Calculator

SuzMar17

Can someone direct to the calculator to help me determine how many calories I should be having per day. When I set-up my profile, it asked how much I want to lose, so I selected 2 lbs per week, telling me to have 1200 per day. Is that the calculator?

knra_grl

just wondering - your ticker says you want to lose 160 lbs? In your pic you don't appear to be that heavy?

When you create your account and your settings be sure that you click on apps and have MFP calculate your BMR

1200 is the lowest number of calories a person should eat - please calculate your BMR to make sure the info is right

GillaMahogany

Hi Susan! Welcome to the Pal!

Yes, where you choose you goals is one calculator. If you look under the "APPS" tab you'll find BMI and BMR calculators too.

Most people here find it very difficult to loose 2 pounds a week unless you have quite a lot to loose. You might try setting your goal to just one pound a week and see how you do before taking that more aggressive approach.

SuzMar17

Thanks so much! Before reading the replies I was playing around with that calculator to see if the calories per day changed if my weight was higher. I was trying to see if this was the "calculator", so maybe that's why it changed to 160...so I just re-did my ticker, so it should say need to lose 50 lbs.

From waist up - I look like I don't need to lose that much...but I gained almost 80 lbs with my first baby in 2011, the pic is me now with my 2nd baby. Luckily, I lose 50 with my first but still had 30 on me when I got pregnant with my 2nd. So, now I am at 190 trying to get down to my weight before having my babies which has always been 140.

I tried Medifast, lost 20 (I was 210 after having my 2nd) and I honestly got so tired of the packaged foods, went back to WW and never works for me, so now I am here....but what I love is the database, seems very easy and the forums are great!

So, I just wanted to make sure I have my calories per day set right. I just changed it to 1.5 lbs per week, rather than 2....maybe I will see how I do with 1270 per day.

knra_grl

Also make sure you enter exercise when you do some - your cals are pretty low so they will increase with exercise. Also if you are breastfeeding there was just a post about that in another thread - maybe check that out

here's the link to the breastfeeding thread >>>> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1225741-breastfeeding-calories

SuzMar17

So, I used the BMR Calculator under the App and it says 1,616 - is that the calories I should be having per d

SuzMar17

Thanks so much about the breastfeeding link.....I am not but this is great link to have

knra_grl

So, I used the BMR Calculator under the App and it says 1,616 - is that the calories I should be having per d

that sounds better

If you don't lose at that many cals just go a little under (not much) If you lose too fast go a bit over

lisatrish

You may want to try logging in 1lb loss a week. Anything over that is usually recommended for someone trying to lose more than 100lbs. That will probably give you closer to your BMR of 1616. (Your BMR is what you would need to intake if you did nothing but lay in bed all day to keep your body and organs alive.)

lisatrish

http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/

Here is a site that tells you what you should eat know so that you can get to your goal weight and once there maintain it. If you input one pound a week into MFP it will be very close to the numbers on this site.

Annie_01

So, I used the BMR Calculator under the App and it says 1,616 - is that the calories I should be having per d

What activity level did you select?

I am at 189lbs set to lose 1lb per week with my activity level set to lightly active and MFP gives me 1510 calories. Which is a doable amount for me.