Calorie Goal ; Am I choosing the right one?

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  • philipmarcuscunningham
    philipmarcuscunningham Posts: 7 Member
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    Reduce calorie intake, increase movement. You are there! Good work and keep it up.
  • aquariusvsworld
    aquariusvsworld Posts: 55 Member
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    @steveko89 I think I will go back to the "original" formula as you and others have suggested and tweak from there. Will definitely increase my protein. Thank you!

    @MegaMooseEsq Thank you! It hasn't been a perfect month (a few slip ups here and there) but proud of it either way.
  • LW3380
    LW3380 Posts: 118 Member
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    @WinoGelato is great at helping with these type of enquiries, she gave me some great ideas and they have worked.
  • aquariusvsworld
    aquariusvsworld Posts: 55 Member
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    @ladyreva78 Amen to that! I've never done this consistently so to have gone 30 days of actively trying to stay consistent has motivated me so much.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    With MFP you are supposed to choose your activity level without exercise and then log exercise.
    Were you logging exercise in addition to setting your level to lightly active? Were you losing at the rate you wanted to lose at?

    I would probably wait on changing your goal and see what happens after a few weeks of starting a new routine.
  • aquariusvsworld
    aquariusvsworld Posts: 55 Member
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    Lounmoun wrote: »
    With MFP you are supposed to choose your activity level without exercise and then log exercise.
    Were you logging exercise in addition to setting your level to lightly active? Were you losing at the rate you wanted to lose at?

    I would probably wait on changing your goal and see what happens after a few weeks of starting a new routine.

    I was actively logging my exercise in addition to the lightly active level, and eating back a majority (sometimes all) of the calories burned back.

    I think the rate I am losing is good. Considering I’ve had a few “cheat” days
  • Chunkahlunkah
    Chunkahlunkah Posts: 373 Member
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    So even though MFP's design is not meant to take into account purposeful exercise, I'd suggest going ahead and keeping yourself at the calorie level MFP has been giving you for "lightly active." I say that because (1) dropping from 4-5 cardio sessions to 3 is not that substantial a drop to warrant the decreased calories, (2) you're getting great results at that calorie level, and (3) you were very hungry at the lower calorie level. Feeling very hungry isn't necessary for losing weight. Make it as easy and pleasant on yourself as possible. :)

    I want to reiterate what others have said regarding the gain you'll likely see from strength training. Like clockwork, when I return to strength training, I go up 2/3 pounds and stay up for a few weeks. Then it falls off along with additional weight. So don't be discouraged or think you need to drop your calories if you're not losing within a month. I'd give it about 6 weeks before adjusting your calories (if you haven't had a loss yet).
  • aquariusvsworld
    aquariusvsworld Posts: 55 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Chunkahlunkah wrote: »
    So even though MFP's design is not meant to take into account purposeful exercise, I'd suggest going ahead and keeping yourself at the calorie level MFP has been giving you for "lightly active." I say that because (1) dropping from 4-5 cardio sessions to 3 is not that substantial a drop to warrant the decreased calories, (2) you're getting great results at that calorie level, and (3) you were very hungry at the lower calorie level. Feeling very hungry isn't necessary for losing weight. Make it as easy and pleasant on yourself as possible. :)

    I want to reiterate what others have said regarding the gain you'll likely see from strength training. Like clockwork, when I return to strength training, I go up 2/3 pounds and stay up for a few weeks. Then it falls off along with additional weight. So don't be discouraged or think you need to drop your calories if you're not losing within a month. I'd give it about 6 weeks before adjusting your calories (if you haven't had a loss yet).


    I've switched back to my original calorie goal as you all have suggested. I think that works best for me right now. As of this morning I am down a total of 5lb this month. I think that's pretty great and working for me. After meeting with the trainer and running through a routine I think I'd be safe to stay at this calorie goal (for another four to six weeks). He wasn't much help in the nutritional aspect but he sure did give me a good work out LOL. Thanks again everyone!
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,986 Member
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    aquariusvsworld wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Why do you feel you now need fewer calories? You're losing at a good rate. The weight training will still burn calories. You're not sedentary.

    Set your goal to "lose one pound per week," and eat back either all or part of your exercise calories with one unchanging activity level - but be consistent for at least 6-8 weeks. Keep good records. If you keep changing your numbers you won't know where to leave it.

    I lost almost all my 70 pounds set at "lose one pound per week" and eating ALL the exercise cals. You'll have to do the work to figure it out, but the more frequently you change things the harder it is to get a good baseline calorie goal.


