MyFitnessPal Calculator Calculated Too Few Calories??

mandikins115

MyFitnessPal estimated that I should eat 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day to lose 2 to 1 pounds a week. That is what I have been eating since I started my weight loss journey six months ago and I have lost 20 pounds in the first four months! :happy: I lost on average 1 pound a week during that time. Recently, my weight loss has slowed down in these last two months. :frown: My new personal trainer seems to think it is because I am not eating enough calories. He says that according to his calculations, I need to be eating at least 1,900 calories a day and that if I eat less, my body will go into starvation mode. That seems like too many calories to me... I am afraid I won't lose as much or will actually gain weight if I eat that many calories a day. MFP says if I eat 1,900 calories a day, I will only lose .5 pounds a week, which I guess is better than what I have been losing a week in the last two months. I am also afraid that since my body is used to only eating 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day, that increasing my calories will actually make me gain weight. MFP says that I burn 2,160 calories a day from normal daily activity. Anyone have any experience with MFP estimating too few calories for weight loss?! By the way, I workout 4 to 6 times a week now. Any advice or opinions are are appreciated!! Thanks!

Female
Age: 22
Height: 5'7
Starting Weight: 186
Current Weight: 165

AutumnElf80

I just plugged the info you gave me into a TDEE calculator (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) and it told me you should be eating around 2200 calories a day assuming you get 3-5 hours of moderate exercise a week.

mandikins115

Thanks AutumnElf80! I wonder why MyFitnessPal calculated too few calories for me...

SLLRunner

Welcome, Mandi.

Your trainer is giving you misinformation about starvation mode, which is virtually non-existent in the commonplace world of dieting. In order to go into starvation mode, you have to have lost a certain about of body weight and muscle and basically be emaciated. If you research the Minnesota Starvation Experiment you can read up on it.

That said, here's a great calculator to figure out your TDEE and how much to eat according to how much a week you want to lose.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/.

Autumn is right on.

Springfield1970

We'll done so far!

Yes you should be eating more.

I lose at one pound a MONTH and I'm happy with that. My body doesn't even know it's happening.

Don't freak out when you up your calories, because your scale will show a weight gain. It won't be fat gain, it will be the extra food and waste in the gut from eating more,more water, and glycogen in the muscle.

If you get your deficit, you will show a slow but sure drop. It will be mostly from fat, and you'll retain more muscle.

mandikins115

SLLRunner, thanks so much for your advice! I will have to check out that experiment. I also checked out the calculator you and Autumn recommended! It is very helpful!

Springfield19, your reply reminded me that I should be thankful that I am losing weight at all and should focus on how far I have come instead of how my progress has slowed. Thanks for the information! It is good to know. I will expect the weight gain but will try not to get discouraged. It is just easy to get caught u in the scale. I think I just need to remember to be patient and that slow and steady wins the race lol.

chadya07

they did that to me too. in fact they put me at 1350 calories which left me always hungry and eersizing way too much just so i could eat more. i lasted about a week on that until i decided to look it up myself.

1350 for a 245 pound person is pretty much misery.

meshashesha2012

MFP assumes that you will be exercising and will be eating those calories back . the MFP method isn't a TDEE methid which is why the numbers aren't the same. if you are exercising then there really isnt a difference since it's essentially like saying half dozen vs 6.

mandikins115

chadya07, I am glad I am not the only one this happened to, but that does not sound like fun... thanks for sharing your own experience!

meshashesha20, That makes sense! I don't always log my strength training exercises because MFP says I am not burning that much calories when I log it or it doesn't have the specific exercises I did that day. So I am not sure how many calories I actually burn, which is frustrating. So I did not know how many calories to eat back...

tyriala

| My new personal trainer seems to think it is because I am not eating enough calories. He says that according to his calculations, I need to be eating at least 1,900 calories a day and that if I eat less, my body will go into starvation mode.

What the heck? First of all, a fitness trainer is NOT a dietician. As you can see by the starvation mode rubbish he's talking about. Starvation mode is a myth. Or rather, it only happens when you LITERALLY starve yourself for months and months on end and are underweight.
Since you have lost weight, your body needs less calories to survive on a day, so it's completely normal that your weight loss is slowing down. Also, 1900 is about your maintenance level. You don't have any other choice than to eat less to lose weight.
And you will only gain weight when you increase your calories when eat ABOVE your maintenance level. But there really is no point in eating more calories to lose weight. It's just.. no.

| I don't always log my strength training exercises because MFP says I am not burning that much calories when I log it

That's because strength training does not burn a lot of calories. Cardio burns much more. But anyway, in the end it's not such a good idea to (completely) eat back exercise calories, as they are ALWAYS grossly overestimated. You'd fare much better to simply ignore the calories burned by exercise and just have them as a bit extra. So if you increased your workout and eat back calories, it's very likely that you eat much more than you burn, thus slowing your weight loss.

And MFP only gives you as many calories, as you tell it to. If you are already fairly light and want to lose more than 1 pound a week, then yes, you're not gonna end up with a whole lot of calories to eat.