Confused about MFP calorie recommendation

ainokea8

So MFP recommended that I eat at 1200 calories a day to lose 1 lb a week. but so far, after 2 weeks I haven't been losing anything.

So I calculated my TDEE on the scooby calculator which told me that if I wanted to cut 15% of calories from my TDEE I should actually be eating at 1500 calories per day and my BMR is 1279 (more than what I've been eating at!)

So I input this into my goal settings and it freaked me out because MFP told me that if I ate at 1500 it would pretty much be maintenance since I'd only be losing 0.2 lbs a week which is basically nothing.

So I'm not sure what to do. Do I trust the scooby more than MFP? I really don't want to waste more weeks trying out one method if it's not gonna get me anywhere.

littlewaaxo

Are you eating your exercise calories back at 1200? Did you input your exercise level into Scooby when you did your calculations? 15% of TDEE is probably going to make for pretty slow weight loss. Sensible & healthy though.

sijomial

Scooby is a TDEE calculator - it includes your exercise.
MFP is not a TDEE calculator, it excludes exercise - that is why you get extra calories when you log exercise which you are supposed to eat back.
That is why the numbers are different.

Just two different methods to give you a sensible and sustainable calorie deficit.

If you aren't seeing the results you expect after a period of time (a few weeks) then the first thing to do is to ensure your food logging is complete, accurate and honest. Weigh everything - guessing portion sizes and estimating quantity of food is the enemy of accuracy.

ElusivePete

When I started on MFP, it took 3 weeks before I saw any loss at all, and then suddenly a few pounds seem to come off all at once.

I'd say give it another couple of weeks to see what happens.