How accurate are MFP calorie estimation

niamhgordon1

Hi, just wondering how accurate people have found MFP’s calorie goal for you in order to loose weight.

I’m 23, 5f6” and 135lbs and looking to go down to about 125/126 pounds.

Originally I set my calorie goal at 1200, but quickly realised this wasn’t sustainable, I upped it to 1350, but then checked what MFP was setting for me and it was 1440. I exercise 4-5 times a week for 45 minutes, and have an active job where I’m on my feet a lot.

Have people lost weight when using MFP’s calories? Or do they change it and set their own goals? I thought 1440 was a little high, but maybe I’m wrong.

Thanks.

StaciMarie2020

Its accurate if the info you plug in is accurate. If you're on your active job, on your feet a good bit: you burn more calories from daily activity than if you were sitting at a desk job all the time.

NovusDies

They are statistically accurate for a great number of people. No system can be accurate for everyone.

You won't gain weight at 1440 so why not just give it a try for a month or so and see what happens?

lgfrie

In my case it has been unbelievably accurate. I gave it my height, weight, age, and activity level and told it I wanted to lose 2 lbs per week, which would equate to losing 1,000 calories per day. As of this morning, Libra tells me my average loss over five months has been 1009 calories per day, meaning MFP's goals tool was accurate to within a 0.1 % tolerance. I was expecting "ballpark" from the MFP tool and got "precision instrument".

smithsusan961

https://tdeecalculator.net is the best source of information I have found.

LyndaBSS

It's working great for me. I'm very happy with my results so far. Trust it.

quiksylver296

niamhgordon1 wrote: »

Hi, just wondering how accurate people have found MFP’s calorie goal for you in order to loose weight.

I’m 23, 5f6” and 135lbs and looking to go down to about 125/126 pounds.

Originally I set my calorie goal at 1200, but quickly realised this wasn’t sustainable, I upped it to 1350, but then checked what MFP was setting for me and it was 1440. I exercise 4-5 times a week for 45 minutes, and have an active job where I’m on my feet a lot.

Have people lost weight when using MFP’s calories? Or do they change it and set their own goals? I thought 1440 was a little high, but maybe I’m wrong.

Thanks.

Are you eating back exercise calories? With MFP, you're supposed to.

MFP target plus exercise calories was pretty accurate for me, when I was using that method.

As to the bolded, 1440 sounds LOW!!! I'm 5'9, 44 years old, not as active as you are, and can lose on 2000 calories a day.

niamhgordon1

quiksylver296 wrote: »

niamhgordon1 wrote: »

Hi, just wondering how accurate people have found MFP’s calorie goal for you in order to loose weight.

I’m 23, 5f6” and 135lbs and looking to go down to about 125/126 pounds.

Originally I set my calorie goal at 1200, but quickly realised this wasn’t sustainable, I upped it to 1350, but then checked what MFP was setting for me and it was 1440. I exercise 4-5 times a week for 45 minutes, and have an active job where I’m on my feet a lot.

Have people lost weight when using MFP’s calories? Or do they change it and set their own goals? I thought 1440 was a little high, but maybe I’m wrong.

Thanks.

Are you eating back exercise calories? With MFP, you're supposed to.

MFP target plus exercise calories was pretty accurate for me, when I was using that method.

As to the bolded, 1440 sounds LOW!!! I'm 5'9, 44 years old, not as active as you are, and can lose on 2000 calories a day.

I don’t eat back exercise calories because I did this in the past and found I didn’t loose as much, and I have my settings set as lightly active, because even though I exercise a lot during the week, it’s only walking and not strenuous gym exercises, so I don’t want to over estimate. Thanks though!

nighthawk584

I had my doubts when first trying the app, but have found it to be pretty accurate for me. That being said, it is only accurate if people are honest with the data they input.

WinoGelato

What rate of loss did you choose to get that 1440? With only ~10 lbs to lose you should be aiming for about 0.5 lbs/week.

As others have said, MFP is based off of NEAT so even though you likely are lightly active in your day to day, you should be logging and eating back a portion of purposeful exercise as well.

Lastly, MFP is accurate if you’re accurate. Not only with your initial estimated but also with your logging of intake. Are you weighing your food with a food scale?

Also for what it’s worth I’m 5’2 and lost my weight with a 1600 NET goal eating back those calories.

heybales

niamhgordon1 wrote: »

Hi, just wondering how accurate people have found MFP’s calorie goal for you in order to loose weight.

I’m 23, 5f6” and 135lbs and looking to go down to about 125/126 pounds.

Originally I set my calorie goal at 1200, but quickly realised this wasn’t sustainable, I upped it to 1350, but then checked what MFP was setting for me and it was 1440. I exercise 4-5 times a week for 45 minutes, and have an active job where I’m on my feet a lot.

Have people lost weight when using MFP’s calories? Or do they change it and set their own goals? I thought 1440 was a little high, but maybe I’m wrong.

Thanks.

Curious what experience level you have with knowing calorie burn amount, eaten amounts, diets, ect?
Ever logged what you ate for a few days to get an idea of what you are/were eating?

