Daily Calorie Goal - I was thinking...
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xX_PhoenixRising_Xx
Posts: 622 Member
Are you all eating enough? I use the TDEE method to set my goals, but out of curiosity I went back and redid the MFP suggested calories. It gave me 1320. This alarms me a little. I still weigh 234lbs, I do a lot of exercise and while I know that if I used MFP calorie goals I should eat back some exercise calories, I've noticed so many women don't because they think they'll lose more by severely restricting calories.
The main thing I see as a problem here is if people with more weight to lose restrict calories too far it makes losing weight far harder than it should be. When there is room in daily calories to eat some food that you want to eat, then mentally it's much easier to stick within calories, not require cheat days and not feel like you're on a 'diet' and can't eat things. Plus, you can adequately fuel your body too. Win/win. Thing is, being heavier to begin with we don't need to restrict calories as much as a smaller person anyway. We burn more calories per day just living, because we have more body mass to move around. It means that we can create a reasonable calorie deficit without eating super low calories. There are some advantages to starting out heavier!
Anyway, just a thought that I had. I have quite a few of you in here on my friends list and the calories are fine, but I've also come across a few people with 100+ lbs to lose recently that are eating a total of 1000 - 1200 calories per day thinking that it was better for them. Food for thought anyway!
The main thing I see as a problem here is if people with more weight to lose restrict calories too far it makes losing weight far harder than it should be. When there is room in daily calories to eat some food that you want to eat, then mentally it's much easier to stick within calories, not require cheat days and not feel like you're on a 'diet' and can't eat things. Plus, you can adequately fuel your body too. Win/win. Thing is, being heavier to begin with we don't need to restrict calories as much as a smaller person anyway. We burn more calories per day just living, because we have more body mass to move around. It means that we can create a reasonable calorie deficit without eating super low calories. There are some advantages to starting out heavier!
Anyway, just a thought that I had. I have quite a few of you in here on my friends list and the calories are fine, but I've also come across a few people with 100+ lbs to lose recently that are eating a total of 1000 - 1200 calories per day thinking that it was better for them. Food for thought anyway!
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Definitely think this is something everybody should be taking a look at and to keep evaluating over time.
I know myself I use the MFP settings. Mostly because when I first started I just didn't have the knowledge about all this stuff. I have gone online and used a few other methods to see where my numbers fall. I think ultimately I'm eating a little below where I could be but I definitely eat back most of my exercise calories and if I do go over by a little bit I'm okay with that. What I think I will find hard is if I have to decrease the amount of calories from what I am eating at now. I'm not sure I could go more than 50 calories down especially on days I don't exercise. Sometimes now I'm hungry and that's with eating what I would consider a decent amount of calories.
Ultimately, though, I know I need to choose things to eat that are not as high in fat/calories so I can eat more. But I'm learning all the time and that's why this is a journey for me and not just a fad diet.0 -
My TDEE-20% (1 lb a week) at lightly active and my MFP goal at lightly active are really close so long as MFP is set to 1 lb a week.0
