Who would like to see the minimum daily calorie requirement lowered or completely removed?

jbrunenn82

If you are a woman under five feet tall and trying to lose weight, a daily calorie goal of 1200 is just too many.

jbrunenn82

I never get to close out my day. I am 4‘7“.

Alatariel75

I know it sucks for anyone who falls outside MFP's 'average' parameters, but having been here a long time and seeing the number of pro-ana young people who join and post (and knowing there's a lot more using MFP who aren't posting on the community), I'd much prefer they did away with the gimmick of the projected weight loss and closing the diary all together.

The projection is, at best, vaguely motivating and entertaining, but it's inaccurate and is based on an impossibility - every day being like the one closed out for a period of 5 weeks. But someone ill and desperate to lose weight as fast as possible would be very spurred on by seeing a crazy low number there. Its harm outweighs its utility by far.

Alatariel75

Added because edit isn't working for me:

The projection is, at best, vaguely motivating and entertaining, but it's inaccurate and is based on an impossibility - every day being like the one closed out for a period of 5 weeks. But someone ill and desperate to lose weight as fast as possible would be very spurred on by seeing a crazy low number there. Its harm outweighs its utility by far.

jbrunenn82

I totally understand what you’re saying. Honestly, I don’t even use MFP for tracking calories as much as I do for tracking my nutrition. I can’t see my nutrition overview unless I eat at least 1200 cal a day, which in a nutshell is frustrating. I believe there should be an option for putting in a request to MFP to lower your daily calorie requirement if you meet certain criteria.

Alatariel75

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I totally understand what you’re saying. Honestly, I don’t even use MFP for tracking calories as much as I do for tracking my nutrition. I can’t see my nutrition overview unless I eat at least 1200 cal a day, which in a nutshell is frustrating. I believe there should be an option for putting in a request to MFP to lower your daily calorie requirement if you meet certain criteria.

That seems odd to me, I can see my nutrition profile at any calories, and the diary will close out on anything over 1000 calories, not 1200 (for all that it won't let you set your goal at under 1200). You may have a glitch that's not related to being able to close out your diary, closing it out literally only gives you the projection, nothing else. It used to also post to your feed, but they got rid of the feed.

AnnPT77

Alatariel75 wrote: »

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I totally understand what you’re saying. Honestly, I don’t even use MFP for tracking calories as much as I do for tracking my nutrition. I can’t see my nutrition overview unless I eat at least 1200 cal a day, which in a nutshell is frustrating. I believe there should be an option for putting in a request to MFP to lower your daily calorie requirement if you meet certain criteria.

That seems odd to me, I can see my nutrition profile at any calories, and the diary will close out on anything over 1000 calories, not 1200 (for all that it won't let you set your goal at under 1200). You may have a glitch that's not related to being able to close out your diary, closing it out literally only gives you the projection, nothing else. It used to also post to your feed, but they got rid of the feed.

@jbrunenn82, what specifically do you mean by the "nutrition overview"? Are you in the phone/tablet app, or web browser MFP, and are you talking about the Nutrition page in the app, the diary page itself, or something else? Maybe something on the main page when you enter, the so-called dashboard? Or something else?

I was interpreting it as the nutrition page in the app, which I think Alatariel may also be thinking. I just logged 8 Yasso Greek yogurt bars for tomorrow (800 calories), tried to close my diary, got the "too few calories" messaging, but could still see the nutrition page in the app, and the diary nutrition in both the phone/tablet app and in web browser MFP, plus the full-report option in web browser MFP.

I can't try this on today to see effect on the dashboard page(s), because I already have most of today logged.

I admit I have premium, but it would surprise me if that made a difference in this aspect, though I could be wrong.

@Alatariel75, do you have premium or free? I'm thinking you may've said free on another thread, but I mis-remember stuff way too frequently.

In fact, I better go delete those Greek yogurt bars before I forget.

robertw486

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I totally understand what you’re saying. Honestly, I don’t even use MFP for tracking calories as much as I do for tracking my nutrition. I can’t see my nutrition overview unless I eat at least 1200 cal a day, which in a nutshell is frustrating. I believe there should be an option for putting in a request to MFP to lower your daily calorie requirement if you meet certain criteria.

If you really don't need the calorie count, I think you should be able to use the "quick add" feature to simply add calories without showing any macros. That way your macro percentages and weights would be accurate, but the projected weight loss or gain numbers won't.

Alatariel75

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Alatariel75 wrote: »

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I totally understand what you’re saying. Honestly, I don’t even use MFP for tracking calories as much as I do for tracking my nutrition. I can’t see my nutrition overview unless I eat at least 1200 cal a day, which in a nutshell is frustrating. I believe there should be an option for putting in a request to MFP to lower your daily calorie requirement if you meet certain criteria.

