Help please..How do I find out how many calories I need.

Monkeyonthehill

Hi, a novice needing help please, I desperately want to lose some weight, approximately a stone would help. I am inactive due to spinal problems. How do I find out how many calories I should be having. As for exercising I can walk but that’s it. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

NovusDies

Just go through the MFP guided set-up. Select 1/2 pound per week to lose if you only have a stone in total to lose. You do not need a gym or an exercise routine to lose weight. Eating less than you burn will do that. However, I do encourage you to walk because being too sedentary is not ideal.

You also do not need to eat special kinds of food. Just try eating what you normally eat just slightly less of it. If you need to work on your nutrition delay that until you get a handle on logging your food accurately and comfortably staying in your calorie deficit.

Weight loss at 1/2 pound per week will take really careful logging of your food. I recommend getting a food scale and logging all of your solid food in grams. You will also need to have a general mistrust of the mfp database. The entries were done by users some of which were beginners or careless. You need to personally verify any entry you use for the first time or the first time in a long time against a nutrition label or the new USDA site.

Weight loss will not happen in a linear fashion on the scale. You can be making progress losing fat weight for weeks without the scale showing a loss or even showing a gain. Read this:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/


General getting started thread:

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

csplatt

^^This. Go into your profile and set your "goal weight," then ask to lose half a pound per week. The app will automatically assign you a calorie goal per day.

cwolfman13

bronjackman wrote: »

Hi, a novice needing help please, I desperately want to lose some weight, approximately a stone would help. I am inactive due to spinal problems. How do I find out how many calories I should be having. As for exercising I can walk but that’s it. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

This calculator calculates that for you when you put in you stats and desired rate of loss.