Will my daily calories keep going down?

mizzjessie

Now that I have hit the 20lb lost mark my calories went down again. How long will they continue to go down? I wasn't sure if they would keep going down with each 10lbs I lost.

Amber030583

I think they do go down every 10 lbs lost.

Mindful_Trent

MFP prompts you to recalculate every 10 lbs lost. You could recalculate every day if you wanted to. As long as you are losing weight, your calories will go down until you get to an MFP recommendation of 1200 calories/day - MFP will never recommend less than that.

Healthyby30

They do because your needs go down as you lose weight. You need less to maintain your current size as the pounds start coming off..thus the need to decrease the amount you eat to maintain your loss at the rate you want.

ashlee954

Yep every 10 lbs. The lighter you are the less cals your body needs to sustain life.

cmriverside

yup. They continue to go down as your weight goes down until you change your goals.

If you weigh less, you need to eat less to maintain that weight. If you are trying to obtain a healthy weight, theoretically you will be very close to maintenance calories when you reach your goal, making it easy to stay at maintenance calories forever.

MissingMinnesota

Every 10lbs until you hit a calorie goal of 1200. It will not go below 1200.

jenn50

well i just started this about a week ago and it put me at 1210. my mother in law got started at 1200. so does that mean we aren't gonna be set any lower??

foxylady8098

I recalculate every time I update my weight on here.

cmriverside

well i just started this about a week ago and it put me at 1210. my mother in law got started at 1200. so does that mean we aren't gonna be set any lower??

That is correct. 1200 is the minimum Myfitnesspal will give you. However, that could still be too low. That is one problem with MFP, it will let you go below your BMR calories.

Your MIL got lower cals because she is older. No other reason.

mizzjessie

Thanks for the replies! I knew it wouldn't go below 1200 but I wanted to check and see if it went down till it got to that point. I do workout 5 days a week so having those extra calories if I need them is nice.

Mindful_Trent

well i just started this about a week ago and it put me at 1210. my mother in law got started at 1200. so does that mean we aren't gonna be set any lower??

Yup - yours will eventually go down to 1200, but your mother in law's won't go any lower. I'm in the same boat - mine's around 1200 now. I just know that as I lose more weight, I'll have to eat back fewer exercise calories - though I'll probably always eat back about half. Really it works out, because the less you have to lose, the slower you should be losing it. Someone with 20 pounds to lose shouldn't be trying to lose 2 lbs/week, while it is reasonable for someone with 100 lbs to lose!

cmriverside

Thanks for the replies! I knew it wouldn't go below 1200 but I wanted to check and see if it went down till it got to that point. I do workout 5 days a week so having those extra calories if I need them is nice.

This confused me a little, but maybe it's me.....

You work out and then eat those calories earned by exercise, right?

So if you have a beginning calorie recommendation of 1500, and you burn 300 calories on the elliptical, then you need to eat 1800 calories on that day.

ashlee954

Thanks for the replies! I knew it wouldn't go below 1200 but I wanted to check and see if it went down till it got to that point. I do workout 5 days a week so having those extra calories if I need them is nice.

This confused me a little, but maybe it's me.....

You work out and then eat those calories earned by exercise, right?

So if you have a beginning calorie recommendation of 1500, and you burn 300 calories on the elliptical, then you need to eat 1800 calories on that day.

Yep you're "supposed" to eat your exercise calories. This is especially true if your goal is set at the minimum of 1200. If your goal is set at 2000 cals and you burn 200 cals it really doesn't matter if you eat them or not. If not- you lose faster. You just don't want to use that scenario if you're goal is 1200 NET. That is typically the lowest you're to eat unless a doctor says otherwise.

cmriverside

Thanks for the replies! I knew it wouldn't go below 1200 but I wanted to check and see if it went down till it got to that point. I do workout 5 days a week so having those extra calories if I need them is nice.

This confused me a little, but maybe it's me.....

You work out and then eat those calories earned by exercise, right?

So if you have a beginning calorie recommendation of 1500, and you burn 300 calories on the elliptical, then you need to eat 1800 calories on that day.

Yep you're "supposed" to eat your exercise calories. This is especially true if your goal is set at the minimum of 1200. If your goal is set at 2000 cals and you burn 200 cals it really doesn't matter if you eat them or not. If not- you lose faster. You just don't want to use that scenario if you're goal is 1200 NET. That is typically the lowest you're to eat unless a doctor says otherwise.

Too funny, it DID look like I was asking a question. You'd never know I was a communications major.

I am one who actually lost all my original 52-ish pounds by eating ALL my exercise calories. For eight months. I lost the weight. When I hit a plateau, I would UP my calories by 100 at a time until I started losing. I'm a big believer in eating. I don't get why some people don't want to eat.