I see a big difference in calories suggested for a day

Options
Anu_4
Anu_4 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,
So I calculated my tdee for my height weight and activity level i.e 5’7”, 170lbs and workout 5 times a week.. it’s around 2300 calories and take 500 out it’s around 1800 calories a day .. but my fitness pal tells to take 1580 a day.. so I’m confused , has it occurred to anyone else .. p.s I haven’t lost any weight for a month and I’m eating within 1580 .. I’m tracking everything with the best I could find here. What I could be missing or where am I going wrong ..

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,863 Member
    Options
    Anu_4 wrote: »
    Hi all,
    So I calculated my tdee for my height weight and activity level i.e 5’7”, 170lbs and workout 5 times a week.. it’s around 2300 calories and take 500 out it’s around 1800 calories a day .. but my fitness pal tells to take 1580 a day.. so I’m confused , has it occurred to anyone else .. p.s I haven’t lost any weight for a month and I’m eating within 1580 .. I’m tracking everything with the best I could find here. What I could be missing or where am I going wrong ..

    If you set up MFP as instructed, setting your activity level based on what you do excluding exercise (job, home chores, etc.), then it's normal for MFP to give you a lower calorie goal than a TDEE calculator, because the TDEE calculator averages in your exercise plans and MFP doesn't. With MFP, you're supposed to log exercise when you do it, and eat those calories, too.

    Either way, if you stick close to the calorie goal on average for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles if that applies), you can use your personal average weight change results to adjust your calorie goal. Use the assumption that 500 calories per day is roughly a pound a week.

    MFP or a TDEE calculator are only giving you the statistical average for people similar to you. Each of us is an individual, not a group average. Most people are close to average, a few may be noticeably high or low, and a rare few may be surprisingly higher or lower. That's the nature of statistical estimates.

    That said, there are common pitfalls in logging. This is not a diss of you as a person: Most of us who've been at it for a while have had face-palm moments of realizing we had some incorrect choices in the mix. If you make your diary MFP public, and say so here, perhaps some of the MFP old hands will take a look and give you feedback about whether anything jumps out. (That's an offer, not an order! Your call.)

    If you stick with it, and are analytic and willing to accept feedback, I'm quite confident that you can find success.

    I'm cheering for you!
  • Anu_4
    Anu_4 Posts: 3 Member
    Options
    Thank you so much for the explanation 😊 I wasn’t eating my exercise calories because I don’t know how accurate are the calories for each food .. but now from what you say may be I’ll try n eat some of exercise calories n see if there’s any change ..
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,863 Member
    Options
    You are taking in more weekly calories than you think. If you were consistent with that calorie amount every day, you would be losing weight after a month.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,863 Member
    Options

    Anu_4 wrote: »
    Thank you so much for the explanation 😊 I wasn’t eating my exercise calories because I don’t know how accurate are the calories for each food .. but now from what you say may be I’ll try n eat some of exercise calories n see if there’s any change ..
    Taking in more calories will not cause Fatloss. You just need to tighten up your calorie counting/tracking.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    Options
    Anu_4 wrote: »
    Hi all,
    So I calculated my tdee for my height weight and activity level i.e 5’7”, 170lbs and workout 5 times a week.. it’s around 2300 calories and take 500 out it’s around 1800 calories a day .. but my fitness pal tells to take 1580 a day.. so I’m confused , has it occurred to anyone else .. p.s I haven’t lost any weight for a month and I’m eating within 1580 .. I’m tracking everything with the best I could find here. What I could be missing or where am I going wrong ..

    For starters, MFP isn't a TDEE calculator so your exercise isn't factored into your calorie targets. You get additional calories after you logged said exercise whereas a TDEE calculator factors that estimate in up front.

    For two, all of these calculators provide an estimate based on population statistics and various algorithms...they aren't etched in stone and most individuals will, to one extent or another, vary from overall population. They are only meant to be a guide to help you get started. Your real world results are what matter and adjustments (if any) should be made using those results and real world data.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,863 Member
    Options
    Anu_4 wrote: »
    Thank you so much for the explanation 😊 I wasn’t eating my exercise calories because I don’t know how accurate are the calories for each food .. but now from what you say may be I’ll try n eat some of exercise calories n see if there’s any change ..

    While it can make sense to increase calories when adding exercise . . . if you haven't been losing weight at that calorie level, and you've been faithfully eating at that level for a month, it's very unlikely that you're actually at a calorie deficit. If that's true, eating more is very unlikely to result in weight loss, and eating less may instead be necessary. I'm sorry to say that, but it's factual IMU.

    There are some very atypical circumstances where water retention can mask fat loss for a month, so if your 5 days of exercise is quite intense and totally new at the beginning of the month, that might be possible. There are also some extremely, extremely rare cases where someone may lose better on slightly higher calories if they're eating so punitively little that they totally drag through life, and they've maybe been severely undereating for a while, but you're not in that situation currently.

    If you're having cheat days, stop (or log them and account for them). If you're not using a food scale whenever possible, consider starting. (Using a scale is not universally necessary, but it's a good step if someone expects to lose and isn't losing.) If you're relying on other people's whole dish entries in the food database (like "meat lasagna" or "ham sandwich" or whatever), don't do that: Instead, log the ingredients in your lasagna or sandwich or whatever. Make sure you're logging everything: Beverages, condiments, oil used in frying or roasting/baking . . . everything. If you sample when cooking, log it. If you finish the bread crusts from your kids' sandwiches (or equivalent), log it. And so forth. If it goes in your mouth and you swallow, log it. If you use "zero calorie" spray oils, realize that it's zero for a tiny quick spray. If you use more (over a tiny fraction of a second), weigh the container before and after you spray to know how much you used, and log it as that type of oil (olive or canola or whatever). And so forth.

    Maybe you're already doing that: I don't know. Most of us have a learning phase when first logging where we realize we're under-logging some things, maybe significantly. Maybe you've gotten it exact from the start, so this is not an accusation: I'm just talking about common problems that probably more of us have than don't.
  • xrj22
    xrj22 Posts: 197 Member
    Options
    The calculated TDEE is a good place to start. However, the bottom line is that whatever you are doing now. If you want to loose weight you need to eat less than you are currently, and or exercise more. If you TDEE - 500 = 1580, and you think you are eating 1580, my guess is that you aren't being accurate with your calorie counting. However, accurate or not, the bottom line is that you still need to eat less or exercise more in order to loose weight.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
    Options
    Anu_4 wrote: »
    Hi all,
    So I calculated my tdee for my height weight and activity level i.e 5’7”, 170lbs and workout 5 times a week.. it’s around 2300 calories and take 500 out it’s around 1800 calories a day .. but my fitness pal tells to take 1580 a day.. so I’m confused , has it occurred to anyone else .. p.s I haven’t lost any weight for a month and I’m eating within 1580 .. I’m tracking everything with the best I could find here. What I could be missing or where am I going wrong ..
    Anu_4 wrote: »
    Thank you so much for the explanation 😊 I wasn’t eating my exercise calories because I don’t know how accurate are the calories for each food .. but now from what you say may be I’ll try n eat some of exercise calories n see if there’s any change ..

    I'm your height and lose weight on 1580 calories PLUS exercise calories, but I've been logging off and on for 10 years and am extremely confident in my food logging.

    If you haven't lost weight in a month the most likely solution is that you are unintentionally eating more than you think, which is super common. Don't eat exercise calories until you've figured out the issues with your food logging.

    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public. In the app, go to Settings > Diary Setting > Diary Sharing > and check Public. Desktop: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Categories