Calories Count?

safarieyes

5’4”, 140, & lightly active....if my calories are set to 1200 a day, am I suppose to be in a 500 deficit of that in order to lose ~2lbs a week? Or is that taken into account when i plugged all my info in so 1200 is my deficit & what I eat daily?

Unicorn_Bacon

At 140 pounds you cant lose 2lbs per week

Do not eat less then 1200 calories, it's extremely unhealthy.

Your deficit is already taken into account and you will lose whatever is possible between 1200 and your maintenance

Eat any workout calories back

If you dont you will be under 1200 and risk lean muscle loss, hair loss, organ failure and skin problems and can end up sick.

zackboomer

1200

sijomial

Your goal takes into account the deficit you selected by choosing your desired rate of loss.
But you may also have hit the bare minimum 1200 for women this site allows.

If you selected 2lbs/week loss (that is chosing a 1000 cals a day deficit not 500) that could well be inappropropriate with your stats.
Suggest you see what your goal is with a more reasonable 1lb/week rate of loss.

And the calorie goal is only for a day with no exercise so your 1200 actually means 1200 + exercise calories.

Lightly active only relates to your day to day activity setting and gives you no credit for any regular exercise.

Teabythesea_

MFP uses NEAT, meaning that your deficit is already there with the number it gives you, provided that no exercise has been done for the day. It intends for you to log and eat back exercise calories.

With that being said, 1200 calories is only necessary for small, sedentary and/or elderly individuals. You do not have the fat stores available to comfortably and safely lose 2 pounds a week. I would change your goal to lose .5 to 1 pound instead.

Duck_Puddle

You should be eating 1200 plus exercise calories. You need to eat at least 1200 calories just to get the bare minimum vitamins/minerals you need to fuel your organs and life processes. As such; mfp will never give you a goal below 1200.

As someone who is also 5’4” and weighs a bit more than you, I can tell you that 1200 works out to less than a pound per week for me. So you’re going to want to temper your expectations on how fast you can lose while still fueling your heart, brain, breathing, etc.

So it doesn’t mean eat less than 1200. It means you’re limited on how fast you can lose while still staying alive and healthy.

You may get more calories if you change to a pound or 1/2 pound a week, you may not. But you should be eating 1200 plus any workout calories. And adjusting your expectations.

Unknown

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safarieyes

Much appreciated Thank you all for clarifying