How many calories...FOR REAL.

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Skillzorz
Skillzorz Posts: 28 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My Fitness Pal says I should only consume 1430 calories daily. When I use iifym.com calorie counter. they're telling me 2100 to lose weight!

I try to work out for about 60 minutes (sometimes more) 4 times a week.

I am currently 262 with a goal weight of 180.

What do you think? I'm not sure which one to follow and I definitely don't want to set myself up for failure.

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  • SugaryLynx
    SugaryLynx Posts: 2,640 Member
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    Pick one. It's all just a guess. You log accurately for a few weeks and see where the weight trends. Iifym is a TDEE calculator, I prefer those, so I don't have to worry about netting. It already calculates your exercise in, so you won't add exercise. With MFP, your goal is to NET your target amount, so you will input exercise. Beware overestimating calorie burns, do like 75% or so of what MFP gives you. The best way to tell if a calorie amount is right is to be as accurate as possible. Here's a good read too.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
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    I'm going to guess, and it is only a guess, that iifym is figuring your TDEE minus 500 calories to get the 2100 which would be about a 1 pound a week weight loss, whereas you probably told MFP you wanted to lose 2 lbs a week so the calorie amount calculated was minus 1000 a day.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    I'm going to guess, and it is only a guess, that iifym is figuring your TDEE minus 500 calories to get the 2100 which would be about a 1 pound a week weight loss, whereas you probably told MFP you wanted to lose 2 lbs a week so the calorie amount calculated was minus 1000 a day.

    ^This is the culprit for a lot of the discrepancy between MFP and a TDEE method. And also, MFP expects you to log your exercise and will add extra calories as you earn them. TDEE builds the extra calories from exercise into your goal from the beginning.

    The sexypants thread above is a really good start, and be sure to read the linked posts within. Those will help you set your calories more accurately.

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