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Is the amount of Calories in this app correct ?

KristiMarie21
KristiMarie21 Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone !

I want to be in a calorie deficit but it’s telling me to eat 1750 - I think that’s insane.
Does anyone have advice? Or how can I fix this in the app?
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Best Answer

  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,545 Member
    Answer ✓
    It totally depends on your stats! If you want to look behind the curtain to see how MFP is making the estimate, you can play around with this online calculator:

    https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

    Ignore most of what it says on that page except the formula, which is very close to the MFP formula. Note that this is just an estimate based on a population average. I can say that it works well for me.

Answers

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,008 Member
    Why do you think this number is 'insane'?
    I lost weight eating 1700kcal + exercise calories, it worked for me. Whether it will work for you or not, depends on your personal stats, whether or not you are 'statistically average' (MFP gives you a calorie goal based on statistical averages) and how accurate your food logging and selected activity level is.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,458 Member
    edited March 3
    MFP's estimate is crazy-low for me . . . like 25-30% low, which is a discrepancy of several hundred calories.

    Any calculator - including MFP's - or even fitness tracker is just giving a person an estimate based on averages for similar people, but we're each individuals who may vary from average. Most people will be close - that's the nature of a statistical average - but a few can be surprisingly far off, high or low. We find out where we fall by believing a research-based source like MFP, following it as closely as practical for 4-6 weeks (at least one full menstrual cycle for those who have those), then comparing actual results to intended results.

    If a person needs to personalize their calorie goal after that experiment, they can just type it into the goals part of MFP by hand.

    Faster weight loss isn't necessarily better weight loss, because fast lost increases health risks, can can be hard to stick with long enough to lose a meaningful total amount of weight.

    As I said, I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner, so unusual, but if I ate 1750 gross calories daily, I'd loose around a pound a week . . . at 69 years old, female, 5'5", 130 pounds this morning. If you're younger, heavier, taller, more active, etc., 1750 could be fast loss, no way I could even guess without knowing more about you. It's not crazy on the surface of it, certainly.

    The fairly common idea that all women need to eat like tiny delicate little birds, always less than 1200 calories for everyone . . . that's pure myth, and can be unhealthy for some.

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