Target Cals a bit high?

jancarlomb

Hello everyone! New starter here, similar to most I'm aiming to cut some weight - so I've decided to join the MFP community.

I am moderately active (running 4/5 times a week, totalling around 15-20km), this is the first time I have decided to look at my diet.

So I decided to look at my cals and the target MFP set me is - 2140 in a day. To me that sounds like a lot? I just wanted to know is this normal? Are there any tips for reaching your target? Its ok if I dont eat that much on days I workout/dont workout? Maybe I need to accurately weigh ingredients better?

I'm 5 ft 5 (165cm), 75kg, 27 y/o - anyone have any thoughts on the above? Happy to eat that much but just wanted to know some thoughts...

Thanks so much!

sijomial

Your activity setting isn't anything to do with your purposeful exercise - so if you elevated your activity setting due to your running your base calories (which you stick to on days you don't run) are inflated.

The activity setting is your job / homelife / general moving about. When you look at the descriptions you should notice no mention is made of exercise. (The goal setup isn't clear enough about this point!)
When you exercise you estimate the calories burned and that gets added to your base calories.

And no - 2,140 calories for an average weight young man doesn't sound high but if by chance you picked the correct activity setting 2,140 + exercise calories may not be much of a deficit.

jancarlomb

@sijomial - ah that makes sense!

I lowered my activity to light/whatever is below it and my target was lower.

Thank you kindly!