Why have I been given 3000 calories per day?

JustinMegna

I just bought the annual subscription and entered my biometric data. I also specified that I want to lose 2 pounds per week

The app is now saying I have a 3000 cal goal. I understand that means I can eat 3000 cal plus whatever I burn in exercise.

This makes absolutely no sense, since my base metabolic rate is 2300 calories per day. By allowing me to eat 700 excess calories per day, I would gain a pound of fat every five days.

So what on earth is the app doing? Why is it telling me I can eat 3000 calories a day?

Retroguy2000

The app bases the calorie target based on the estimated activity level you gave it.

Also, BMR is just the calories you burn doing basic bodily functions only. Nobody only burns their BMR calories unless they're practically in a coma. We're all moving around, fidgeting, walking, exercising, getting up and down, etc. In your case if you told the app you're very active, then it might well assume your daily calories used is about 4,000. And a daily deficit of 1,000 from there would indeed result in two pounds lost per week.

AnnPT77

We need more information.

Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories a statistically average person your size would burn in a coma, flat on their back in bed. If you have an active job, and/or your set your MFP activity level with the assumption you should include intentional exercise (and you do a lot of that exercise), you might well burn 700 additional calories or more that way.

You gain fat only when your intake exceeds true (not estimated) basal metabolic rate + daily life activity calorie burn + exercise calorie burn + thermic effect of food (TEF, which is a small number).

If you told MFP you want to lose 2 pounds a week, the totality of your other relevant MFP profile settings makes MFP expect that you are somehow needing 4000 calories per day to maintain your current weight. (Note: The "relevant MFP profile settings" DO NOT include the explicit planned workouts per week and minutes per workout. Perhaps surprisingly, those don't affect your calorie goal.)

Maintenance calories of 4000 per day isn't impossible for a very large person with a very active lifestyle, but it IS unusually high. First step, double check all your MFP profile settings: Age, height, current weight, activity level, lose/maintain/gain setting, rate of gain/loss setting.

If that all looks accurate, consider coming back here and telling us what those settings are. Without knowing that, no one has the basis for any kind of opinion about the probability/improbability of that estimate . . . other than that it's unusually high. There could be a profile setting issue, for all we know it's just that you're large/active, or there could be a bug (as I think you're suspecting).

Reference: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals

springlering62

Even better if you could screenshot your goals page and post it here, using the photo post button