Confused about calorie allowance

oooaarrrr79

Hi all. I was looking at my calorie allowance and thought it seemed quiet high, I have set it to 0.5lb loss a week it has given me 1530 calories. I obviously don't mind if I can eat that much and still lose weight. I did set it at 1lb a week but that seemed to low, 1230 calories and thought I don't have much wiggle room when the weight comes off and the calories need to come down. I just wanted to see what the difference was between 0.5lb loss and maintenance and there is 250 calories allowing me 1780 calories. So I just wanted to know if this seems right or should I play around setting my own calorie​ allowance. I don't want to make this harder or more complicated than I have to.
Sorry if I seem really stupid and am over thinking it all but helpful advice would be appreciated.

kommodevaran

You have made an important and correct observation - to lose a pound per week, you need a daily deficit of 500 calories. But you also have to make sure you're at an appropriate level. A healthy loss is up to (and I do expect that you understand what "up to" means) 1% of your weight per week: The more you have to lose, the faster you can lose, and the better you adhere to a calorie deficit, the faster you will lose. Trying to lose too fast, leads to not losing at all. So, what is your height and weight?

oooaarrrr79

I do not want to lose weight quickly as I have done that in the past and put it all back on plus some so I believe slow and steady wins the race.
I am 5"3 and 171lb. I have a toddler and walk between 5000 and 11000 steps a day so a very wide range of steps. I do no other activities like going to the gym or anything. I haven't​ set that part of the calculator as I believe that's what I should be doing anyway and it is hard to judge calories burnt up by walking as sometimes it is with a pushchair off road and other times less strenuous with him walking with me.
Sometimes I just confuse myself by over thinking all these things.

oooaarrrr79

Oh and I did a test yesterday, I ate a normal day of eating but just weighed and measured everything then at the end of the day worked it out to gauge it and it was 1157 calories, way to low. So my eating clearly needs addressing because obviously that is off as I wouldn't be struggling to lose weight.

kommodevaran

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

I do not want to lose weight quickly as I have done that in the past and put it all back on plus some so I believe slow and steady wins the race.
I am 5"3 and 171lb. I have a toddler and walk between 5000 and 11000 steps a day so a very wide range of steps. I do no other activities like going to the gym or anything. I haven't​ set that part of the calculator as I believe that's what I should be doing anyway and it is hard to judge calories burnt up by walking as sometimes it is with a pushchair off road and other times less strenuous with him walking with me.
Sometimes I just confuse myself by over thinking all these things.

The calculator doesn't do anything with your inteded exercise, and you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories anyway, so that's a bit misleading - it's not just you, I assure you.

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

Oh and I did a test yesterday, I ate a normal day of eating but just weighted and measured everything then at the end of the day worked it out to gauge it and it was 1157 calories, way to low. So my eating clearly needs addressing.

I think you can disregard that test, or just think of it as a sample test or snapshot - if you're overweight, an average day for you is not eating 1157 calories.

You're my height and your weight is actually around where I started, too. I think I started on 1200 calories, but I soon settled for 1600. If you eat a balanced and varied diet, and accept that you won't feel full all the time, can't eat all the time, but that thats okay, because you're not supposed to eat all the time, and you don't need to eat all the time, and your body is designed to store fat in abundant periods and to use up fat so you can survive through famine, and you're subject to physical laws, but you're free to choose when and what to eat, you will manage it fine. It's when you start to resent and cheat and get impatient, that the struggles start.

yirara

Also another thought: Are you using a food scale to weigh everything you eat? Just using cups and packaging information can be very misleading! I had a deep freeze pizza the other day that should have come in at 750kcal. The whole pizza was 20% heavier though, so it's quite likely that the calories were about 20% more as well, depending on whether it had more cheese, tomato, salami, dough, or all of it. Thus if you have so little to lose it's important to use a scale, be super precise and use good database entries (many are very wrong).

oooaarrrr79

kommodevaran wrote: »

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

I do not want to lose weight quickly as I have done that in the past and put it all back on plus some so I believe slow and steady wins the race.
I am 5"3 and 171lb. I have a toddler and walk between 5000 and 11000 steps a day so a very wide range of steps. I do no other activities like going to the gym or anything. I haven't​ set that part of the calculator as I believe that's what I should be doing anyway and it is hard to judge calories burnt up by walking as sometimes it is with a pushchair off road and other times less strenuous with him walking with me.
Sometimes I just confuse myself by over thinking all these things.

