What is your experience with MFP suggested calorie intake?

danaplawson

So I have had an abnormal relationship with food my whole life and I get the feeling that my fitness pal is really helping me figure things out but let me get this straight. I am really supposed to eat as many calories as it tells me? My goal is almost 1700 and when I exercise it tells me I can eat over 2000 calories sometimes. I think I have never eaten that many calories in my life, it seems insanely high to me. I don't have a battery for my scale right now, I will get one later though. Anyhow, I am almost 39 and my metabolism is definitely slowing down. Nevertheless, I guess I will try it and see what happens. Any insight or words of wisdom?

MinMin97

Simply start with that calculation, and make changes as you go.
So stick with that amount for a couple of weeks and see if there is weight loss.
In the meantime, exercise will make your body look and feel better, and that's at least as important!

kjm3579

I used a TDEE calculator and set my MFP goals based on that. However, if you go this route you also have to adjust each of your exercise entries to be only one calorie since exercise is already included in the TDEE calculations.

SezxyStef

When I used MFP at first I followed their recommendation to the letter along with exercise calories and I lost exactly what I wanted...1lb a week.

That was appx 1600 calories (including exercise)...not surprising that is what my TDEE-20% is.

runfatmanrun

When I started, I followed it. I lost what I wanted and then some. I've changed it up a bit now but to start with I kept it simple.

Archerychickge

I am using a 1200 calorie a day plan on MFP and usually am well under that goal each day.. even before exercise. I have grown accustomed to feeling a little hungry and look at it as my body saying, "Hey, I'm eating your hiney..." lol

Seriously though... Go with what feels right for your body. If you are full, stop eating. Even if you have calories left to consume.

saskie78

My sense is that the calories it suggests you eat are ok. BUT, I think it overestimates the number of calories burned through exercise. I don't think this is a big deal, just something to note. If you find you aren't losing weight, perhaps take off 20% of what it gives you for burned calories.

SezxyStef

I am using a 1200 calorie a day plan on MFP and usually am well under that goal each day.. even before exercise. I have grown accustomed to feeling a little hungry and look at it as my body saying, "Hey, I'm eating your hiney..." lol

Seriously though... Go with what feels right for your body. If you are full, stop eating. Even if you have calories left to consume.

Eating well under 1200 is not healthy.

Hunger is not the best indicator of what the body needs.

and promoting vlcd is against the ToS.

You should think about what damage you are doing to your body and re-evaluate your goals...you are losing muscle and fat and when you are done you won't be happy and quite possibly rebound back up to your starting weight or more.

TeaBea

I am using a 1200 calorie a day plan on MFP and usually am well under that goal each day.. even before exercise. I have grown accustomed to feeling a little hungry and look at it as my body saying, "Hey, I'm eating your hiney..." lol

Seriously though... Go with what feels right for your body. If you are full, stop eating. Even if you have calories left to consume.

Um no. First of all 1200 net is MFP's default minimum. 1200 may be appropriate.....OR it could be someone input too high of weekly weight loss goal. 1200 should not be one-size-fits-all.

If you are eating too few calories your body will seek fuel elsewhere.....fat stores ....yeah!.......existing muscle mass.....sucks! You want to eat just enough to lose weight while KEEPING lean muscle.

Hunger is not the best indicator. That could be a hormone thing.....lots of fiber thing.....drinking lots of water thing. Hunger doesn't indicate nutritional needs.

Check your BMR .....calories your body would use if you stayed in bed all day......http://www.bmrcalculator.org/

numinousnymph

i have found that MFP's calorie goals for me have worked. now, like others have said, what it shows as burned for exercise i take with a big grain of salt. i use a HRM anyways for most exercise i do (i also deduct a slight amount from what the HRM says too because i know it can overestimate as well). but i don't exercise every day, and i've still lost a pretty consistent amount of weight. i still have had plateaus, but i don't think it has much to do with the calorie goal MFP set for me.

danaplawson

Wow, thank you everyone. I am definitely trial and erroring it :-)
Thank you also for the education about TDEE.
I have been wondering why some peoples' feeds say 1 calorie burned doing x minutes of exercise.
Thank you thank you thank you xo

danaplawson

I stepped on the scale and have gained a couple of pounds. I am frustrated...

Losingthedamnweight

I stepped on the scale and have gained a couple of pounds. I am frustrated...

Don't be! Weight fluctuations happen. You'll probably be a different weight tomorrow too. You just gotta learn to accept weird numbers every now and then and move on. As long as you're doing everything right, have faith that fat is actually coming off. The numbers just don't reflect it yet

SezxyStef

I stepped on the scale and have gained a couple of pounds. I am frustrated...

Yah don't sweat it...weight loss is not linear.

There could be a lot of reasons for that...

water retention from new exercise, ovulation, ToM, a lot of sodium etc.

As long as you are in your goal know it's not fat.

