Hi... Question on Recalculating Goals

mandymak

I have been receiving messages advising me to recalculate my nutrition and exercise goals since I have lost over 10 lbs. I am hesitating to do this because I'm "afraid" that the recalculation will come back allocating "less" calories. Why is this recalculation suggested and is it really necessary?
Thanks,
Mary Anne

LindaSueBakk

It's up to you if you want to change. I just changed my settings yesterday. I did lose calories but I also had the choice of slowing my weigh loss and gaining calories! For now, I decided to go with 100 less calories, but if that doesn't feel right in a few days, I'll go the other way.

kimcat73

It's necessary to recalculate as you lose because you don't need as many calories as your weight lowers. For example, my daily goal is set to 1530 calories a day in order to lose 2 pounds a week because my estimated calories burned from daily activity (lightly active) is around 2530, so 1530 puts me at a deficit of 1000 calories a day. If I lose 10 pounds, my calories burned from daily activity may only be around 2510 and if I consume 1530, that only puts me at a deficit of 980, which might slow my weight loss as I continue to lose.

Depending on your current goals, you might not lose too many calories. I'm heavier so I have more calories to lose:) If you look at "Goals", it tells you what deficit you are at right now, depending on your choice of loss each week. Hope this helps!

Black_Swan

I had to recalculate yesterday. It didnt change much anything:D

Limeinthecoconut

I believe it would be asking you to recalculate as your BMR is probably different now that you have lost 10 pounds. This would have an impact on how many calories you consume to maintain per day. For example when I weighed more my BMR was something like 1700 and now is closer to 1500. Your BMR is the basis for calculating your calorie needs for the day.

Eg. for someone lightly active multiply your bmr by 30% to receive your MAINTENANCE calories for your weight. Then subtract an amount from this if you would like to lose weight. For 1 pound loss in a week, 500 calories a day is subtracted.

This is all calculated for you by MFP if you update your information. Hope the technical explanation helped!

dlaplume2

It does change it a little, but if you don't change it (which is fine) you will slow down you weight loss. If you look under goals it will tell you how much you are estimated to lose. When I started I had 1520 cal to lose 1lb a week. When I went in to look at my goals, which I hadn't changed, it said I was on target to lose .90 lbs a week. When I re calculated my goals to 1lb a week it went from 1520 to 1490. It's only 30 cal difference.