You'll have a fight trying to get to that low a weight too - hopefully you selected 0.5 lb rate of weekly loss.

If your only experience with calorie levels is ads for diets - forget that.

niamhgordon1

WinoGelato wrote: »

What rate of loss did you choose to get that 1440? With only ~10 lbs to lose you should be aiming for about 0.5 lbs/week.

As others have said, MFP is based off of NEAT so even though you likely are lightly active in your day to day, you should be logging and eating back a portion of purposeful exercise as well.

Lastly, MFP is accurate if you’re accurate. Not only with your initial estimated but also with your logging of intake. Are you weighing your food with a food scale?

Also for what it’s worth I’m 5’2 and lost my weight with a 1600 NET goal eating back those calories.

Thanks for your reply, and I said 1 lb a week as that seems to be the standard rate

heybales

niamhgordon1 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

What rate of loss did you choose to get that 1440? With only ~10 lbs to lose you should be aiming for about 0.5 lbs/week.

As others have said, MFP is based off of NEAT so even though you likely are lightly active in your day to day, you should be logging and eating back a portion of purposeful exercise as well.

Lastly, MFP is accurate if you’re accurate. Not only with your initial estimated but also with your logging of intake. Are you weighing your food with a food scale?

Also for what it’s worth I’m 5’2 and lost my weight with a 1600 NET goal eating back those calories.

Thanks for your reply, and I said 1 lb a week as that seems to be the standard rate

Standard doesn't mean reasonable for everyone.

sijomial

"How accurate are MFP calorie estimation"

Probably more accurate than most people's calorie logging. But of course that estimate depends on people using the goal set up correctly (which you aren't) and using the tool as designed (which you also aren't doing).

My experience was that it seemed to be out by about 200 cals/day but I also deliberately picked a fairly relaxed but consistent way to log my food and exercise. I adjusted after a month and lost on the predicted schedule.


1440 sounds very low for someone who "exercises 4-5 times a week for 45 minutes, and have an active job where I’m on my feet a lot."

AnnPT77

MFP's estimate is a reasonably sound, research-based statistical estimate based on limited input variables. The standard deviation in the population isn't very huge (for BMR/RMR) so a lot hinges on the accuracy of your activity setting and exercise calorie estimates.

Because of the relatively small standard deviation, if someone's settings/estimates/logging are accurate, MFP's likely to be close for most people, off (high or low) for a few, and kind of far off for a very, very few . . . because that's the nature of statistical estimates.

That said: MFP's estimate for me was very low, even with accurate activity settings/logging/exercise. I lost weight way too fast at first, and had to add several hundred calories to regain normal energy level and strength, and even after that I lost fairly rapidly.

As an individual, your best strategy IMO is to believe MFP (and eat back a reasonable estimate of exercise) for about 4-6 weeks of careful logging, then adjust based on results. If you seem to be loosing very fast after a couple of weeks, and alongside that start feeling fatigued or weak, eat more. Otherwise, stick with it for the whole 4-6 weeks (at least a full menstrual cycle for premenopausal women). Losing too slowly can be frustrating, but losing too rapidly can be a health risk.

A lot of women think they need to eat punitively low calories (1200 or fewer). Some smaller, older, less active, less muscular women do need to eat quite lightly to lose weight, but not everyone does. The blog below is an excellent read on the subject:

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/

tl;dr: Believe MFP. Adjust after 6 weeks of compliance, based on results.

Luke_rabbit

MFP set my initial goal to 1240 to lose .5 lb/week. Then it lowered it to 1220. I calculated after about 8 weeks and I was losing faster than that, so I increased my goal to 1300. I'm pretty happy with the 1300.

I'm 5'3", 54, and currently weigh 133 lbs (higher than I have stated before here due to a new scale) down from 142.5 lbs.

apullum

MFP's calorie goal is accurate for the vast majority of people.

Often when people think that MFP's calorie goal is too high, they are actually underestimating their current calorie intake. This commonly happens when one is not using a food scale to weigh all food.

People who don't lose weight as expected while following MFP's calorie goal generally have one or more of the following things going on:
- Not using a food scale to weigh ALL food, which almost always means eating more than one thinks they are
- Having "cheat days" or other days that they do not track accurately or do not stay within their calorie goal, which can wipe out all or part of the week's calorie deficit
- Beginning a new exercise routine, which often causes water retention, and not giving that water retention a few weeks to subside
- Overestimating exercise calorie burns
- Being impatient; normal water fluctuations may mean it takes several weeks to see the scale go down, especially if one has a menstrual cycle, doesn't have much to lose, and/or if there are other clear reasons for water retention

Choose a calorie goal that is reasonable for the amount of weight you want to lose, weigh all your food, be patient.

Angelpebbles

I know the estimates on the gym equipment isn’t accurate. I appreciate the information that you shared

Strudders67

The estimates on the gym equipment tend to be way off because MFP doesn't know the level or intensity that you worked out at, but I think the estimates it gives for walking are accurate.

OP,I can burn quite a few calories a day by 'only' walking. You should track those walks and eat the calories. With so little to lose, you don't want to go too fast.