Well, that seems....odd.

lwestling79
lwestling79 Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been dabbling with myfitnesspal app for the past few months and I'm gearing up to get serious here and lose weight. I am a 34 year old female, I'm 5'5 and 192 lbs. I have my own goal set at 1400 calories a day and just now I changed my goals as recommended to let myfitnesspal set my goals and it set my daily calories at 1210. That seems crazy low! I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong, though I'm not sure what. I put my activity level as lightly active, and I'm not sure that's accurate. I walk my dog about 20-25 minutes about six days a week, I also take her on trail walks in the woods at least twice a week (sometimes replacing the daily walk, sometimes in addition to), I have three boys (12, 11, and 4!) and don't have a ton of "down" time with all they require, and I work outside the home three days a week at a job where I'm not necessarily highly active but I'm on my feet (embroidery shop). Don't get me wrong, I have a fair amount of time to sit around and not do much (uh, like right now, lol) but I definitely don't lead a sedentary lifestyle.

So anyways, 1210 calories a day seems really low. I wasn't sure whether or my walks and trail walks are considered "working out", and I put them in both ways and still got 1210. Does anyone have any thought about this?

I've been reading through the forums here and so many of you are so knowledgeable, I'm looking forward to spending more time here. :)

Replies

  • lwestling79
    lwestling79 Posts: 10
    Oh! And I do have my goal as losing two pounds a week, and I'm not sure I changed that while playing around with my settings which I guess could be the issue. :-/ I'm going to go check that out now.
  • Kitship
    Kitship Posts: 579 Member
    You probably set your goal to lose 2 pounds a week. When you do that, MFP creates a 1000 calorie deficit (500 calories/day to lose 1 pound/week - so 2 pounds/week would be 1000 calories). Change it to lose 1 pound a week and it should be a much more manageable calorie goal. Also, I would probably say that you're a little more than lightly active, but if you want to keep it there and see how it goes, it might be a good idea. Good luck! :flowerforyou:
  • lwestling79
    lwestling79 Posts: 10
    That's exactly what I did, lol. I had it set at 2 lbs a week. Thank you! :)
  • caramammal
    caramammal Posts: 147 Member
    i always log my daily dog walks as exercise. A 45 minute walk with my pooches can earn me around 135 calories.

    Not sure about your cals...when i net 1200 calories, i lose 1lb per week (i have a much less active lifestyle than you, with a sedentary desk job).

    last summer, i was eating 1500 calories, and exercising off 300 (netting 1200), and losing 1lb a week consistently. At the moment i want to lose quickly so im eating only 1200 calories and exercising off 400-500 (netting 700-800 cals), which means im losing 2lb each week. This is right for my activity levels/weight/height etc.

    One of the things that helped me was to understand how many cals it takes to maintain my weight, and then i just dropped 500 from that each day.

    Good luck to you
  • lwestling79
    lwestling79 Posts: 10
    Thanks! I changed mine to lightly active, with six 20 minute work outs a day, with a goal of 1.5 lbs a week. That seems sustainable to me so I'll see how that works.

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