Calorie calculators

HotFrieZ

Happy holidays everyone!

Okay so out of curiosity I put my stats into the iifym.com calorie calculator and the results were ridiculous. I am small and lean to begin with, 5'2 115 lbs and am pretty active. I workout 6 days a week, 5 days of cardio and 3 strength training sessions as well as have a fairly active job. Anyway, it gave me a maintenance amount, with taking all of these things into consideration, as 1550! WHAT. Through trial and error, I know I maintain around 2200-2300. I was just thoroughly disgusted with this poor information that would lead someone to basically starve themselves thinking this was their maintenance amount. Anyone else have a similar experience? These calculators on MFP are much more accurate for me. I just don't know how you can tell someone that active that they need that little to MAINTAIN. Rant over.

Duck_Puddle

I would probably quadruple check that everything you entered “took” and that you are absolutely certain you’re reading the maintenance calories.

The calculator you used typically gives reasonable numbers (which should be close to what you’ve seen in trial and error). I’m guessing some setting/option didn’t “take” (meaning you selected active or something and it just didn’t accept it and calculated with sedentary) or the output is jumbled on your screen.

The number you got is reasonable as a TDEE for someone your size who is sedentary and does no exercise. Or as a goal for losing for someone with your stats.

AnnPT77

HotFrieZ wrote: »

Happy holidays everyone!

Okay so out of curiosity I put my stats into the iifym.com calorie calculator and the results were ridiculous. I am small and lean to begin with, 5'2 115 lbs and am pretty active. I workout 6 days a week, 5 days of cardio and 3 strength training sessions as well as have a fairly active job. Anyway, it gave me a maintenance amount, with taking all of these things into consideration, as 1550! WHAT. Through trial and error, I know I maintain around 2200-2300. I was just thoroughly disgusted with this poor information that would lead someone to basically starve themselves if this was their maintenance amount. Anyone else have a similar experience? These calculators on MFP are much more accurate for me. I just don't know how you can tell someone that active that they need that little to MAINTAIN. Rant over.

Anyone who "starves themselves" because of what a so-called calculator tells them, is doing it wrong.

Those "calculators" don't "calculate". They estimate. Estimates can be wrong (even given accurate inputs).

Most "calorie calculators" are inaccurate for me: I maintain several hundred calories higher than they estimate. When I first started calorie counting based on such an estimate, I realized I was losing weight too fast, and adjusted to eat more, and lose at a reasonable rate.

Over and over, we tell people here to use the MFP estimate for 4-6 weeks, tracking carefully, then adjust their intake to get a healthy, sustainable weight loss rate (no more than about 1% of body weight weekly, less if within about 50 pounds of goal; more only if severely obese and under close medical supervision). That's the right way.

It's very likely that someone adopting a crazy-extreme deficit based solely on what a "calculator" says, is going to find the process unsustainable and stop before they "starve themselves". A few people will undereat based on the estimate, and be thrilled with their crazy-fast weight loss despite feeling fatigued/weak/ill. That makes me sad . . . but it also suggests they may've had a disordered relationship with body weight and eating in the first place.

Happy holidays back to you!

deannalfisher

I used TDEE calculator with your stars and got a maintenance of 2000 - using the workout 6 days a week selection