That seems odd to me, I can see my nutrition profile at any calories, and the diary will close out on anything over 1000 calories, not 1200 (for all that it won't let you set your goal at under 1200). You may have a glitch that's not related to being able to close out your diary, closing it out literally only gives you the projection, nothing else. It used to also post to your feed, but they got rid of the feed.

@jbrunenn82, what specifically do you mean by the "nutrition overview"? Are you in the phone/tablet app, or web browser MFP, and are you talking about the Nutrition page in the app, the diary page itself, or something else? Maybe something on the main page when you enter, the so-called dashboard? Or something else?

I was interpreting it as the nutrition page in the app, which I think Alatariel may also be thinking. I just logged 8 Yasso Greek yogurt bars for tomorrow (800 calories), tried to close my diary, got the "too few calories" messaging, but could still see the nutrition page in the app, and the diary nutrition in both the phone/tablet app and in web browser MFP, plus the full-report option in web browser MFP.

I can't try this on today to see effect on the dashboard page(s), because I already have most of today logged.

I admit I have premium, but it would surprise me if that made a difference in this aspect, though I could be wrong.

@Alatariel75, do you have premium or free? I'm thinking you may've said free on another thread, but I mis-remember stuff way too frequently.

In fact, I better go delete those Greek yogurt bars before I forget.

I have free! I had only just started logging for the day, so I'm only at 368 calories for breakfast, and I can see my nutrition under the 'nutrition' tab in the menu in the app no problem. My dashboard on desktop has most stuff greyed out because I'm not premium. My nutrition report on the desk top only shows up to yesterday, but that's normal in my experience, it doesn't show the day you're on, only the preceding day(s)

jbrunenn82

I’m only using the app, maybe that’s the issue.

robertw486

Try

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I’m only using the app, maybe that’s the issue.

Try this. Adjust your calorie goal to above the 1200. Then use a "quick add" to add whatever amount you want that puts you at or above that 1200. I'd suggest just using a round number large enough to cover your lows and highs of eating... say 500 calories. Plus, by using the number 500 daily, you can again "cheat the system" and it should tell you that you will gain approx a pound weekly, when in fact you will know that below that is below your TDEE, and above is above your TDEE.

Otherwise all the macro percentages and gram weights should stay accurate for what you actually ate those days.

AnnPT77

Alatariel75 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Alatariel75 wrote: »

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I totally understand what you’re saying. Honestly, I don’t even use MFP for tracking calories as much as I do for tracking my nutrition. I can’t see my nutrition overview unless I eat at least 1200 cal a day, which in a nutshell is frustrating. I believe there should be an option for putting in a request to MFP to lower your daily calorie requirement if you meet certain criteria.

That seems odd to me, I can see my nutrition profile at any calories, and the diary will close out on anything over 1000 calories, not 1200 (for all that it won't let you set your goal at under 1200). You may have a glitch that's not related to being able to close out your diary, closing it out literally only gives you the projection, nothing else. It used to also post to your feed, but they got rid of the feed.

@jbrunenn82, what specifically do you mean by the "nutrition overview"? Are you in the phone/tablet app, or web browser MFP, and are you talking about the Nutrition page in the app, the diary page itself, or something else? Maybe something on the main page when you enter, the so-called dashboard? Or something else?

I was interpreting it as the nutrition page in the app, which I think Alatariel may also be thinking. I just logged 8 Yasso Greek yogurt bars for tomorrow (800 calories), tried to close my diary, got the "too few calories" messaging, but could still see the nutrition page in the app, and the diary nutrition in both the phone/tablet app and in web browser MFP, plus the full-report option in web browser MFP.

I can't try this on today to see effect on the dashboard page(s), because I already have most of today logged.

I admit I have premium, but it would surprise me if that made a difference in this aspect, though I could be wrong.

@Alatariel75, do you have premium or free? I'm thinking you may've said free on another thread, but I mis-remember stuff way too frequently.

In fact, I better go delete those Greek yogurt bars before I forget.

I have free! I had only just started logging for the day, so I'm only at 368 calories for breakfast, and I can see my nutrition under the 'nutrition' tab in the menu in the app no problem. My dashboard on desktop has most stuff greyed out because I'm not premium. My nutrition report on the desk top only shows up to yesterday, but that's normal in my experience, it doesn't show the day you're on, only the preceding day(s)

Wow, if I'm understanding you correctly, that's different. All of the dashboard/nutrition stuff has today for me. I'll put my web dashboard page, app dashboard, and app nutrition's nutrient page in a spoiler for comparison purposes. The nutrition overview page in the app doesn't have much interesting (to me) on it about yesterday or today, just some fussing about what they think my macro goals should be, but aren't. I'm not sure what you mean by nutrition report on the desktop; I don't seem to have anything labeled as that. All the things I can think of to look at there with food data seem to include today's info, except the weekly digest.

