When to adjust weight loss goals per week?

orangegato

Hi.
I started out at 258 lbs (I am 5'8"), BMI 39.2, 6 lbs away from being morbidly obese. Target weight is 164 lbs and a healthy BMI.
Current weight is 211 lbs, BMI 32.1.
At a desired weight loss of 1.5 lbs per week, MFP has calculated my daily calorie goal to be 1500 based on my current weight.
I've read here that it is advisable for men to keep 1500 calories/day as a minimum goal for healthy nutrition.
Since it seems that my daily intake is limited to 1500 calories, I am wondering when should I adjust my MFP setup and goals to reflect a 1 lb per week weight loss (and be able to have more calories added on to my days)? When I am out of the obese BMI category and in the overweight BMI range?

ETA Have a sedentary job, don't exercise (yet)

timtam163

Not sure, the rule of thumbs I've seen for safe weight loss is either setting goals so you don't lose more than 1% of your body weight per week or so you don't cut more than 20% of your maintenance. What you do from there is up to you and your goals.

CaliMomTeach

When you update your weight, it will adjust your calories. The first time I did this I did not know this would happen and I was like, "What? My reward for losing weight is fewer calories??" Lol.

estherdragonbat

My calories don't get adjusted unless I adjust them. Right now, I'm averaging about 1lb to 1.5lbs per week, so I'm not touching them. If that changes, I'll reassess. TBH, I'm finding that on 1380 to lose 1lb/week I'm getting hungry when I don't exercise and eat back half. I'm not interested in going lower if I'm losing safely without it.

malibu927

CaliMomTeach wrote: »

When you update your weight, it will adjust your calories. The first time I did this I did not know this would happen and I was like, "What? My reward for losing weight is fewer calories??" Lol.

In 3.5 years it has never once automatically adjusted my calories for weight loss. It will prompt me to do so after 10 pounds loss though. However, since the OP is at the minimum intake it won't be asking him this.

OP, general guideline is to move to 1 pound a week when you have 40 pounds to go. You're at 47 pounds to go now, so if you want to change the rate you can do so. Just remember with a smaller deficit you'll have to be more on top of your logging.

CaliMomTeach

malibu927 wrote: »

CaliMomTeach wrote: »

When you update your weight, it will adjust your calories. The first time I did this I did not know this would happen and I was like, "What? My reward for losing weight is fewer calories??" Lol.

In 3.5 years it has never once automatically adjusted my calories for weight loss. It will prompt me to do so after 10 pounds loss though. However, since the OP is at the minimum intake it won't be asking him this.

OP, general guideline is to move to 1 pound a week when you have 40 pounds to go. You're at 47 pounds to go now, so if you want to change the rate you can do so. Just remember with a smaller deficit you'll have to be more on top of your logging.

It did for me after losing about 20 pounds. The next time I logged in, my daily calories went from 1400 something to 1260ish. I only updated my weight. It did not prompt me to adjust calories at all. Weird.

GemstoneofHeart

CaliMomTeach wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

CaliMomTeach wrote: »

When you update your weight, it will adjust your calories. The first time I did this I did not know this would happen and I was like, "What? My reward for losing weight is fewer calories??" Lol.

In 3.5 years it has never once automatically adjusted my calories for weight loss. It will prompt me to do so after 10 pounds loss though. However, since the OP is at the minimum intake it won't be asking him this.

OP, general guideline is to move to 1 pound a week when you have 40 pounds to go. You're at 47 pounds to go now, so if you want to change the rate you can do so. Just remember with a smaller deficit you'll have to be more on top of your logging.

It did for me after losing about 20 pounds. The next time I logged in, my daily calories went from 1400 something to 1260ish. I only updated my weight. It did not prompt me to adjust calories at all. Weird.

I agree, it auto updates for me too. I wonder if there is a setting you have turned off?

MsHarryWinston

It depends on WHERE you update your weight. If you are using the app and update using either "progress" or the weight symbol on the homepage it doesn't auto update. If you update using the "current weight" under "goals" it auto updates your calories for you.

loulouowens

Hi

theres a list somewhere that shows when to slow the losses. Me personally Im currently on 1lb per week and when i have 14lbs to goal i will slow to .5lb a week.

DX2JX2

I'm not sure if you can play around with MFP projections but some of the other calorie counters on the internet seem to point towards a 50 calorie/day differential for every 10 pounds or so at your height/weight. This would say that you'll probably want to start rechecking your calories once your average weigh-in drops south of 200 lbs.

To keep things simple, if I were you I'd just keep my calories at 1500 per day until you get to target. You'll never drop below a safe calorie level and your rate of loss will naturally slow down without you having to consciously think about it.

If you're not interested in 'maxing out' your rate of safe weight loss to the end and want to start tapering back to maintenance as you get closer to target to give yourself a break, then I would probably wait until you get pretty close to your end goal (within 10 pounds). At a tapered loss level of 0.5 pounds per week, this means that you'd still have to count for another 4-5 months or so but honestly, even eating to that level is going to feel like a ton of food!