Meerataila

My sense is that the calories it suggests you eat are ok. BUT, I think it overestimates the number of calories burned through exercise. I don't think this is a big deal, just something to note. If you find you aren't losing weight, perhaps take off 20% of what it gives you for burned calories.

This. And some of the foods are off now and then, best to double check anything you eat regularly with other sources or anything that looks too low cal to be true! Otherwise, it has worked great for me at a high weight and works great now, though it's sad how few calories I have between a deficit and maintenance, so enjoy your higher calories!

cassique

I am using a 1200 calorie a day plan on MFP and usually am well under that goal each day.. even before exercise. I have grown accustomed to feeling a little hungry and look at it as my body saying, "Hey, I'm eating your hiney..." lol

Seriously though... Go with what feels right for your body. If you are full, stop eating. Even if you have calories left to consume.

Um no. First of all 1200 net is MFP's default minimum. 1200 may be appropriate.....OR it could be someone input too high of weekly weight loss goal. 1200 should not be one-size-fits-all.

If you are eating too few calories your body will seek fuel elsewhere.....fat stores ....yeah!.......existing muscle mass.....sucks! You want to eat just enough to lose weight while KEEPING lean muscle.

Hunger is not the best indicator. That could be a hormone thing.....lots of fiber thing.....drinking lots of water thing. Hunger doesn't indicate nutritional needs.

Check your BMR .....calories your body would use if you stayed in bed all day......http://www.bmrcalculator.org/

This is the one thing that I don't like about MFP. It gives 1200 as a goal which makes you think you want to stay below it. That big red negative number when you go over makes it look like eating more than that was a bad thing. Some days I take a day off from cardio so it doesn't give me those buffer fitness calories to keep me out of the red zone. It is a psychological thing I guess. When I used trackers that gave me a range I never went under 1200--that was always my minimum. But since I have been using MFP I have had a few days where I am under 1200. Something I by about the setup makes it seem like going under is not as bad as going over although then you get the starvation mode message pop up. It makes it seem like on the days you did not do cardio you have to be at exactly 1200 because you get the dreaded red negative if you go over and the caution if you go under. I decided to ignore the 1200 goal and just stick to a range. And I focus more on weekly averages rather than getting caught up on day to day numbers. Typically the days I will eat higher calories are days I don't have quite as much time to workout so my workout days seem like I am eating to little and my non workout days too much, so I just take the week as a whole and see how it all averaged out.

About the weight fluctuations. I weigh myself everyday (multiple l e times a day in fact) because I like k e to know what my bodies normal variances are. I noticed a trend that Thursday and Friday I always weigh the least whereas Sunday and Monday are my high days. Today it looks like I lost nothing this week, but my lowest weight of the week is lower than it has ever been and the highest weight is lower than my previous highs so I am still losing.

shabaity

Well my suggested intake to lose 1lb a week is 1750 (I'm lightly active) which is what I'm actually going for but that is difficult for me to hit unless I'm eating a lot of calorie dense foods and I'm also aiming at a slightly healthier less calorie dense diet. So all that considered I upped my weight loss plan to 1.5 lbs a week and don't sweat it if I'm over on calories by a little bit particularly on days when I'm up at 8 am but don't get of work until 2 am or later. It seems to be working well, feels fairly sustainable, and I don't have to completely give up fried chicken.:happy: All in all my biggest change is just dropping the sweet tea and sugary drinks though I'll still drink at least a little when I'm having a meal with friends etc.

wannakimmy

OP, You must have eaten more than that in calories at some point to have gained enough weight to want to lose some.... Many times we don't realize just how many calories we are consuming until we actually track it....

That is what I have found anyway.... I have done just what MFP has recommended and for the most part it has worked well.

Good luck

Fit_Chef_NE

I had to think of it this way when I started: I have been following my "instinct" about how much to eat for my whole life and guess what? I am overweight. Maybe it's time to trust the science behind calorie tracking instead of listening to my inner voice. My inner voice has been wrong thus far, why would I keep doing something that doesn't work?

Since I've been actually doing what successful people have said to do, I have been losing weight. It turns out that science is smarter than my intuition about food. Whoda Thunk it? :happy:

MelodyandBarbells

OP, You must have eaten more than that in calories at some point to have gained enough weight to want to lose some.... Many times we don't realize just how many calories we are consuming until we actually track it....

Amen.

All things being equal, MFP's suggestion for weight loss is less than what it takes to maintain our current weight.

My experience with MFP's suggestion is that 1380 for 1 lb a week was too hard to stick to, while .5 lb fit better and I'm being more consistent with my efforts and results

danaplawson

Thank you for the responses and support. My clothes seem to fit somewhat comfortably. I was told to gain weight, for health reasons, by my doctors. I would like to stop gaining now. But the number keeps rising and it's weird for me to see such a high weight. Trying to find my balance.