Web dashboard page, some generic non-personal stuff cut off at the bottom:

App dashboard, some of which may be custom not default display settings:

App nutrition page, nutrient tab, daily view - no fair criticizing my nutrition, OK? :

AnnPT77

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I’m only using the app, maybe that’s the issue.

Oh, OK - now I understand. It's the goal per se that's the problem, not the amount eaten. Apologies that I didn't grasp that.

Robert's suggestion could work. From what I can tell, it'll show the nutrient data just fine if what's eaten is below 1200. I know that's not ideal, but I will say that when I was using free MFP for the first several years, I couldn't set my macro goals where I really wanted them, or keep exercise calories from mucking with them, so I just ignored the goals and ate to the easily-remembered goals in my head, not that dissimilar a thing, I think.

I'm sympathetic in general with what you're saying about petite women. But I'm concerned about lowering the defaults below 1200/1000 still. The pro-ana thing @Alatariel75 mentioned is one reason, but probably the more common one is women buying into the myths that all women need to eat very low calories (not just petite ones), or that the fastest possible weight loss is the best possible weight loss (including crazy weight loss rates published in the blogosphere or tabloids, seen on stuff like Biggest Loser, etc.).

I'd be more supportive of some reality check on the person's size letting them change a somewhat obscure setting so they could eat fewer calories and still see nutrition data, with maybe some more educational info there about sensible vs. risky weight loss rates or calorie deficits. I still feel like getting rid of the default for anyone would open the door to bad consequences. MFP might even be concerned about legal liability from such a thing, don't know. The US can be a little lawsuit-happy.

AnnPT77

jbrunenn82 wrote: »

I’m only using the app, maybe that’s the issue.

BTW, is it doing this same thing on the Nutrients tab there, or just the Overview tab? I'm assuming all of the tabs do the same, but wondering if that's right.

jbrunenn82

Thank you all for the insights and tips. I didn’t think about manually entering calories to achieve the daily goal. I will try that. 🙂

poodle_whisper

i input my own daily goal. ive set it to 1000

Lynndy456

I totally understand the authors point, I am 5ft and unable to exercise because of back issues and if I always ate how much they recommend for me I would never lose weight and that's a fact because I've been using my fitness pal to help manage weight off and on since 2013.

patriciafoley1

It will close out the day for me at 1000 calories, not 1200 but I find it annoying anyway. It's rare I don't eat at least 1000. But there are the rare days I'm under that, and don't feel like eating more. It more than balances because there are days that I eat close to 1500.

totameafox

while annoying, the limit is there for people who are likely to develop an eating disorder. since I am no where near needing to consume less than 1200 calories to lose weight, i've only had an issue closing out on my first day because i made the mistake of trying to eat two salads in one day and simply couldn't finish it. When i adjusted what i ate... mfp was like 'nope' not today...

I hope that those who are naturally smaller that they fit outside the scope of what is offered will still put up with it so that those who are at risk for eating disorders will at least have something that trys to keep them in a healthy direction.

patriciafoley1

Changing that for shorter, older women (who TDEE is very close to that, mine is 1300) isn't going to make a difference to those with eating disorders. If they are willing to starve themselves to serious bodily injury why would an app limit make a difference?

AnnPT77

patriciafoley1 wrote: »

Changing that for shorter, older women (who TDEE is very close to that, mine is 1300) isn't going to make a difference to those with eating disorders. If they are willing to starve themselves to serious bodily injury why would an app limit make a difference?

It's not just eating disorders.

It also puts a speed bump in front of people who are trying to lose weight too fast, but don't understand the process well enough to know that. That's a surprisingly common scenario around here, often discovered because the person posts something like "I'm eating the 1200 the app recommended, but not losing the 2 pounds a week I was expecting". There's usually some other stuff to unpack in those posts, but trying to lose weight unrealistically, unhealthfully fast is part of the picture.

Heck, I thought I needed to eat 1200 at first to lose, as someone non-big, old, sedentary outside of the exercise I was adding and eating back. I was wrong, but in large part from being statistically unusual. That was bad enough.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, there may be some liability-limitation thinking behind the limit: If the person or their family sues for their hyper-fast weight loss complications, MFP can say "we told her to eat at least 1200, and warned below that". Would there be lawsuits? Don't know, but the US is pretty litigious.

It protects people from extremes. Yes, it's also a speed bump for petite women who truly need that calorie level and below. There might be a possible software remedy for that without much increasing risk for the larger segment of the population.