I'm new to fitnesspal

quirkycakesandbakes

Hi
I'm new to FP ..I m not sure what calories I should take each day? I want to lose just under 1 stone., losing 1 to 2lb I would aim for 8 weeks? Any advice? I'm.also doing a mixture of weighted workouts combined with pilates n running

AnnPT77

You should set up your profile in MFP, tell it accurately what it asks, and it will give you a calorie goal.

With so very little weight to lose, and especially if you have fitness improvement goals alongside fat loss goals, you should ask it for half a pound a week weight loss. Two pounds a week would be excessive.

Weights, Pilates and running are great for fitness improvement, as long as they're a manageable challenge to current capabilities, but fat loss is about calories, and that means getting the calories eaten moderately fewer than the calories burned. Be aware that the average person burns the highest fraction of their daily calories just being alive, second highest fraction from daily life/home chores kind of stuff, and exercise comes in third in magnitude of calorie burn. Good stuff, but not the key factor for most of us, for weight loss.

If you do go for half a pound a week loss, be aware that that can take a few weeks to show clearly on the scale, amongst routine daily water retention shifts that can be several pounds from one day to the next. Eventually, fat loss will show up in the multi-week trend line, even if less obvious in the day to day. Even a pound a week can hide for a while if there's new/challenging exercise in the picture (since that increases water retention for muscle repair). If you're female and of relevant age/stage, monthly hormone cycles can also confuse the scale results. It's not the most common pattern, but some women only see a new low weight once a month, at a particular point in their menstrual cycle.

After one to two menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles, your average weekly results should be a reasonable indication of whether your calorie goal is the right target. (MFP or other calculators only give you an estimate that's for the average person - real humans vary around the average, sometimes meaningfully so.)

Also, MFP is designed for you to set your activity level based on daily life activity, like job and home chores. Then, it expects you to log exercise when you do it, and eat those extra calories, too. No need to eat them the same day, but it's good to eat a reasonable fraction of them at least. Undereating isn't good for health or appearance. With little to lose, slow loss is the best bet, IMO.

Best wishes!