What should my goal be on MFP?

JaydeSkye

I have lots of resourceful friends on here, so I decided to utilize that... and also posting on the boards because perhaps there are other resourceful people out there that I haven't yet befriended. Anyway...

Last month I had a thorough bodyfat/nutritional evaluation done by my doctor/nutritionist. I was told that my body burns 1452 calories per day without exercise. I plan to stay active and burn more. I'd still like to lose a little and tone my body more. I'm 'about' 20lbs away from my ultimate goal. Now, I don't care what the scale says I'm more concerned with my overall body shape, lean mass vs. body fat, etc.

I tried to manually set my goals to 1450 calories per day - which is what will maintain my current weight and set my carbs to 30% of that, protein to 55% and my fat to 15%. When I input the vaules, it came out way under 1450. When I tried to use the MFP guide it suggested I set my calorie goal to 1200. I'm confused. If my body burns 1450 calories per day... wouldn't setting my goal to 1200 slow down my metabolism or cause "starvation mode", plateaus, etc?

For exercise I normally go to the gym at least 4 times a week, usually 6 for 2hrs at a time. I walk to the gym which is a roundtrip of 3 miles. At the gym I do classes - cardio, spinning, strength/conditioning, etc. I try to mix it up each week but focus on the higher intensity classes. Aside from the gym, I am active - I live on the beach.. I swim, I surf, I bike, I skate, etc.

I'm looking for someone that understands nutrition and has proven results to give me their opinion on my daily calorie goal, my carb/protein/fat ratios, how much sugar I should have and what types of exercise/how often I should exercise. Thanks.

erickirb

If my body burns 1450 calories per day... wouldn't setting my goal to 1200 slow down my metabolism or cause "starvation mode", plateaus, etc?

No, as the only way to lose weight is to have a caloric deficit, so to lose weight you must eat less than 1450/day. so that is only a deficit of 250/day, which would not lead to "starvation mode".

This is of course if you burn 1450/day, But I am guessing 1450 is you BMR, which is different than maintenance. If 1450 is BMR your maintenance would be 1700-2000 cals/day, if it is in the 2000 cal range and you eat 1200 and don't have much to lose that may lead to "starvation mode".

As far as ratios are concerned I would not go below 20% cals from fat. maybe go for a 40/40/20 splis. Your body needs carbs and where you are active and workout a lot you need carbs.

MissMaryMac33

I'm only commenting on your settings...

My Home > Goals > Change Goals > Custom

enter 1450 calories,
change your percentages to what you want
save -- done

Now if you track your exercise, since 1450 is your maintenance number, you need a 250 calorie deficit every day for a 1/2lb weight loss per week. 500cal deficit for 1lb a week. That's why MFP is telling you 1200 -- it will never go lower than that though.

Getting a 250 cal deficit for you will be easy with your exercise -- just don't eat all of your exercise calories back.

k7n2w3

I am not a perfect person regarding nutrition but can answer that MFP puts your food intake at 1200 because to lose a pound a week you need a deficit of 500 calories from what you normally burn in a day. I use fitday.com in conjunction with this site because the calories burned here are confusing. Like if I burn 300 calories in a run, it says I can have 300 calories extra to eat when in reality it doesnt take into consideration that really that run may have added 250 calories with my body burning 50 if i was just sitting on the couch for that 30 minutes and breathing. It will set your limit at 1200 because that is what a person needs to survive. If you go on fitday and sign up for a free account there just to get an idea of what you would burn as a lifestyle (i have mine as "most sitting" and at 5 foot, 115 pounds I burn 1685 just being me). The food section and app for fitday is horrible so keep using myfitnesspal but maybe look on there for a better calories burned estimate. Hope that helps and didn't just confuse you!

dlaplume2

When you put in your info did you put your activity level as active or sedetary? The 1450 you are talking about is to maintain if you were a couch potato. You are not a couch potato, so you should have your level set at active. (unless you have a desk job) But then only count the exercise you do inside the gym. Do not count the other activities as it will be included in your activity level. I don't understand how it gave you calories for %'s. I would double check that and try it again. Maybe you need to do the % first then change your calorie goal to 1450.

Best wishes

dlaplume2

When you put in your info did you put your activity level as active or sedetary? The 1450 you are talking about is to maintain if you were a couch potato. You are not a couch potato, so you should have your level set at active. (unless you have a desk job) But then only count the exercise you do inside the gym. Do not count the other activities as it will be included in your activity level. I don't understand how it gave you calories for %'s. I would double check that and try it again. Maybe you need to do the % first then change your calorie goal to 1450.

Best wishes

P.s. Make sure you change your goal to maintenace if you don't want it to adjust anything you put in. '

joejccva71

Jayde I got your mail.

Your BMR is roughly 1488 which means that is how many calories you burn while you are in a REM sleep state or comatose. It is when your organ functionality slows down to a crawl while in "sleep mode". This is NOT the same as RMR which is your Resting Metabolic Rate.

You should never eat below your BMR. To calculate your Total Daily Energy Expendenture you need to take this into consideration:

BMR + TEA + TEF = TDEE

BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate
TEA = Thermal Effect of Activity (activity throughout the day)
TEF = Thermal Effect of Feeding (calories burned through food digestion)

It gets more complicated, but we can honestly make it easier. For women, I would take your weight and multiply it by 14 if you are relatively active with light exercise, and more like 15-16 if you workout for an hour a day 5-6 days a week, etc. This is of course not 100% accurate but it's pretty close.

Let's take your weight (144) and multiply by 15 for arguements sake. That gives us a TDEE of 2200 calories a day. This is most likely a good number of what you burn (on average) each day in a 24 hour period based on a 7 day average.

At 5'10 weight 144 you shouldn't have much to lose so I would do a 500 calorie deficit from 2200 and eat 1600 calories right now. Make sure you are getting your minimum protein and fat macros based on this 1600 calorie intake. Do not eat 1200 calories a day for you should never eat below your BMR and will not help you.

Don't stress about eating 5-6 times a day. Eat 3 squares a day if you like. Meal timing is irrelevant. Do not be afraid of eating fat. Get your fats from foods like almonds, avocados, olive oil, flaxseed oil, fish oil, fatty fish, milk, whole eggs, lean meats, etc. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to keep your body hydrated. Get atleast 6 hours of sleep every night. Keep exercising but don't overdo it.

Let me know if you have any more questions.