Number of Calories per My Plate .Gov

db56

When I looked at My Plate on Gov.com for a female that is 5'3 age 65 with 30 minutes or less of activity per day it shows up to 1600 calories per day> Seems to be alot. Are they going by the current weight that you entered?

goal06082021

The MyPlate.gov tool seems to be a pretty blunt instrument. Have you tried going through the guided setup here? The advantage to using MFP's setup tool is that it takes your actual goals into account and gives you an expected rate of loss. 1600 for a shorter, older, sedentary woman isn't that wild, though.

kshama2001

1600 calories per day for what weekly weight loss goal at what starting weight?

I find MyPlate.gov a useful visualization but know nothing about the weight loss side.

I do find MFP quite reasonable if one plans to eat back exercise calories and keeps this in mind:

AnnPT77

Any so-called calculator is just giving you the average for people superficially similar to you. The bigger question isn't so much how accurate the calculator is, it's how close to average you'll turn out to be. Pick a method, follow it for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles for women to whom those apply). Compare starting weight to ending weight (average weight for a week would be better), and see how average you are, then adjust as needed.

I tried the MyPlate calculator since you brought it up. I told it that I'm female, age 66, 5'5", 127 pounds. I tried both 30-60 minutes of moderate exercise, and an hour or more, got 1800 and 2000 calories. That's lower than reality, as determined by 6+ years of calorie counting, but I'm already aware of needing more calories than the average woman in my demographic. It's not as far off as some are, though.

I don't really love that MyPlate calculator, because at least in the version I found, it only has those 3 levels (less than 30 minutes moderate exercise, 30-60 minutes, 60+ minutes). The implication is that if I work as a bricklayer's apprentice vs. being a call-center operator sitting at a desk all day, that doesn't matter. Um, incorrect.

This is IMO a better calculator of that type**: https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

It has more activity levels, with better descriptions.

** It's a TDEE calculator, TDEE = total daily energy expenditure. It average all planned activity together, including intentional exercise.

MFP's built-in calculator works differently: It wants you to set your activity level (in your profile) based on before-exercise activity (like job and home chores), then log intentional exercise when you do some, and eat those calories, too.

Pick a method, follow it for multiple weeks, then adjust. That should work.

FWIW, when I first joined MFP (in 2015, age 59, then around 154 pounds, already down from a SW of 183 pounds), I lost at a good rate at 1400-1600 plus all carefully-estimated exercise calories, so actually eating 1600-2000 calories most days.

spiriteagle99

Myplate.gov gives me 1600 calories as a sedentary, 65 year old female, 5'6" and 125 lbs or 2200 including an hour a day of exercise. MFP gives me 1400 base plus exercise calories with the same stats. Reality is that I maintain at about 1700-1800 calories, plus all my exercise calories. I do exercise a fair amount. The only way to know whether that is an appropriate goal for you is to try it and see what happens. Some people burn more than the average person of their age and size, others burn less.