I have been struggling with my weight for years. I am frustrated. I am making gains, but my weight is not going in the direction that I want it to. How am I going to be happy if I am not happy with the reflection looking back at me?
Go through MFP's guided setup, input accurate demographic info in your profile, and it will give you a calorie goal.
Treat that as a starting estimate. Eat close to that number of calories on average daily, like +/- 50 calories, and be sure to enter everything you eat accurately. It's fine to average over a week, with some higher and some lower days - the phone/tablet version of MFP will show you a daily average for the week if you want to do that.
Stick with that for 4-6 weeks, or one full menstrual cycle if you have those. Do that even if you seem to be losing too slowly at first. I'd recommend only adjusting before the 4-6 weeks/one cycle if you seem to be losing weight very fast plus experience fatigue or weakness that has no other explanation, in which case eat more and restart the 4-6 weeks/one cycle experiment.
At the end of that multi-week period, compare your average weekly weight change to the weekly weight loss rate you requested of MFP. If it's close, keep going like that. If it's too slow, and you can safely/healthfully lose a bit faster, adjust your calorie goal. To do that, assume 500 calories a day is roughly a pound a week (or 1100 calories a day is a kilo a week), plus use arithmetic for any partial pounds/kilos.
Similarly, if you lose too fast for best health, use that same method to increase calorie goal to achieve a more moderate, sensible loss rate.
Best wishes!
hi Ayesha, I found recovery from compulsive eating in a 12 step program and lost 150 pounds. I use my fitness pal to track my food and stay accountable to my calories (as recommended by my doctor). I hope you can find something that works for you.
Hi there, is the 12 step program something your Dr. had to refer you to? Or is it something that you can sign up on your own. I struggle a lot with food noise that pushes me to wanting to eat constantly
I had my calories set in MFP to 1700 to make sure I was eating in a deficit. At 1700 I was getting about 150g protein followed by fat then carbs. I was tinkering around with the macro settings in the app earlier and it said I should be taking in 2400 hundred calories. That seems like a lot for someone who is trying to lose weight. Even at 1700 I'm hitting all my macro goals and I'm not feeling hungry throughout the day because of the protein. Am I missing something?
I'm not sure, but you may be missing the idea that our initial calorie estimate is an experiment that needs to play out for several weeks, then we can derive a calorie goal that makes our personal weight loss fairly predictable. Also, faster weight loss isn't necessarily better weight loss: It can be higher health risk.
There is no universal "right number of calories". MFP, a fitness tracker, or any other calorie calculator: Those give you a starting estimate. Basically, that starting estimate assumes you're average for your demographics, in terms of calorie needs. Most people are close to average. A few are surprisingly high or low compared to average. That's because we're all unique individuals, and some of us vary from averages - that's just how statistics work.
The real question is "Are you losing weight too fast, unacceptably slowly or at a good rate?".
You find out the answer to that question by following a starting calorie estimate, logging faithfully (every bite-lick-taste, every day), for 4-6 weeks (or one full menstrual cycle for those who have them). I'm talking averaging maybe +/- 50 calories of the starting calorie goal.
At the end of that time, we will either validate that our starting estimate is yielding a safe, satisfactory, moderate weight loss rate as represented in the average weekly weight change over that whole time period . . . or it will give us solid personized data with which to adjust our calorie goal to dial in a good loss rate. (Assume 500 calories per day is a pound a week, or 1100 calories per day is a kilo per week, and use arithmetic for partial pounds/kilos.)
I don't know where you got your 1700 calorie goal. If you're not struggling severely with appetite, have reasonable energy level, and seem to be losing at a sensibly moderate rate, stick with it.
MFP makes calorie needs estimates based on solid science-based formulas. So do many other calculators and fitness trackers. There are different research-based formulas, so different sources will give different starting estimates. The multi-week experiment lets us sort things out.
I haven't re-run MFP's guided setup to know what goal it'd give me with its current formulas. I'm in long-term weight maintenance now after losing from obese to a healthy weight back in 2015-16. At the time, the estimate MFP gave me turned out to be punitively low. I lost weight too fast at first. I felt fine, energetic, not hungry, until I suddenly hit a wall. I got weak and fatigued. I corrected - ate more - as soon as I realized, but it took several weeks to regain normal strength and energy. No one needs that! It turns out that I need 25-30% more calories than MFP's initial estimate for me, to achieve any given rate of weight loss. Most people won't get results that extreme, but it's possible.
If you're using MFP's default macro goals, those are calculated as percents of calories. If I eat punitively low calories, but get the "right" percent of protein within those calories, my health will suffer. We need certain absolute amounts of many nutrients; protein is one. If we're getting adequate calories, the default percents will give most people enough protein. Set calorie goal too low, and that good outcome won't happen.
Is 1700 the right goal for you? I don't know. If you're losing weight on average over 4-6 weeks at a sensibly moderate rate, it's fine. If you're losing too fast, it's bad for health; if you're losing too slowly, it can be discouraging. What matters is loss rate.
What's a sensible loss rate? A common rule of thumb around here is to shoot for no more than half to one percent of current weight per week as a loss rate, with the upper end of that range only suitable for people who are severely obese and under medical supervision for nutritional deficiencies or health complications. That makes half a percent a good goal for many people. (Noting that slower is always fine if current weight isn't an acute health threat, and if slower makes loss more achievable and sustainable.)
@AnnPT77 thanks for replying! So far setting the goal in the app at 1700 seems to be working. Of that 1700 I am focusing on protein, then fat. Essentially carnivore/keto. The reason I chose 1700 is that most food labels, (yeah, I know… 😀) are based on a 2000 calorie a day diet. So I figured if I start underneath that, my default, I am in a deficit. At my current levels I don't have the hunger that I typically would and my energy is good. I have increased my physical activity by doing some strength training a few days per week and will also be doing more walking.
The 2000 reference number for labels is just that: A reference number. It's not a universal, not even close. It has no implications for an individual. Larger people or more active people will need more calories than that to maintain weight. Quite a few men require more than 2000 calories to maintain weight, sometimes many more. Many women require fewer than 2000 calories to maintain weight, but obviously not all. People vary widely depending on age, size, activity level.
I'm 70, F, 5'5", mid-130s pounds, sporty-ish build for my demographic, and maintain my weight at around 2200 calories.
I'd strongly suggest using a more science-based starting estimate, for people who are new. This TDEE calculator below lets a person compare several different research-based formulas:
https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
I'm not implying that you should stop eating 1700, if that yields a sensibly moderate loss rate for you. I'm outlining a way for new people to think about a starting goal that's based on research, that's all.
