru your life. Your size, gender, activity level factor into how much.

One note: if you considered your exercise when choosing your activity level then do NOT eat additional for exercise. If your activity level is based on your job, hobbies, daily life NOT counting exercise, then log exercise and feel free to eat a little additional for what you're burning extra from the exercise.

jbitakis wrote: »

I just started today and my question is this; My weight is 240 and I want to lose 2lbs/wk. I do moderate to heavy activity each day. I put those parameters in and it says my goal is 2190 cal/day. So does that mean that if I stay at 2190 cal/day with moderate-heavy exercise that I should lose 2lbs/week?

James

runlikeagirl1985

My opinion would be to set your calorie goal using the "Lightly Active" or “Active” setting when it sets up your calorie goal for weight loss (which will take into account your 10,000 steps for your job) then add in your "Purposeful Exercise" calories for the gym, etc. and eat a portion of those back. I always tend to underestimate the activity level and just eat back more of the exercise calories I burn, but you can also pick a higher activity level and eat back less exercise calories, which way you do it is up to you. As others have said, you don’t want to under eat. You will be fine as long as you don’t double count your exercise.

rileysowner

jbitakis wrote: »

I just started today and my question is this; My weight is 240 and I want to lose 2lbs/wk. I do moderate to heavy activity each day. I put those parameters in and it says my goal is 2190 cal/day. So does that mean that if I stay at 2190 cal/day with moderate-heavy exercise that I should lose 2lbs/week?

James

First to be clear, the activity level here is for your normal daily activity not including exercise. I mention that because if you set your activity level based on your exercise you intend to do, it will give you more calories. However, when you log exercise here on MFP, it will add those calories since they do not intend you to include your intended exercise in your activity level. Now if you set your activity level based on your daily activity not including exercise, and then selected in the exercise area the amount of exercise you intend to do, those intended exercises are not included in your calorie goal and you did it the way it is intended.

Second, depending on how you did things in setting up your goals, if you included your intended exercise in your choice of activity level, then yes eat 2190 and you will lose assuming you are measuring your food properly and using the correct entries here. If you did not include your intended exercise, then you will lose eating 2190 and you could possibly eat more if you do additional exercise.

loulamb7

jbitakis wrote: »

Let me clarify my "activity". I work as a floor RN and do about 10000 steps/day 40 hours/week. In addition to this, I go to the gym and do weight lifting 2-3x week. 1x/wk I also throw batting practice for HS baseball players. I throw about 300 pitches at 50-75% level. I am dripping sweat after this.

James

Your daily activity, without exercise, would be active. If you input you were active and wanted to lose 2 lbs/week, the 2190 calories MFP gave you would be what you would eat to lose 2 lbs/week with any other purposeful exercise. I would suggest starting at 2200 calories and monitor for 3-4 weeks and adjust your intake, up or down based on experience. For example at the end of 4 week you lose 8 lbs, keep your calories the same. If you loss more, you can eat more. Highly likely you will lose more in the first week or two.

stylzemail

Let me share a true story : I have a female cousin, and I use to observe how she eat she was skinny low body fat , so I took noticed - Breakfast was small bowl oats, that's carbs right? Yeah.... it is , but check out the rest of the story- lunch was the big bag of sunflower seeds at the family dollar stores- I mean every day almost at lunch sunflower seeds or microwave popcorn. AT dinner time my dad he ate - half load bread and huge amount- of meat, at dinner
And he blew up to 270 pounds. At dinner time, my female cousin ate, what her mom cooked which was starches , greens, vegetables and bread and chicken, but my cousin did not eat the bread only 8 ounces of The vegetables, and the starch like potatoes. When my aunt pile the plates heavy, she (my cousin) would ration the portions- take her fork or butter knife, and make it , 8 ounces each. The drink was usually tea . She stayed skinny. When we went to kings dominion , for the rides, there was restaurants on that area land that has McDonalds type of restaurants, my cousin looking. For grilled chicken sandwich some salad ECT, but did not find it in there, so at only small French fries, which is carbs- but 8 oz. Size..

stylzemail

The obligated point I trying to state is: it's the total calories and the carbs (both) that be consumed per day, it's a reason why lunch was a snack (sunflower seeds with the shells ) and not really a meal. To keep calories low.