Interesting

iamhealingmyself

When I first started on January 1st at 199.4 lbs my daily caloric goal was 1530. Now that I've lost 11lbs, MFP says my daily caloric goal should be 1550 and this is with NO exercise - oh and I'll lose another 5lbs by March 27th. If I weigh less, I require less calories just to exist, right? So what's the logic with raising my calories and losing weight?

When I hit 11lbs and MFP asked if I wanted to adjust my goals, I did it but then I figured I'd leave it at 1530 since i was already managing on that quite well. Well, since my last weigh in, I've not lost anything even though I've worked out two days this week. The first day I still had like a 100something deficit as I just couldn't eat back all that I burned but the 2nd day, I was over by 77 calories. I didn't have my cheat day last week, so there were no extra calories.

Do you think skipping that cheat day allowed my body to adjust? I did have one yesterday but I was only over by 400something calories - hardly one extra meal's worth for me.

The reason I don't count exercise in my goal is because of my back and I can't do it everyday without causing problems. This way I do it when I can and it's a bonus, but I'm not falling behind if I plan it and don't do it.

My BMR at my starting weight is: 1668.09 but at my current weight it's 1618.5 so that's only 49.59 calories difference. How does this justify increasing my daily caloric intake by 20 calories and still be on target to lose my 1 lb a week?
:ohwell:

babyluthi

Woah, I too would like to understand this. The basal calories I mean. I would have thought they would go down as you lost weight?

iamhealingmyself

Woah, I too would like to understand this. The basal calories I mean. I would have thought they would go down as you lost weight?

Well it did, by almost 50, but it's the daily caloric intake that went up. Maybe my initial settings included exercise so it was lower? I'm not sure about that either. I would think if you tell it you want to exercise 3 times a week it will add back some calories knowing you'll be burning them off, but then if that's the case why do we log exercise and eat back calories. It would seem that it was built into the numbers already somehow. Now I'm all confused.

I don't know if I should stick with my 1530 or go up to 1550. I changed the settings to lose 2lbs per week and it dropped me down to 1200 calories... I KNOW that's NOT going to happen ever so I just put it back to 1550. :laugh:

iamhealingmyself

I'm still trying to get this. My activity is set to sedentary because I work in an office and I don't exercise regularly or very vigorously when I do. My BMR for my current weight of 188 is 1618.5 but MFP says in my goals that I burn 2050 in normal activity so it's setting my calories to 1550 to give me a 1k deficit for 1lb a week loss. My bmr for my goal weight is 1518.45 so would I apply the same difference to find out what my maintenance burn is? If I did that I would need to eat minimum of 1949.95 calories to maintain 165lbs. I would think that maybe the burn difference would go down if I weigh less I wouldn't burn as much doing my normal sedentary things.

cmriverside

You made some change to your activity level or it wouldn't have given you more calories, it would have given you less, as you predict.

And you're talking about 20-50 calories tops. Hardly seems significant.

MFP will give you less calories at 10-pound loss increments. But not many. You have it right, as you become smaller, you should be given less calories.

iamhealingmyself

You made some change to your activity level or it wouldn't have given you more calories, it would have given you less, as you predict.

And you're talking about 20-50 calories tops. Hardly seems significant.

MFP will give you less calories at 10-pound loss increments. But not many. You have it right, as you become smaller, you should be given less calories.

The change I made was to remove all activity. I have my exercise set to 0 - at first I didn't but once I hit the 10 lb loss and the system asked me to reset, I took exercise out of the equation because I couldn't keep up with the goal I set in January. The only thing I've changed other than that is the fat/carb/protein ratio because I do better with higher protein levels but even that works within the allotted calories. Removing exercise should not give me more calories, it should give me less.

I realize the number is small, but I think it's going in the wrong direction and now I don't know if I should follow it or keep with my 1530 plan and just let it amount to a larger deficit if it is right. On the other side, if I'm wrong I need these calories to keep my metabolism going so that I CAN lost the weight and not plateau already.

jllipson

Just because it gives you the 1530 or 1550 number, it doesn't mean you have to follow that. Mine is 1440 with 3 - 30 minute exercises and 2 pounds a week. Personally I gave myself a range of 1200-1400. I know this should help me lose faster, but for a couple weeks I lost only 1/2 to 1 pound. I also found out from a program my husband is in, that it is best to absorb most of your carbs early in the day, and not too many with dinner or anything thereafter, because when you settle down for the evening the carbs start turning to sugar and storing in the body, and thus causing weight gain or lack of weight loss. So maybe watching that too will help you, especially if you are getting little or no exercise in. I just started paying attention to that this past week and try to keep nightly carbs down to 20-30 and I lost 3 pounds.

Good Luck