Goal Calories Decreasing?

DupreeTheTRex

I adjusted my calories for maintenance yesterday because I felt like eating more. Today, my goal for the day is 200 calories less than it has been in a long time. Is this normal? Should I trust MFP?

I’ve lost 50lbs total (40 in 20 weeks) following 2230 per week. Is it because I lost weight?

heybales

Yes, your update of info caused it to apply the fact of you burning less because there is less of you.

Sometimes that doesn't show up the same day changes are made, but the next.

It used to asked every 10 lb lost (that was enough for about 100 cal drop) if you wanted to adjust goals.
That seems to occur for some not for others. Perhaps it's bad pop-up and missed with other things.

DupreeTheTRex

heybales wrote: »

Yes, your update of info caused it to apply the fact of you burning less because there is less of you.

Sometimes that doesn't show up the same day changes are made, but the next.

It used to asked every 10 lb lost (that was enough for about 100 cal drop) if you wanted to adjust goals.
That seems to occur for some not for others. Perhaps it's bad pop-up and missed with other things.

So if I’m still losing while eating the same should I just ignore MFP?

PAV8888

Your own numbers collected over time, especially when logging consistently, most certainly are more accurate for you than a population based statistical estimate that cannot take your own logging into account

lgfrie

You should trust MFP on this one. The rule of thumb is, you burn around 4.5 - 5.5 calories less for every pound you lose. This rule is baked into all calorie estimators, MFP's included. With a 50 lb loss, your maintenance calories will be around 250 calories less per day than when you started.

There's less of you there to burn calories, basically. Which is a good thing!! But you do get less food.

DupreeTheTRex

lgfrie wrote: »

You should trust MFP on this one. The rule of thumb is, you burn around 4.5 - 5.5 calories less for every pound you lose. This rule is baked into all calorie estimators, MFP's included. With a 50 lb loss, your maintenance calories will be around 250 calories less per day than when you started.

There's less of you there to burn calories, basically. Which is a good thing!! But you do get less food.

Well last I checked I’m still losing more per week than planned at 2230. I’ve rubberbanded a lot in the past and have tried losi weight multiple times. Back then I was much more active and I did notice I needed to eat less to gain the same. But I live a ver sedentary lifestyle and I feel like the impact isn’t has high as a result.

heybales

You appear to have enough good data - use yours.

Rate of loss should be slowing down anyway as you attempted to do by raising the calorie goal.

So cut the rate of loss and see how that looks for new goal.

Or make your own custom eating goal.

DupreeTheTRex

heybales wrote: »

You appear to have enough good data - use yours.

Rate of loss should be slowing down anyway as you attempted to do by raising the calorie goal.

So cut the rate of loss and see how that looks for new goal.

Or make your own custom eating goal.

That’s what I’m thinking for now - I started out losing almost double than what I expected and my average slowed down to 1.5lbs per week instead of 2. I’ll continue to monitor and adjust based off my data. My entries have been lacking but I only skip my meal kit entries most days because after manually creating recipes for months I’ve learned they’re mostly accurate.

elisa123gal

DupreeTheTRex wrote: »

lgfrie wrote: »

You should trust MFP on this one. The rule of thumb is, you burn around 4.5 - 5.5 calories less for every pound you lose. This rule is baked into all calorie estimators, MFP's included. With a 50 lb loss, your maintenance calories will be around 250 calories less per day than when you started.

There's less of you there to burn calories, basically. Which is a good thing!! But you do get less food.

Well last I checked I’m still losing more per week than planned at 2230. I’ve rubberbanded a lot in the past and have tried losi weight multiple times. Back then I was much more active and I did notice I needed to eat less to gain the same. But I live a ver sedentary lifestyle and I feel like the impact isn’t has high as a result.

Why eat less if you're still losing? Why suffer needlessly. Eat the same until you stop losing weight....or if you want to stop losing weight eat a little more.

DupreeTheTRex

As an update, I ignored MFP and have lost another 6 lbs since my last weigh in 4 weeks ago (1.5lb average per week). This is eating at a 1lb average per week goal. I will continue to ignore MDP until I see significant change to my losses.

Strudders67

Are you definitely sedentary? Are you doing any exercise? Are you eating your exercise cals? Is it possible that you're burning more than you're accounting for and that's why you're losing weight faster than planned? MFP is designed for you to log your exercise and eat those additional cals.

DupreeTheTRex

Strudders67 wrote: »

Are you definitely sedentary? Are you doing any exercise? Are you eating your exercise cals? Is it possible that you're burning more than you're accounting for and that's why you're losing weight faster than planned? MFP is designed for you to log your exercise and eat those additional cals.

For the most part no exercise other than 45 minute walks which I didn’t take in winter.

wunderkindking

There are lots of variations in how many calories we burn and how much NEAT happens. My maitnenence calories are consistently about 300 calories higher than MFP thinks it will be. It's not even just activity level stuff, where I am also definitely not sedentary, even though my JOB is in front of a computer (high energy dogs and their exercise, and since it's daily and consistent and impossible to estimate so I just loop it into activity level on MFP).

