Calorie counting

heniko

Hello everyone!

I am new to the forum and to dieting. Well actually I am not trying to diet but change my whole life. I have question. I have decided to give calorie counting a go. The BMR tool said I need 1680calories a day. I read on a weight loss forum that I need to eat 500 less calories a day to lose one pound and 1000 less to lose 2 pounds? Is this true? That seems to be to extreme ... can anyone help me understand how much on average I should be consuming? Thank you!

ashlee954

When setting your goals MFP will figure this out for you. Just select how many pounds/wk you want to lose (0.5, 1, 1.5, or 2) and MFP will give you the calorie amount to consume each day to lose that amount per week. You also select your fitness level. Everything is based on your personal statistics (height and weight).

meggonkgonk

BMR isnt how many calories you need a day, it's how many you would need a day if you were in a coma. Eat to the calories MFP assigns you as a goal- the site calculates your 500 or 1000 calorie deficit. You can see this if you go to your "goals" page.

Also unless you are quite overweight (in the area of 100lbs or more) you should be losing 1lb per week, not 2.

Welcome, Good luck, feel free to friend me or message me with questions.

Keithian

That amount is only good if you want to pretty much starve yourself. Go with what it says and try and eat at least 1200-1500 per day and add in exercise.

heniko

I am pretty overweight I'm 250. So I should be aiming for 2 or 1lb loss? I will check out the goal section then come back.

Simonscat

I burn 1290 a day if I were doing absolutely nothing.
You're lucky having 1600! :O!

Depending on what you daily activities are you should be at least the BMR! Other wise you'll just die. Kidding, but you'll do damage to your body if they don't have energy to run your organs.

So maybe eat at least 1500-1800 cals a day!

heniko

ooops sorry my BMR was 1897 and it said to eat 1620 I read it wrong. Ok so I will try this and see!