The calculator doesn't do anything with your inteded exercise, and you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories anyway, so that's a bit misleading - it's not just you, I assure you.

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

Oh and I did a test yesterday, I ate a normal day of eating but just weighted and measured everything then at the end of the day worked it out to gauge it and it was 1157 calories, way to low. So my eating clearly needs addressing.

I think you can disregard that test, or just think of it as a sample test or snapshot - if you're overweight, an average day for you is not eating 1157 calories.

You're my height and your weight is actually around where I started, too. I think I started on 1200 calories, but I soon settled for 1600. If you eat a balanced and varied diet, and accept that you won't feel full all the time, can't eat all the time, but that thats okay, because you're not supposed to eat all the time, and you don't need to eat all the time, and your body is designed to store fat in abundant periods and to use up fat so you can survive through famine, and you're subject to physical laws, but you're free to choose when and what to eat, you will manage it fine. It's when you start to resent and cheat and get impatient, that the struggles start.

Oh yes I definitely am going to disregard yesterday's tester, clearly I would not have an overweight issue if I ate that much.
I did have an idea of about 1400 calories and for every 10-14lb lost drop 50 then ending up somewhere near the 1200/1250 calorie mark, see where that gets me. I just worry about trusting myself without guidelines but then it's me who is doing it and I suppose one size doesn't fit all and we have to adapt slightly maybe.

oooaarrrr79

yirara wrote: »

Also another thought: Are you using a food scale to weigh everything you eat? Just using cups and packaging information can be very misleading! I had a deep freeze pizza the other day that should have come in at 750kcal. The whole pizza was 20% heavier though, so it's quite likely that the calories were about 20% more as well, depending on whether it had more cheese, tomato, salami, dough, or all of it. Thus if you have so little to lose it's important to use a scale, be super precise and use good database entries (many are very wrong).

I do use scales with good I weigh but that has been an eye opener what you said about trusting packaging information, I wouldn't have even gave it a thought.
I also do try to eat with a 9inch plate as the average is 11-12 inches and 20-30% more food.

kommodevaran

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

I do not want to lose weight quickly as I have done that in the past and put it all back on plus some so I believe slow and steady wins the race.
I am 5"3 and 171lb. I have a toddler and walk between 5000 and 11000 steps a day so a very wide range of steps. I do no other activities like going to the gym or anything. I haven't​ set that part of the calculator as I believe that's what I should be doing anyway and it is hard to judge calories burnt up by walking as sometimes it is with a pushchair off road and other times less strenuous with him walking with me.
Sometimes I just confuse myself by over thinking all these things.

The calculator doesn't do anything with your inteded exercise, and you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories anyway, so that's a bit misleading - it's not just you, I assure you.

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

Oh and I did a test yesterday, I ate a normal day of eating but just weighted and measured everything then at the end of the day worked it out to gauge it and it was 1157 calories, way to low. So my eating clearly needs addressing.

I think you can disregard that test, or just think of it as a sample test or snapshot - if you're overweight, an average day for you is not eating 1157 calories.

You're my height and your weight is actually around where I started, too. I think I started on 1200 calories, but I soon settled for 1600. If you eat a balanced and varied diet, and accept that you won't feel full all the time, can't eat all the time, but that thats okay, because you're not supposed to eat all the time, and you don't need to eat all the time, and your body is designed to store fat in abundant periods and to use up fat so you can survive through famine, and you're subject to physical laws, but you're free to choose when and what to eat, you will manage it fine. It's when you start to resent and cheat and get impatient, that the struggles start.

Oh yes I definitely am going to disregard yesterday's tester, clearly I would not have an overweight issue if I ate that much.
I did have an idea of about 1400 calories and for every 10-14lb lost drop 50 then ending up somewhere near the 1200/1250 calorie mark, see where that gets me. I just worry about trusting myself without guidelines but then it's me who is doing it and I suppose one size doesn't fit all and we have to adapt slightly maybe.

