How many cals to eat daily for weight loss based on my particular stats

curvygirly911
curvygirly911 Posts: 105 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,

I'm a bit confused on figuring out how much to eat daily.

Stats:
5'2, female with an office desk job so I would say sedentary and 205.3 lbs at the moment.

According to MFP it says that if I wanted to maintain my weight then I need to eat 2010 calories daily. And to lose 2 lbs then it is 1200 calories daily. I am assuming it should be 1010 calories daily but MFP does not want to have anyone eat under 1200 calories.

However if I enter the same stats into Fitbit then it says I need to eat 1585 calories in order to maintain my weight.

So I want to know how much to eat daily to lose up to 2 lbs a week with just diet alone.

Secondly, I am adding 15,000 steps daily by Fitbit and then I manually add that info my exercise calories. For example, Fitbit says I naturally burn 2000 calories without exercise and at 15,000 steps I burn about 2500 calories. So I manually add in 500 calories burned through exercise on my MFP diary. Does this seem right?

Thank you in advance!!!!


Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    The 1585 Fitbit gives you is your BMR, which is what your body burns just by living.

    Set your goal to lightly active (which will give you more calories than sedentary) and link your Fitbit to MFP, which will automatically give you the calorie adjustment. You won't need to log any exercise.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited December 2017
    Your FitBit is generally a good tool for figuring things like this out.....use it, trust it (at least initially). FitBits are popular because they work for many people.

    FitBit takes all activity into consideration. If you burn 2,000 without exercise (and you are inactive).....eat 1200. If you are adding exercise (or are more active than sedentary).....eat more than 1200. FitBit can be synced to MFP and do this tracking for you. A FitBit helps keeps you honest.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    I plugged your stats into my preferred TDEE calc, and got 1950 for your sedentary TDEE.

    To lose 1lbs a week, you'd want a daily 500 calorie deficit from that number, so 1450 per day.

    I'm honestly not super familiar with Fitbits, never used one, so I'm not sure how your steps factor into the equation. I just manually add my intentional exercise to MFP and eat back around 75% of the calories it tells me I burned. I like eating back 75% to account for any margin of error for my calorie burns.
  • RachsLosses
    RachsLosses Posts: 103 Member
    Using MFP 1200 is standard for weight loss, I follow the same (desk job, gym on an evening less than 1200 calories a day through the week (eating back my workout calories on a weekend) So far I have averaged at 1lb a week less, everyones loss will vary.

    1500 is usual for maintenance but will vary depending on your TDEE.


    Personally people's opinions on a forum, wont give you a scientific answer. I would suggest looking at different calculators, doing more research and following a 1200 plan for a while to see what you come out with, then adjust as NorthCascades suggested.

  • curvygirly911
    curvygirly911 Posts: 105 Member
    Wow thank you all so much for such quick but helpful replies! I am going to stick to one app and see how things go for one month and adjust accordingly.
  • sllm1
    sllm1 Posts: 2,130 Member
    I would use the MFP numbers and link the Fitbit so that it automatically takes the steps into account. This has been accurate for me.

    Two pounds per week is a bit aggressive - 1200 calories isn't sustainable for me. Have you thought about setting it at 1.5?
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    edited December 2017
    We have similar stats. I'm 5'4" (about 5'3.5" really) and 204 lbs. My starting weight was 237. I did lose about 2 lbs per week with 1000 cal. deficit up until about 28 lbs. lost. Then I couldn't do it anymore. It was too agressive.

    I am currently eating 1500 calories per day plus exercise calories. I'm set to lightly active on MFP since I don't have a desk job. I do walk regularly 90 minutes per day 4x per week, and usually do some 1 hour of exercise on the other 3 days. I could not sustain 1200 calories. (I'm 52 btw). To lose 1.5 per week for me is 1350 and to lose 1 lb per week is 1600.

    Everybody's is different, but I recommend 1.0, or 1.5 lbs. at most per week at your weight. You don't want to lose more than 1% body weight per week, and at 205 you 2 lbs. theoretically still is okay, but it's very close to being more than 1%.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    1200 is minimum which is not “standard“. When MFP gives you the minimum it it’s good sign that you’ve set too aggressive a goal for weight loss.
    I lost 150 lbs eating about 1700.
  • RachsLosses
    RachsLosses Posts: 103 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    1200 is minimum which is not “standard“. When MFP gives you the minimum it it’s good sign that you’ve set too aggressive a goal for weight loss.
    I lost 150 lbs eating about 1700.

    The poster has set an agressive goal...
  • RachsLosses
    RachsLosses Posts: 103 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    RachsLosses wrote: »
    Using MFP 1200 is standard for weight loss, I follow the same (desk job, gym on an evening less than 1200 calories a day through the week (eating back my workout calories on a weekend) So far I have averaged at 1lb a week less, everyones loss will vary.

    1500 is usual for maintenance but will vary depending on your TDEE.


    Personally people's opinions on a forum, wont give you a scientific answer. I would suggest looking at different calculators, doing more research and following a 1200 plan for a while to see what you come out with, then adjust as NorthCascades suggested.

    1200 is not standard, it's the lowest MFP will assign for a woman. I lost nearly 65 pounds eating no less than 1500 net calories, and generally 1700-1900 net.

    And I have lost only 23lbs at 1200 over this year... Like I said everyones losses will be different, all I am saying is given the stats that the user has mentioned I am not suprised that MFP has suggested 1200 for a 2lbs a week loss

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