Changing goals doesn't make sense, help

FearOfFrying

can anyone help, I just changed my goals and added another workout per week, if anything I would have expected my daily calorie allowance to go up slightly or stay the same but it's gone down 50cals........surely if I do more exercise I can eat slightly more not less? Anyone else noticed that?

BryanAir

I don't think your goals affect your daily calorie allotment, only when you log actual exercise. Although your calorie allotment may have been updated due to weight loss. I believe it is automatic after 10 pounds, but will update if you change your goals.

Atlantique

can anyone help, I just changed my goals and added another workout per week, if anything I would have expected my daily calorie allowance to go up slightly or stay the same but it's gone down 50cals........surely if I do more exercise I can eat slightly more not less? Anyone else noticed that?

Two things are going on here:

First, MFP doesn't count your exercise until you perform and log it. You don't get any credit for 'planned exercise'. So when you change your exercise goals, it makes no difference to the way that MFP calculates your calorie goals.

Second, when you hit the "recalculate" button, MFP used your most recently logged weight to calculate your goals. As this weight is presumably lower than your starting weight, your BMR is lower and so is the number of calories allotted for you to make it through your regular workday activities.

Make sense?

FearOfFrying

I don't think your goals affect your daily calorie allotment, only when you log actual exercise. Although your calorie allotment may have been updated due to weight loss. I believe it is automatic after 10 pounds, but will update if you change your goals.

But nothing has changed until the moment when I added another workout, also if I now go back in to my goals and take the extra workout off my calories don't go back up!!

FearOfFrying

can anyone help, I just changed my goals and added another workout per week, if anything I would have expected my daily calorie allowance to go up slightly or stay the same but it's gone down 50cals........surely if I do more exercise I can eat slightly more not less? Anyone else noticed that?

Two things are going on here:

First, MFP doesn't count your exercise until you perform and log it. You don't get any credit for 'planned exercise'. So when you change your exercise goals, it makes no difference to the way that MFP calculates your calorie goals.

Second, when you hit the "recalculate" button, MFP used your most recently logged weight to calculate your goals. As this weight is presumably lower than your starting weight, your BMR is lower and so is the number of calories allotted for you to make it through your regular workday activities.

Make sense?

Sort of makes sense but if I had not gone it to my goals and added exercise my daily calories would not have changed, does this mean MFP does not dynamically change you calorie allowance in relationship to your current weight? How far will it go if I recalculate once a week, will I end up on 1000 calories in a month?

susanswan

This doesn't answer why your calories went down, but I believe the "exercise goal" is for YOU to know that you have met your goal for the day or week.

I'm going to adjust mine and see what happens, hopefully my calories won't go down, too !

Purplebunnysarah

I don't think your goals affect your daily calorie allotment, only when you log actual exercise. Although your calorie allotment may have been updated due to weight loss. I believe it is automatic after 10 pounds, but will update if you change your goals.

But nothing has changed until the moment when I added another workout, also if I now go back in to my goals and take the extra workout off my calories don't go back up!!

If you've weighed in any time since you initially set things up, it's using your new weight to recalculate your calories. The only way to get those 50 calories back is to gain 10 lbs (I think--that's how the relationship seemed to work for me, anyway).

Atlantique

can anyone help, I just changed my goals and added another workout per week, if anything I would have expected my daily calorie allowance to go up slightly or stay the same but it's gone down 50cals........surely if I do more exercise I can eat slightly more not less? Anyone else noticed that?

Two things are going on here:

First, MFP doesn't count your exercise until you perform and log it. You don't get any credit for 'planned exercise'. So when you change your exercise goals, it makes no difference to the way that MFP calculates your calorie goals.

Second, when you hit the "recalculate" button, MFP used your most recently logged weight to calculate your goals. As this weight is presumably lower than your starting weight, your BMR is lower and so is the number of calories allotted for you to make it through your regular workday activities.

Make sense?

Sort of makes sense but if I had not gone it to my goals and added exercise my daily calories would not have changed, does this mean MFP does not dynamically change you calorie allowance in relationship to your current weight? How far will it go if I recalculate once a week, will I end up on 1000 calories in a month?

You always have to manually hit the recalculate button ( I'm pretty sure) to have MFP recalculate your goals. I know it's supposed to do it automatically at 10 lb intervals, but I haven't found that to be the case.

MFP won't recommend fewer than 1500 calories per day for a man nor 1200 calories per day for a woman because it's very difficult to get proper nutrition below those levels. I believe they are following a recommendation from WHO (World Health Organization) in setting that lower limit. You can manually override the lower limit though.

susanswan

This doesn't answer why your calories went down, but I believe the "exercise goal" is for YOU to know that you have met your goal for the day or week.

I'm going to adjust mine and see what happens, hopefully my calories won't go down, too !

Mine didn't change.

stormieweather

MFP does not include your goal exercise in your calories allowance. It automatically recalculates your allowance every 10 pound loss. What likely happened is that you hadn't reached another 10 pound recalculate point, but when you manually adjusted things, it recalculated based on your loss since it's last recalculation (presumably between 1-9 pounds).

