Calorie intake given by mfp seems low??

verityjane87

Hi,

I weigh 297lbs and want to lose at least 120, I go to the gym 3 times a week, MFP has given my calorie allowance to lose 2lb a week at 1500 but this seems very low

any advice?
thanks

auddii

I agree that it seems low. When I started at 245, it gave me 1550. You can change your calorie goal yourself. A good post to get an educated number to change it to can be found here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

I'm personally lazy, and I use the spreadsheet described in this post. It's created by one of the users, but it's been working great for me so far:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

kr1stadee

MFP gives you the calorie amount for what you tell it.
2lbs per week, sedentary activity level will always give you the lowest amount possible, but never under 1200.

Change your activity level, or you're lbs-per-week, or eat your exercise calories back if you're hungry.

happysherri

If you feel it's low or feel hungry you can change the daily calorie goal. Sounds like you're doing a good job.

I'm 5'8 157 lbs and to lose 0.5 a week Mfp gives me 1600 cals

mathjulz

MFP doesn't actually add in those calories from going to the gym. You're supposed to eat them back. So, at least on those days, you'll be eating more.

Sometimes making too big of changes all at once can be overwhelming. Change your goal to lose 1 pound per week. That should give you about 2000 calories. Then you can not eat back exercise calories if you chose, and your loss will be a bit more. Then, as you get used to it and see what your results are, you can decide if you want to reduce calories more or stay with what you're doing.

Remember, too that your results may vary. MFP goes off of averages for the population and estimates based on that. Some people will lose faster than expected, others may lose more slowly. You can always manually change your calories up or down if your results aren't what you're hoping for.

Good luck! :flowerforyou:

elyelyse

I weigh 297lbs and want to lose at least 120, I go to the gym 3 times a week, MFP has given my calorie allowance to lose 2lb a week at 1500 but this seems very low

Does it seem low based on research you've done...or based on how much you used to eat/want to eat? I think for 2lb a week loss that's about right. (I started at 300lbs) BUT if that's too low for you to sustain for the long term, you have two options...lower your goal from 2lbs to 1 or 1.5.... OR add daily exercise that will allow you to eat more.

edwardkim85

Hi,

I weigh 297lbs and want to lose at least 120, I go to the gym 3 times a week, MFP has given my calorie allowance to lose 2lb a week at 1500 but this seems very low

any advice?
thanks

I manually upped mine to a more appropriate level and started losing more weight.

Apparently just setting a 'target' calorie (not macros or micros) and following it is THE WORST diet plan ever.

But MFP works because people use it as a guideline.

GoMizzou99

Try this one at the Mayo Clinic...it was almost exactly what MFP gives me

http://www.mayoclinic.org/calorie-calculator/ITT-20084939

Awesomers

I had my settings on sedentary, which allotted 1490 calories per day. Once I exercised, I ate back most of my calories. I found that, even in doing that, I was not losing weight. Once I upped my calories (1600 on rest days up to 2100 on active days -- using good judgment) that I am now beginning to see losses at 2 lb a week. Basically, I wasn't eating enough (this has been a lifelong problem TBH). It's different for everyone, though. I have been "experimenting" with calories.

elyelyse

Try this one at the Mayo Clinic...it was almost exactly what MFP gives me

http://www.mayoclinic.org/calorie-calculator/ITT-20084939

Wow, that gives me significantly less calories to work with than any other online calculator I've used. By a few hundred calories.

cwolfman13

When you tell MFP that you're going to do blah blah blah exercise, it doesn't believe you. Your exercise goals on MFP are just for you...MFP doesn't give you credit for that activity until you perform it and log it and then you get exercise calories to "eat back." So if you're exercising on most days, you're going to eat more on most days. Example...when I was doing MFP my net calorie goal was 1,850 to lose about 1 Lb per week...on average I burned 300 - 400 calories per day with exercise...so most days I actually ate around 2100 - 2200 calories to lose 1 Lb per week.

Also make sure you have your activity level set correctly...you're not supposed to include exercise in your activity level as then you would be double counting it with MFP. Your activity level is just your day to day stuff....and really, despite the "desk job" descriptor for sedentary, my feeling is that most people really aren't. I have a desk job but I was losing too quickly with a sedentary activity level setting so upped it to light active...like I said, desk job here...but I also have a couple kiddos and I do a lot of cooking, cleaning, fixing things, etc around the house on a pretty much daily basis.

Also make sure you're being as accurate as possible with your intake...which means pretty much weighing anything that has a weight option for serving size and measuring everything else. Calorie counting is a game of precision...you're never going to be dead on, but you can be as precise as possible by weighing and measuring. Just eyeballing portions is going to most likely result in a lot of estimation error...studies indicate that this error is often in the 20-30% underestimation and more.

angelamangus1

You also need to eat your exercise calories back, thus the calorie intake will be more on the days you work out.

I would recommend the TDEE method (Google to look for a calculator and do your research on it). This will give you calories that include your workouts. Calories will be higher. and more sustainable. I personally like this method because on rest days I can still eat at a higher intake than when using MFP, thus assisting in fueling my next days workout. If you use this method you will not eat your exercise calories back because it is already configured in your daily calories.