Ultimately you have only yourself to trust - you are the one who makes the final decisions on what and how much to eat. And there are indeed guidelines and limits - you have a calorie target (it's a guideline even if you've set it yourself), and foods have the calories they have, so you are limited in how much you can eat and still lose weight. I don't think you ever have to go below 1600; your weightloss slows down as you lose, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, all you can do is be patient, and it's easier to be patient when you're feeling fine. You can and will lose weight as long as you're in a calorie deficit, you can trust that. One thing to have in mind, is that this trust is reciprocal - based on a generous allowance from MFP, but also on honesty from you - you have to log what you're actually eating; if you "forget" something, and it's big/often enough to have an impact over time, or you pick entries that "look fine" to you but do so because they boast lower calories than the item really has, you might not get anywhere.

oooaarrrr79

kommodevaran wrote: »

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

I do not want to lose weight quickly as I have done that in the past and put it all back on plus some so I believe slow and steady wins the race.
I am 5"3 and 171lb. I have a toddler and walk between 5000 and 11000 steps a day so a very wide range of steps. I do no other activities like going to the gym or anything. I haven't​ set that part of the calculator as I believe that's what I should be doing anyway and it is hard to judge calories burnt up by walking as sometimes it is with a pushchair off road and other times less strenuous with him walking with me.
Sometimes I just confuse myself by over thinking all these things.

The calculator doesn't do anything with your inteded exercise, and you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories anyway, so that's a bit misleading - it's not just you, I assure you.

oooaarrrr79 wrote: »

Oh and I did a test yesterday, I ate a normal day of eating but just weighted and measured everything then at the end of the day worked it out to gauge it and it was 1157 calories, way to low. So my eating clearly needs addressing.

I think you can disregard that test, or just think of it as a sample test or snapshot - if you're overweight, an average day for you is not eating 1157 calories.

You're my height and your weight is actually around where I started, too. I think I started on 1200 calories, but I soon settled for 1600. If you eat a balanced and varied diet, and accept that you won't feel full all the time, can't eat all the time, but that thats okay, because you're not supposed to eat all the time, and you don't need to eat all the time, and your body is designed to store fat in abundant periods and to use up fat so you can survive through famine, and you're subject to physical laws, but you're free to choose when and what to eat, you will manage it fine. It's when you start to resent and cheat and get impatient, that the struggles start.

Oh yes I definitely am going to disregard yesterday's tester, clearly I would not have an overweight issue if I ate that much.
I did have an idea of about 1400 calories and for every 10-14lb lost drop 50 then ending up somewhere near the 1200/1250 calorie mark, see where that gets me. I just worry about trusting myself without guidelines but then it's me who is doing it and I suppose one size doesn't fit all and we have to adapt slightly maybe.

Ultimately you have only yourself to trust - you are the one who makes the final decisions on what and how much to eat. And there are indeed guidelines and limits - you have a calorie target (it's a guideline even if you've set it yourself), and foods have the calories they have, so you are limited in how much you can eat and still lose weight. I don't think you ever have to go below 1600; your weightloss slows down as you lose, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, all you can do is be patient, and it's easier to be patient when you're feeling fine. You can and will lose weight as long as you're in a calorie deficit, you can trust that. One thing to have in mind, is that this trust is reciprocal - based on a generous allowance from MFP, but also on honesty from you - you have to log what you're actually eating; if you "forget" something, and it's big/often enough to have an impact over time, or you pick entries that "look fine" to you but do so because they boast lower calories than the item really has, you might not get anywhere.

Really, see I thought as the weight goes down so should the calories, I am such a novice. I need to start from basics I think and just go with what I have been allotted. Thank you for your advice.

MelanieCN77

kommodevaran wrote: »

I don't think you ever have to go below 1600;

Just for info's sake, MFP tells me at 5'5 and set to sedentary that I need a hair less than 1600 to maintain at 130 - so you're in the ballpark, but the 2" height difference may shave a few cals off its calculations for OP and more depending on GW.