Xaspar

You should not end up below 1200 calories... that is the low level threshold for the program and unless you go in and manually change it to less, the program doesn't do it.
And it recalculated your goals based on not only what your current weight is, but what you set your weight loss goal to be. Did you up your goal from 1 to 1.5 or 2 pounds per week? Unless you changed your activity level from moderate to sedentary, in which case, THAT will lower your goal as well.
It may not have changed your goal before now with weight lost because you didn't meet the automatic weight lost trigger, however when I change my goals, it resets it with the new weight regardless. I have noticed that I lose between 10 and 20 calories per pound lost on my total calories burned from daily activity score (which is what the program seems to be using to make the rest of the calculations)
My goal started at 1200 and has stayed at 1200 from the beginning. I have to exercise if I want to eat more than that without going over.

FearOfFrying

Doesn't make sense to me, so if I hadn't gone in to my goals I'd still be on 1500 calories, surely it knows my current weight and can work it out dynamically. Also if my BMR is 1700 for example does this go down as you lose weight? That would explain it......the less you weigh the fewer calories you burn up in a day because you aren't working so hard?

Atlantique

Doesn't make sense to me, so if I hadn't gone in to my goals I'd still be on 1500 calories, surely it knows my current weight and can work it out dynamically. Also if my BMR is 1700 for example does this go down as you lose weight? That would explain it......the less you weigh the fewer calories you burn up in a day because you aren't working so hard?

Your BMR goes down when you lose weight, yes, as there is less of you to keep alive now!

And your Activity Level calories will also go down slightly, as it now takes less energy to move that smaller body around.

FearOfFrying

MFP does not include your goal exercise in your calories allowance. It automatically recalculates your allowance every 10 pound loss. What likely happened is that you hadn't reached another 10 pound recalculate point, but when you manually adjusted things, it recalculated based on your loss since it's last recalculation (presumably between 1-9 pounds).

Ah, ok, that seems to be the answer, I have lost 9 pounds so far in three weeks and not reached the ten pound trigger.

FearOfFrying

can anyone help, I just changed my goals and added another workout per week, if anything I would have expected my daily calorie allowance to go up slightly or stay the same but it's gone down 50cals........surely if I do more exercise I can eat slightly more not less? Anyone else noticed that?

Two things are going on here:

First, MFP doesn't count your exercise until you perform and log it. You don't get any credit for 'planned exercise'. So when you change your exercise goals, it makes no difference to the way that MFP calculates your calorie goals.

Second, when you hit the "recalculate" button, MFP used your most recently logged weight to calculate your goals. As this weight is presumably lower than your starting weight, your BMR is lower and so is the number of calories allotted for you to make it through your regular workday activities.

Make sense?

Sort of makes sense but if I had not gone it to my goals and added exercise my daily calories would not have changed, does this mean MFP does not dynamically change you calorie allowance in relationship to your current weight? How far will it go if I recalculate once a week, will I end up on 1000 calories in a month?

You always have to manually hit the recalculate button ( I'm pretty sure) to have MFP recalculate your goals. I know it's supposed to do it automatically at 10 lb intervals, but I haven't found that to be the case.

MFP won't recommend fewer than 1500 calories per day for a man nor 1200 calories per day for a woman because it's very difficult to get proper nutrition below those levels. I believe they are following a recommendation from WHO (World Health Organization) in setting that lower limit. You can manually override the lower limit though.

That's strange as it's just recommended 1450 for me

Atlantique

can anyone help, I just changed my goals and added another workout per week, if anything I would have expected my daily calorie allowance to go up slightly or stay the same but it's gone down 50cals........surely if I do more exercise I can eat slightly more not less? Anyone else noticed that?

Two things are going on here:

First, MFP doesn't count your exercise until you perform and log it. You don't get any credit for 'planned exercise'. So when you change your exercise goals, it makes no difference to the way that MFP calculates your calorie goals.

Second, when you hit the "recalculate" button, MFP used your most recently logged weight to calculate your goals. As this weight is presumably lower than your starting weight, your BMR is lower and so is the number of calories allotted for you to make it through your regular workday activities.

Make sense?

Sort of makes sense but if I had not gone it to my goals and added exercise my daily calories would not have changed, does this mean MFP does not dynamically change you calorie allowance in relationship to your current weight? How far will it go if I recalculate once a week, will I end up on 1000 calories in a month?

You always have to manually hit the recalculate button ( I'm pretty sure) to have MFP recalculate your goals. I know it's supposed to do it automatically at 10 lb intervals, but I haven't found that to be the case.

MFP won't recommend fewer than 1500 calories per day for a man nor 1200 calories per day for a woman because it's very difficult to get proper nutrition below those levels. I believe they are following a recommendation from WHO (World Health Organization) in setting that lower limit. You can manually override the lower limit though.

That's strange as it's just recommended 1450 for me

I may be wrong on the lower limit for men. I'm a woman, despite the avatar picture.