myfitnesspal Diet/Fitnesss Profile changes

jftheiss
jftheiss Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all, I decided to update my diet/fitness profile under settings. I changed my current weight, which has dropped. I then increased my target weight as I feel I need to add about 5 pounds. The new, daily calories allowed actually drops when I expected it to increase. I have changed no other settings. Any thoughts on why? This has happened before, and it makes no sense to me.

Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,651 Member
    A lighter body requires fewer calories to operate, so I'd expect inputting a lower current weight to result in calorie goal decreasing.

    The goal weight you put in your profile has zero effect on your calorie goal. MFP uses it to give you some progress messages, but not much else. For sure, if you change only goal weight, calorie goal won't change.

    I'm not sure why you expected your calorie goal to increase? If you want it to increase, you can select a slower weight loss rate to shoot for. That will tend to make goal calories increase, unless one is already at the MFP minimum (1200 for women, 1500 for men); in those cases, it may not change as expected.

    Increasing activity level will also increase goal calories . . . but that's not a great way to go about it, unless activity level really has increased in real life.

    Best wishes!
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,130 Member
    MFP default math looks at two figures: what you weigh right now, and whether you want to lose/maintain/add weight. When your current weight goes down, MFP math says you need fewer calories to maintain, so that number drops.

    It shouldn't, however, drop by enough to counter the desire to GAIN weight. My guess is you changed your target weight, but didn't actually tell MFP to change your GOAL (found at the bottom of the settings page) from lose/maintain to gain and at what rate (half lb/kg per week, full lb/kg per week, etc).

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