Calorie deficit

kateandgizmo
kateandgizmo Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

hi was wondering why I have been on 1270

Calories a day

I’ve lost more weight and I’m near my goal weight

I e been given 14??

Today

Best Answer

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,851 Member
    Answer ✓

    Need more info.

    If you mean 1400, it's because as you get close to goal weight, you can't sustain a larger calorie deficit safely. 1400 is probably just a couple hundred below your Maintenance calories. When within 25 pounds of your goal you should expect a half pound loss per week, maximum.

Answers

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 2,096 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10944648/calorie-deficit

    The calories they "give" you depends on the rate of loss you put in that you would like (.5 pounds per week, 1 pound per week, or 2 pounds per week) chances are you put in a fairly high rate of loss, so that affected how many calories are available to you.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,495 Member

    Was your initial caloric goal set before the activity multiplier update of late 2024?

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,851 Member

    @PAV8888

    😆 very few people are going to understand what you're talking about. I'm guessing you aren't going to get an answer…

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,495 Member
    edited August 9

    @cmriverside first of all I totally agree with the substance of your answer, i.e. that moving closer to maintenance calories when approaching goal makes oodles of sense.

    Speaking to the exact mechanism (other than programming "bugs") as to how a person who has lost weight COULD, theoretically, choose the same settings and receive a higher caloric allowance:

    IF the initial allowance was determined before late 2024 AND if the new one was determined subsequent to that then the calculation change could be attributed to changes to the multipliers MFP uses for each activity setting.

    The exact date of change is unknown to me. All I know is that it happened sometime between late 2024 and early 2025 based on my looking into the issue in response to message board questions.

    As far as I can tell the change is supportable based on select research findings. And I believe that at some point of time someone linked into an MFP article that discussed the settings.

    While I am not finding that article, I will link something else I found today which I think is quite relevant to what @cmriverside, and many others among us, often discuss in terms of what is a "reasonable" caloric deficit to pursue: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625931-Nutrition-101-Calories

    According to the NIH (4), the maximum recommended calorie deficits are:

    • BMI <27: 250 calories per day
    • BMI 27-35: 500 calories per day
    • BMI >35: 1000 calories per day
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,851 Member
    edited August 9

    Yeah, PAV. I understand that the settings used by myfitnesspal may have changed. I don't know if that is the solution to this but I'm glad you elaborated for the rest of the people reading.

    If the first post is from someone in the BMI < 27 group then the myfitnesspal calorie calculator won't give her the extra low calorie setting (a large deficit) and if she/he never changed their setting, and/or tried to choose, "Lose 2 pounds per week," or previously did not update their weight and just now did that for the first time (after losing a lot of weight) then it would seem counter-intuitive to them. Pretty sure they'll figure it out. The first post isn't very clear.

  • kateandgizmo
    kateandgizmo Posts: 5 Member

    thank you x

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