I fidget a lot. My bathroom and kitchen are upstairs from my work space. My house is 3 flights of stairs from the streets. There's no way to estimate those into calorie burn and that's even outside individual variation metabolically. If someone comes up with a way to guess how many calories you burn in 8 hours of leg jiggling by all means let me know, but meanwhile my own data is pretty sound, I think. as is yours.

AnnPT77

Trust your own data. MFP estimates around 25-30% low (about 500 calories low daily) for me. I'm truly sedentary outside of exercise, log all exercise and eat it back, weigh food, all that jazz, and I've been calorie counting for almost 6 years, with my weight behaving as I'd expect based on my own logging data for that whole time.

MFP's just giving you a statistical average for similar people (same age, weight, etc.). Most people are close to average, a few a bit off (high or low), a very rare few can be surprisingly far off. That's just how statistical estimates work.

There needn't be an obvious reason or explanation; it just turns out that way for some people.

DupreeTheTRex

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Trust your own data. MFP estimates around 25-30% low (about 500 calories low daily) for me. I'm truly sedentary outside of exercise, log all exercise and eat it back, weigh food, all that jazz, and I've been calorie counting for almost 6 years, with my weight behaving as I'd expect based on my own logging data for that whole time.

MFP's just giving you a statistical average for similar people (same age, weight, etc.). Most people are close to average, a few a bit off (high or low), a very rare few can be surprisingly far off. That's just how statistical estimates work.

There needn't be an obvious reason or explanation; it just turns out that way for some people.

Basically sums up what I’ve learned over 10 years of tracking myself. The more information you have the easier it is to make adjustments and those adjustments are necessary. I think the big reason for my weight gain was when I stopped paying sports competitively then the next big gain was switching to a sedentary job.

In all cases I didn’t adjust my eating habits except for when I was actually trying to lose weight. Short term success but overall failures until recently. I made changes that weren’t sustainable. I hate to say it but these last 7-8 months have been the easiest weight loss of my 10 years but it’s extremely slow. I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life without any problems.

AnnPT77

DupreeTheTRex wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Trust your own data. MFP estimates around 25-30% low (about 500 calories low daily) for me. I'm truly sedentary outside of exercise, log all exercise and eat it back, weigh food, all that jazz, and I've been calorie counting for almost 6 years, with my weight behaving as I'd expect based on my own logging data for that whole time.

MFP's just giving you a statistical average for similar people (same age, weight, etc.). Most people are close to average, a few a bit off (high or low), a very rare few can be surprisingly far off. That's just how statistical estimates work.

There needn't be an obvious reason or explanation; it just turns out that way for some people.

Basically sums up what I’ve learned over 10 years of tracking myself. The more information you have the easier it is to make adjustments and those adjustments are necessary. I think the big reason for my weight gain was when I stopped paying sports competitively then the next big gain was switching to a sedentary job.

In all cases I didn’t adjust my eating habits except for when I was actually trying to lose weight. Short term success but overall failures until recently. I made changes that weren’t sustainable. I hate to say it but these last 7-8 months have been the easiest weight loss of my 10 years but it’s extremely slow. I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life without any problems.

IMO, that's practically perfect, because weight management is a lifelong-endeavor, for a lot of us. I've proven that if I don't intentionally manage my weight, I can reach an obese bodyweight and stay there. So far, staying at a healthy weight isn't especially difficult, but it does require a bit of ongoing attention.

DupreeTheTRex

AnnPT77 wrote: »

DupreeTheTRex wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Trust your own data. MFP estimates around 25-30% low (about 500 calories low daily) for me. I'm truly sedentary outside of exercise, log all exercise and eat it back, weigh food, all that jazz, and I've been calorie counting for almost 6 years, with my weight behaving as I'd expect based on my own logging data for that whole time.

MFP's just giving you a statistical average for similar people (same age, weight, etc.). Most people are close to average, a few a bit off (high or low), a very rare few can be surprisingly far off. That's just how statistical estimates work.

There needn't be an obvious reason or explanation; it just turns out that way for some people.

Basically sums up what I’ve learned over 10 years of tracking myself. The more information you have the easier it is to make adjustments and those adjustments are necessary. I think the big reason for my weight gain was when I stopped paying sports competitively then the next big gain was switching to a sedentary job.

In all cases I didn’t adjust my eating habits except for when I was actually trying to lose weight. Short term success but overall failures until recently. I made changes that weren’t sustainable. I hate to say it but these last 7-8 months have been the easiest weight loss of my 10 years but it’s extremely slow. I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life without any problems.

IMO, that's practically perfect, because weight management is a lifelong-endeavor, for a lot of us. I've proven that if I don't intentionally manage my weight, I can reach an obese bodyweight and stay there. So far, staying at a healthy weight isn't especially difficult, but it does require a bit of ongoing attention.

I don’t think I will ever be able to be care free with my weight management. Every time I stop caring I end up in a place where I’m eating way more than what I should. Cheese is something I have had a tendency to forget is heavy in calories. I could eat an entire brick on one sitting for breakfast daily if I wanted and didn’t care about my health. I’ve accepted this fact and I think I’ve developed skills that will be killing lasting. At this point i’m really only checking in once every two months and rarely find the need to track my calories. I’ve been more active lately because im working on emptying my pantry before move so I’m eating a lot of things I’m not used to eating.