    I felt the need to change my calorie intake goal because I am reducing my activity level. Concerned that by reducing my calories burned I'd lose a lot slower. I do have my current goal to lose weekly set at 1.5 but I will tweak that back down to 1lb a week which I am OK with. I didn't put all this weigh on over night I don't expect to lose it quickly lol. Thanks for your insight!

    According to your OP, you're expecting to move from four or five 25-minute cardio workouts a week to three cardio workouts a week -- that's about a 400-calorie weekly reduction in calories burned (assuming you were doing five workouts before), without considering any calories burned in added weight-lifting sessions. That less than a 60-calorie reduction in daily burns. So that's not a good reason to cut your calorie intake by 360 calories a day.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,723 Member
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    Stop getting lost in the definitions (though they are fun to get lost in later on if you want).

    You have 4 weeks of data and you're substantially losing at close to 1lb a week. That is a very nice start and you don't need to do anything ESPECIALLY if it leads you to wanting to gnaw your hand off.

    How likely do you think it is that you're going to manage to lose another 3.8lbs and another 3.8lbs after that if you spend your day trying to gnaw your hand off?

    Leave everything alone and continue to accumulate data while NOT gnawing your hands off! You need them to lift the weights with ;-)

    While you're at it, grab a trending weight type app (libra android, happy scale iphone, trendweight.com connected to a freely available without a device fitbit.com account, or weightgrapher.com) and use it to track your weight.

    You will observe MORE water weight variation as you increase your training. This is normal.

    A 1.5lb a week loss requires a 750 Cal caloric deficit. This is incompatible with a person who is both sedentary and not obese as it would require a deficit that exceeds 20% of their total daily energy expenditure.
  • Linda_Lou_62
    Linda_Lou_62 Posts: 22 Member
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    I have a question. As you lose weight does the calories your alloted go down also. Seems if not at some point I will just stop losing weight. Or is that something I am supposed to adjust on my own?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    LW3380 wrote: »
    @WinoGelato is great at helping with these type of enquiries, she gave me some great ideas and they have worked.
    Aww thanks! Glad you’re seeing results!

    OP I was going to echo what others said about sticking with what you’re doing, because the MFP activity levels are such broad strokes and not really helpful in my opinion. I have a desk job and originally chose Sedentary because of those descriptions, but after getting a FitBit about 6 months after joining MFP I realized that I was getting in around 8k steps even without exercise and that’s definitely not Sedentary. You likely are more active than you think- if you’re exercising regularly, even if you cut back a cardio session or two I bet you remain active - many people find that this experience motivates them to walk more, hike more, bike more - losing weight and seeing results tends to be a self fulfilling prophecy.

    One thing I didn’t see you mention was how much weight total you’re looking to lose - but you did say you were set at 1.5 lb/week loss. If you have less than 50 lbs to lose, a goal rate of loss of 1 lb/week is appropriate. You also didn’t say if you are using a food scale for accuracy of measuring your calorie intake - it can be a great tool to ensure that you aren’t eating more than you think, but also to maximize how much you can eat.

    Good luck it sounds like you’re off to a great start!
  • aquariusvsworld
    aquariusvsworld Posts: 55 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    LW3380 wrote: »
    @WinoGelato is great at helping with these type of enquiries, she gave me some great ideas and they have worked.
    Aww thanks! Glad you’re seeing results!

    OP I was going to echo what others said about sticking with what you’re doing, because the MFP activity levels are such broad strokes and not really helpful in my opinion. I have a desk job and originally chose Sedentary because of those descriptions, but after getting a FitBit about 6 months after joining MFP I realized that I was getting in around 8k steps even without exercise and that’s definitely not Sedentary. You likely are more active than you think- if you’re exercising regularly, even if you cut back a cardio session or two I bet you remain active - many people find that this experience motivates them to walk more, hike more, bike more - losing weight and seeing results tends to be a self fulfilling prophecy.

    One thing I didn’t see you mention was how much weight total you’re looking to lose - but you did say you were set at 1.5 lb/week loss. If you have less than 50 lbs to lose, a goal rate of loss of 1 lb/week is appropriate. You also didn’t say if you are using a food scale for accuracy of measuring your calorie intake - it can be a great tool to ensure that you aren’t eating more than you think, but also to maximize how much you can eat.

    Good luck it sounds like you’re off to a great start!

    Thank you for taking the time to reply to this! My goal is to lose a total of 90lbs. My starting weight was 230 and my goal weight is 140. As of today I am 10lb down from November, leaving another 80 to go. I currently do not have a food scale but see the importance of having one. Are there any you would recommend? I'm sure there is about a bazillion out there if I search Amazon lol.

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