Hi everyone been on the program over two weeks so far so good

kmcnally67
kmcnally67 Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Just wondering if we are supposed to use all the calories every day that we get ??

Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,226 Member
    Generally, yes, or close. If you told MFP (in your profile) that you want to lose X amount of weight per week, it gave you a calorie goal that it thinks will achieve that. That's a starting estimate.

    Follow that pretty closely for 4-6 weeks (maybe +/- 50 calories kind of range), logging food consistently. After that, use your average weekly weight change over that whole time period to adjust your calorie goal, to personalize the estimate. Use the assumption that 500 calories per day is about a pound a week (or 1100 calories per day is about a kilo a week), and use arithmetic for fractional pounds/kilos. That should work.

    If you're female of the relevant age/stage, get your average weekly weight loss by comparing body weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles. Otherwise, hormone-related water retention shifts can distort results.

    In the long run, if you have an occasional day when you're not very hungry, it's OK to eat somewhat under goal. Similarly, if you have a very hungry day occasionally, it's OK to eat somewhat over goal. It's the averages that really matter.

    But consistently eating way under your calorie goal is usually a bad plan: Fast weight loss increases risks for health complications, plus is more likely to eventually cause bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether. Slow and steady wins this weight management race!

    Best wishes!
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,691 Member
    Welcome!

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