Did MFP calculate the right maintenance calories for you?

AnnPT77

Armywife04_21 wrote: »

SummerSkier wrote: »

Armywife, I think it gives you your BMR as a baseline and then adds to it for your activity. So 1720 does sound correct ballpark, but you would get additional added for your workouts etc.

I am only a hair under 5'2" but maintaining at a lower weight than you are. I am currently doing about 1850 per day total. MFP says 1200 to maintain. So, yeah, it might be low but it gives me about 600 for exercise from my fitbit link.. I think you just need to keep adding slowly and watching your weight to see where you are. For me it was easier to slowly add and monitor to the rate of loss than to just add a whole bunch at one time. I am learning that maintenance is not a set # all the time as typically we are never just stagnant but either gaining or losing. So, the goal is to just set the range and make adjustments as the moving avg changes. It takes at least 2 weeks to see what sort of effect is going on. More if you are having menstral cycles too.

And I think everyone is different in how they approach maintaining too. I like the monthly maintenance thread over in that group as I learn a lot from folks who have been maintaining for a lot longer. Right now at 13 weeks in for me it is still pretty new to,and I am only sure of ONE THING. For me personally I need to LOG and WEIGH daily. The #s and the exercise may change but as long as I don't close my eyes and pretend I don't need to do those 2 things, I think I can prevent a big YO swing up again. And yes, it would be nice if I could just eat and not worry about anything, but apparently I can learn at 59 that if I do that, I will end up heavy again as I have over the past 44 yrs. I pride myself that I am an excellent weight loser. I have done it so often that I could do it with my eyes closed. This maintaining thing tho? WOW. Never happened before. All brand new. Kind of fun to learn tho.

It is definitely a learning experience, this is a lifestyle that takes a lot of getting used to. I do like the ability of eating more though! One thing for me is that I never have eaten my exercise calories, maybe that is what I need to add! It can be a scary step to do so! (For me anyway)...

You need to fuel the exercise! Try eating half for 4-6 weeks, see how that goes.

The worst that could happen is ultra-slow gain (ultra slow is why you wait 6 weeks!), and that's unlikely if you're still losing.

Trust the math, trust your results: You can do this!

paperpudding

To clarify - my 1710 is net calories - before exercise (such as I do) is added on and eaten back

For comparison figures- I am 54 years old, female, 163 cm tall (bit over 5 ft 3) and weigh 62 kg - not sure what that is in lb.