Goal and target calories

danleroux76

I'm not sure I understand the goal and how many calories I'm allowed to eat. When I first set things up in the app for my weight loss goals, I was given a goal of 2000 calories. On a day like today, I exercised, had breakfast and lunch, and still have 2100 calories remaining. Does that mean I can eat another 2100 and still be losing weight? I have a hard time believing that.

Lietchi

That's the theory, yes.
In practice it'll depend on:
- how much you conform to the statistical averages on which MFP bases its calculations (do you have an average metabolism or not)
- how accurate your food logging is
- how accurate your exercise burns are
- how accurate your chosen activity level is (most notably: it should not take into account your exercise if you are also logging it separately in your diary, which leads to double counting exercise)

Generally speaking it's recommended to follow the same strategy (for example eating all of your calorie goal) for at least 4 to 6 weeks (or 1 to 2 menstrual cycles if applicable) and then adjust depending on your real weight evolution compared to how much you theoretically should have lost. (Generally speaking 3500 calories deficit to lose 1 lb, or 7700 calories for one kg)

What's your age, sex, height and weight?
What was your exercise, and how many calories did you get for it? From what source: MFP, a fitness tracker,...? Because it does sound like a high calorie burn to leave you so many calories.
Other caveat: if you're using a fitness tracker and you're most active early in the day, you might see a large calorie adjustment early in the day, but then diminishing as the day progresses.

sollyn23l2

Your right, that seems absurd. How many exercise calories did it give you? Exercise calories are often grossly overestimated. Can you post a screenshit of what it's shoeing you? It could also be that what you think is how many calories you have left is actually how many calories you've eaten.

AnnPT77

danleroux76 wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand the goal and how many calories I'm allowed to eat. When I first set things up in the app for my weight loss goals, I was given a goal of 2000 calories. On a day like today, I exercised, had breakfast and lunch, and still have 2100 calories remaining. Does that mean I can eat another 2100 and still be losing weight? I have a hard time believing that.

In theory, yes, that's what that means, if you told MFP you wanted to lose a non-zero X amount of weight per week.

Do you have a fitness tracker synched to MFP, or are you manually logging exercise? Depending on how exercise calories are estimated, they may or may not be . . . extra generous. Some people eat back a fraction of the exercise calories at first, until they have 4-6 weeks experience to validate the tracker/MFP estimates. Usually 50% or more would be good to eat back initially. (I'd suggest picking some standard percent and always eating back that percent during your experiential trial period . . . it makes the validation arithmetic easier later.)

That said, many people under-guess how many calories they need/burn, so don't believe MFP or tracker estimates, just because they've heard so many crazy-low estimates of weight loss calories out in the myth-o-sphere. On the other hand, it's also common to under-estimate calories eaten. (All of these estimates can be close enough to work, but they're all estimates!)

If you want feedback on how realistic your numbers might be, we need more information. How tall/old are you, what exercise did you do for how many calories, what do you weigh now, and do you have an active job or home chores you did also? What kind of tracker do you have, if it's synched to MFP? You don't have to share that info, but we won't be able to give you personalized advice.

Your profile says you're male. It wouldn't be super unusual for a good-sized active young-ish man to burn more than 3000 calories a day, but it's not universal either. Since you didn't say how many calories were in your breakfast/lunch either, I'm not sure how to evaluate the "2100 left" idea, either.

Some of calorie burn is individual, too. That's why we need to validate the estimates against multi-week average results once we have 4-6 worth of personal logging/scale-weight experience data.

MFP and trackers just spit out averages of demographically similar people doing superficially similar activity. For example, I'm a non-large li'l ol' lady in weight maintenance, weight low 130s pounds (around 60kg), 5'5" (165cm), age 68, sedentary or near to it outside of intentional exercise. MFP and my good brand/model fitness tracker (one that estimates well for others) think I burn around 1500-1600 calories most days. My multi-year logging experience suggests it's more like 2100 or so. It's not that MFP and the tracker are inaccurate, it's that I'm non-average in some way(s). That degree of difference is rare, but obviously possible.

Best wishes!

mtaratoot

I just got back from a walk. It was about 4.5 miles in about two hours. Leisurely pace. Enjoyed the scenery. I burned almost 500 calories. I would have burned more if I were larger.

I ate a bowl of beans and rice and a bowl of beans and cheese that totaled 590 calories.

If my calorie target when I woke up was 2000 and then ate 590 calories and burned 500 I'd still have over 1900 calories to eat. If I had done a more intensive workout, I could have burned more than the 590 calories I ate.

That said, pay close attention to all your data. The numbers are estimates and may or may not actually be the same for your body as the average body that creates the numbers. Also be careful how you measure your food, and be sure to log accurately, honestly, and completely. Over time, like several weeks or month, you can see if your results match your expectations based on the numbers. If they do - good! No change needed. If you lost more or less than you expected, you can tweak your goals and get them dialed in for YOU. You have plenty of time to do this; you are developing good habits you will stick with forever!