Calorie advice please

kellisng

Hi all, I've been calorie counting for a few weeks on and off but struggling with the 1200 mfp gave me. I have crohns disease and a variety of intolerances and my diet is rather carb heavy by necessity. To make things more manageable I have increased my calories to 1600 and I don't eat back anything earned through exercise (lightly active although I have just joined a gym! ). Does this sound OK? I feel if I go lower I will get frustrated because I'm struggling and end up giving up. I'm 47, 172lbs and 5ft 2ins.

Scottgriesser

MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. If you are hungry, and not eating back your exercise calories, I'd start with that.

cmriverside

So you're trying to lose about 40 pounds? I would suggest you set your Goals here to, "Lose one pound per week," add back exercise calories and eat those on those days.

There are two ways to calculate and Myfitnesspal assumes that you will add your purposeful exercise into the Exercise tab and eat more on days you exercise.

If you decide to eat 1600 on every day, then that sounds like you have chosen to do the TDEE (minus a percentage) method of calculation. Both get you to about the same place. Regardless, pick a method, log food as accurately as you can and then in a month or two adjust based on your weight results. It's the experiment we all have to run.

Here:
From Help at the top of every page: How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

And, Exercise calories: (from the Most Helpful posts)

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67USKg3w_E4

tinkerbellang83

The 1200 you've been given is based on your stats and the choices you've made regarding activity level and rate of loss.

Activity level is you non-exercise activity - i.e. work/home life.

You should be eating back at least a portion of your exercise calories, 50% is a good starting point and reviewing actual rate of loss vs expected rate of loss after 4-6 weeks.

You have about 30lbs to lose to get into the healthy weight range for your height. Which means you should only be aiming for around 1-1.5lbs per week loss.

With a BMR of around 1400 for your stats I'm guessing you've chosen 2lbs per week as your rate of loss, which is why you've been given a calorie goal of 1200. 2lbs per week is the highest rate of loss and is only really suitable for those who have a lot of weight to lose.

If you are set to lightly active (accounts for approx 5000-7000 incidental steps per day) and 1lb per week, that should give you a calorie allowance of around 1460 Net, you then log your intentional exercise on top of that. Which should be a lot easier than trying to eat 1200.

Sustainability is far more important than losing quickly, if you are struggling after just a few weeks you're not going to stick with it, and you'll probably end up losing and gaining the same 5lbs the rest of the year. At 1lb per week you could be at a healthy weight by Christmas.

Commander_Keen

kellisng wrote: »

Hi all, I've been calorie counting for a few weeks on and off but struggling with the 1200 mfp gave me. I have crohns disease and a variety of intolerances and my diet is rather carb heavy by necessity. To make things more manageable I have increased my calories to 1600 and I don't eat back anything earned through exercise (lightly active although I have just joined a gym! ). Does this sound OK? I feel if I go lower I will get frustrated because I'm struggling and end up giving up. I'm 47, 172lbs and 5ft 2ins.

According to this website, your maintenance calorie intake should be at 1654.
https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&age=45&g=female&lbs=172&in=62&act=1.2&bf=&f=1
You may want to try eating at 1489

kellisng

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

The 1200 you've been given is based on your stats and the choices you've made regarding activity level and rate of loss.

Activity level is you non-exercise activity - i.e. work/home life.

You should be eating back at least a portion of your exercise calories, 50% is a good starting point and reviewing actual rate of loss vs expected rate of loss after 4-6 weeks.

You have about 30lbs to lose to get into the healthy weight range for your height. Which means you should only be aiming for around 1-1.5lbs per week loss.

With a BMR of around 1400 for your stats I'm guessing you've chosen 2lbs per week as your rate of loss, which is why you've been given a calorie goal of 1200. 2lbs per week is the highest rate of loss and is only really suitable for those who have a lot of weight to lose.

If you are set to lightly active (accounts for approx 5000-7000 incidental steps per day) and 1lb per week, that should give you a calorie allowance of around 1460 Net, you then log your intentional exercise on top of that. Which should be a lot easier than trying to eat 1200.

Sustainability is far more important than losing quickly, if you are struggling after just a few weeks you're not going to stick with it, and you'll probably end up losing and gaining the same 5lbs the rest of the year. At 1lb per week you could be at a healthy weight by Christmas.

Thank you, I did indeed have it at for 2lbs weight loss so I've corrected it to 1lb which has brought it up to 1410 which is more manageable if I eat exercise calories back. I had been counting for about 4 weeks and losing and gaining the same 3lbs. I don't mind losing slowly, I just want it to be sustainable long term.

kellisng

Commander_Keen wrote: »

kellisng wrote: »

Hi all, I've been calorie counting for a few weeks on and off but struggling with the 1200 mfp gave me. I have crohns disease and a variety of intolerances and my diet is rather carb heavy by necessity. To make things more manageable I have increased my calories to 1600 and I don't eat back anything earned through exercise (lightly active although I have just joined a gym! ). Does this sound OK? I feel if I go lower I will get frustrated because I'm struggling and end up giving up. I'm 47, 172lbs and 5ft 2ins.

