1400 calories to GAIN weight? Confused?

beverlymaek
beverlymaek Posts: 1
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I am underweight and need to gain 5 pounds to be at a healthy weight.
Myfitnesspal says I need to eat 1,430 to gain. But my BMI is 1,300 and my TDEE is 1,600. Is there an error? Wouldn't 1,400 be maintenance?

Replies

  • fitfreakymom
    fitfreakymom Posts: 1,400 Member
    Give it a shot and see if it works.:smile:
  • freekat
    freekat Posts: 71 Member
    TDEE + 10% would be a good place to start. Just make sure you do not over/underestimate exercise when calculating your TDEE. If you are eating under your TDEE you should loose weight not gain weight.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    I think you might have a couple of your acronyms confused. When you say BMI do you mean BMR?

    If you are 'sedentary' your TDEE will usually be estimated as 20% above BMR.

    The basic fact is that if you are looking at putting on some weight, you have to eat above your TDEE level. (TDEE = maintenance).

    Try eating at 1700 cals for a couple of weeks and monitor your weight, aim for 0.5-1 lbs per week and adjust your intake accordingly.
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
    MFP doesn't take exercise into account so if you figure out your maintenance here and your TDEE on another site, maintenance here could be lower until you log exercise. If you don't want to bother with estimating calories burned through exercise and eating those on top of your MFP goal, just eat slightly over your TDEE as calculated on the other site. Hope that makes sense.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    MFP does not calculate TDEE. It does not include exercise in its formula. It expects you to log exercise and eat those calories back.

    So you will always find MFP lower than TDEE since TDEE includes all activity.
  • ColleenRoss50
    ColleenRoss50 Posts: 199 Member
    As the others said, you do need to eat above your TDEE in order to gain weight. I don't know why MFP would set you at a lower number if you entered that you wanted to gain weight. Check again to make sure you entered the information correctly. It is possible there is some sort of glitch happening. You can also enter your calorie goal in the program manually.
  • RebeccaHite
    RebeccaHite Posts: 187 Member
    I am underweight and need to gain 5 pounds to be at a healthy weight.
    Myfitnesspal says I need to eat 1,430 to gain. But my BMI is 1,300 and my TDEE is 1,600. Is there an error? Wouldn't 1,400 be maintenance?

    It takes 3600 calories to gain 1lb (and to lose is the same) 1lb lost is to burn off 3600 calories
  • 2014myyear
    2014myyear Posts: 60 Member
    I found i had to work it out from another website, what i wanted to gain over what period etc then manually put it in, this site is really good but it is aimed more for weight loss as opposed to gain.
  • Snow3y
    Snow3y Posts: 1,412 Member
    What's your age, weight, bodyfat(if possible), height AND ultimate goal?

    I personally think that MFP's recommendations are usually off..
  • Suleya
    Suleya Posts: 20
    I dont think 1400 will be enough to be honest. I dont know your stats but maybe around 1900 for the start? You can always increase a little if it doesnt work :)

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