Recalculating calorie needs

leeannteagno

Just curious, it appears as if MFP doesn’t recalculate caloric needs as you lose weight. Is this correct? My calorie goals haven’t changed and I’ve lost 92 pounds. It’s not a big deal because I set my calorie goal pretty low, but I’m curious— should this be re-visited eventually? I came from Weight Watchers where they recalculated your point allowance every 7-10 lbs…. So it’s weird that it’s never changed for me on MFP. What am I missing?

yirara

You could just run the guided setup again if you've used that method. If you set a custom calorie goal then this doesn't change.

cmriverside

Yeah, you have to go into "Goals" and reset your weight and then Save in order for the program to recalculate your calories. At least that's how it works for me on the web version. Just logging a weight in "Check in" doesn't do it. I think it recalculates every 10 pounds.

AnnPT77

leeannteagno wrote: »

Just curious, it appears as if MFP doesn’t recalculate caloric needs as you lose weight. Is this correct? My calorie goals haven’t changed and I’ve lost 92 pounds. It’s not a big deal because I set my calorie goal pretty low, but I’m curious— should this be re-visited eventually? I came from Weight Watchers where they recalculated your point allowance every 7-10 lbs…. So it’s weird that it’s never changed for me on MFP. What am I missing?

Good answers above the MFP technical part.

IMO, "should this be revisited" is situational. I think it's sensible to slow down weight loss as one gets closer to goal weight, and has less weight left to lose. (Experts believe there's a limit on how much stored body fat our body can metabolize daily, and it depends on how many pounds/kilos of fat we still have. Lose too fast, higher risk of losing lean tissue.) Fast loss all the way to goal can have some down-sides.

If your weight loss gradually slows and you can still afford to lose weight at a higher rate (while maintaining relatively low health risk losing at that rate), then sure, re-evaluate if you want to pick up the pace a little, as long as you think you'll find the lower calorie level manageable relatively happily.

But it's individual.

For me, I intentionally raised calories as I got closer to goal, to slow my loss to a rate I thought was sensible for me. As a bonus, that helped me gradually adjust to maintenance calories by heading there in increments rather than as one big jump in calories once I reached goal weight. Some other people find those last pounds stubborn - that their weight loss slows, maybe even stops, if they don't adjust downward.

I won't belabor the situations that might be behind those different experiences, but there can be reasons why one person might experience one or the other of those things, or something in between.

I think the general answer to your question is to re-evaluate your calorie level when your weight's behavior (combined with sustainability issues) tells you that it's time.

Strudders67

I do a weight Check-In almost every day. When I was losing, I'd go in to the Guided Setup and just click 'Save' every so often and it would recalculate my calories based on the latest weigh that I'd recorded.