According to this website, your maintenance calorie intake should be at 1654.
https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&age=45&g=female&lbs=172&in=62&act=1.2&bf=&f=1
You may want to try eating at 1489

Thank you, I have gotten a bit confused with TDEE as different sites have given me different calculations!

kellisng

cmriverside wrote: »

So you're trying to lose about 40 pounds? I would suggest you set your Goals here to, "Lose one pound per week," add back exercise calories and eat those on those days.

There are two ways to calculate and Myfitnesspal assumes that you will add your purposeful exercise into the Exercise tab and eat more on days you exercise.

If you decide to eat 1600 on every day, then that sounds like you have chosen to do the TDEE (minus a percentage) method of calculation. Both get you to about the same place. Regardless, pick a method, log food as accurately as you can and then in a month or two adjust based on your weight results. It's the experiment we all have to run.

Here:
From Help at the top of every page: How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

And, Exercise calories: (from the Most Helpful posts)

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67USKg3w_E4

Thank you, that's really helpful

kellisng

Scottgriesser wrote: »

MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. If you are hungry, and not eating back your exercise calories, I'd start with that.

Thank you, I've made some alterations and plan to do this now

tinkerbellang83

kellisng wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

The 1200 you've been given is based on your stats and the choices you've made regarding activity level and rate of loss.

Activity level is you non-exercise activity - i.e. work/home life.

You should be eating back at least a portion of your exercise calories, 50% is a good starting point and reviewing actual rate of loss vs expected rate of loss after 4-6 weeks.

You have about 30lbs to lose to get into the healthy weight range for your height. Which means you should only be aiming for around 1-1.5lbs per week loss.

With a BMR of around 1400 for your stats I'm guessing you've chosen 2lbs per week as your rate of loss, which is why you've been given a calorie goal of 1200. 2lbs per week is the highest rate of loss and is only really suitable for those who have a lot of weight to lose.

If you are set to lightly active (accounts for approx 5000-7000 incidental steps per day) and 1lb per week, that should give you a calorie allowance of around 1460 Net, you then log your intentional exercise on top of that. Which should be a lot easier than trying to eat 1200.

Sustainability is far more important than losing quickly, if you are struggling after just a few weeks you're not going to stick with it, and you'll probably end up losing and gaining the same 5lbs the rest of the year. At 1lb per week you could be at a healthy weight by Christmas.

Thank you, I did indeed have it at for 2lbs weight loss so I've corrected it to 1lb which has brought it up to 1410 which is more manageable if I eat exercise calories back. I had been counting for about 4 weeks and losing and gaining the same 3lbs. I don't mind losing slowly, I just want it to be sustainable long term.

Losing and gaining the same 3lbs could also be down to being on and off as you described your calorie counting, it's fairly easy to underestimate your calorie intake if you're not logging accurately.

Sharon_C

Yes, MFP is designed to eat back exercise calories but you do not have to eat them back if you calculate your calories without exercise. If you're still hungry at 1600 calories, I would up it to 1700. Rule of thumb is your body weight times 10 (not eating your exercise calories back).

kimny72

kellisng wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

The 1200 you've been given is based on your stats and the choices you've made regarding activity level and rate of loss.

Activity level is you non-exercise activity - i.e. work/home life.

You should be eating back at least a portion of your exercise calories, 50% is a good starting point and reviewing actual rate of loss vs expected rate of loss after 4-6 weeks.

You have about 30lbs to lose to get into the healthy weight range for your height. Which means you should only be aiming for around 1-1.5lbs per week loss.

With a BMR of around 1400 for your stats I'm guessing you've chosen 2lbs per week as your rate of loss, which is why you've been given a calorie goal of 1200. 2lbs per week is the highest rate of loss and is only really suitable for those who have a lot of weight to lose.

If you are set to lightly active (accounts for approx 5000-7000 incidental steps per day) and 1lb per week, that should give you a calorie allowance of around 1460 Net, you then log your intentional exercise on top of that. Which should be a lot easier than trying to eat 1200.

Sustainability is far more important than losing quickly, if you are struggling after just a few weeks you're not going to stick with it, and you'll probably end up losing and gaining the same 5lbs the rest of the year. At 1lb per week you could be at a healthy weight by Christmas.

Thank you, I did indeed have it at for 2lbs weight loss so I've corrected it to 1lb which has brought it up to 1410 which is more manageable if I eat exercise calories back. I had been counting for about 4 weeks and losing and gaining the same 3lbs. I don't mind losing slowly, I just want it to be sustainable long term.

This sounds perfect I would add that committing to some consistent and accurate logging may help as well. It's really easy to eat back whatever deficit you have for a week during one or two meals you just wing it on, especially for those of us with lower calorie goals in the first place!

Check these links out as well, they helped so many of us when we started out:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

Hang in there and good luck!