Are you really eating the # of calories MFP sets?

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jalenedyck
jalenedyck Posts: 17 Member
in Food and Nutrition
As a very active (5x per week weights, 5x per week running or elliptical and I waitress) 5'4" 29 YO women I just cannot see how I am suuposed to be eating only 1200 calories a day. I weigh 146 and am working on getting to 127. If you shouldn't eat less than your BMR that would give me a base minimum of 1460 a day right? How many should we really be eating?? Please help! Thanks so much!

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  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    did you set your goal for 2 lbs per week? thats really the only thing i could imagine
    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

    i eat what mfp says, but i set my goal to 2lbs a week for now. if i set it to 1 lb i would be at my bmr. the bigger deficit you create, the more you chance going below your bmr.
    did you include your exercise in your daily activity level? if not, you should log your exercise and eat those calories as well. MFP sets your dailt goal based on no exercise - so when you do some you should eat more.. on my heavy cardio days i eat 2200+ but my net is still 1520.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    I don't see how any active person could survive (and be healthy) on 1200 cals either.
    MFP will only have set this if you have chosen an unrealistic goal - the post above gives good advice on this.
    And remember that if you exercise, you get to eat back those calories and you still have a deficit to lose weight.
  • JennyAnn35
    JennyAnn35 Posts: 45
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    I eat between 1200-1300 a day most days, but I have a lot more weight to lose than you. You have to eat to keep yourself fueled, and you will find that once you input a hard workout it will allow you extra calories for that day if you want/need them.
  • Sophiepoo
    Sophiepoo Posts: 264 Member
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    Recently I've been so hungry that I've been hitting 1400 and more sometimes, sooo... yes!
  • Jessica_Sarah
    Jessica_Sarah Posts: 16
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    When I said I wanted to lose 2lbs a week, MFP gave me 1200 cals per day.
    When I changed it to losing 1lb a week, it upped to 1530. It's a big difference. You don't have much to loose so if I were you I'd change the settings until you get a higher calorie amount. Also, eat back you exercise cals ;)
  • Cilenia
    Cilenia Posts: 208 Member
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    I just filled in your details into the goals thingy here and it only tells you to eat 1200 cals when you want to loose 2 lbs a week. Wich at your weight and size is probably not the right setting. Loosing 2 lbs a week is good for people who need to loose loads, and you only want to loose a 'little' compared to a lot of others on here.

    I would change your setting to loose 1 lb a week and see how it goes
  • Nitachi
    Nitachi Posts: 142
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    As a very active (5x per week weights, 5x per week running or elliptical and I waitress) 5'4" 29 YO women I just cannot see how I am suuposed to be eating only 1200 calories a day. I weigh 146 and am working on getting to 127. If you shouldn't eat less than your BMR that would give me a base minimum of 1460 a day right? How many should we really be eating?? Please help! Thanks so much!

    Overtraining FTW

    Why on earth are you doing weights and cardio 5 times a week?

    Sometimes less is more....get a decent workout plan and stick with it. As for nutrition you might want to increase it slightly and keep an eye on your wieghtloss, if you haven't lost anything in 3 weeks make minor adjustments and repeat.
  • catcufflings
    catcufflings Posts: 41
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    As a very active (5x per week weights, 5x per week running or elliptical and I waitress) 5'4" 29 YO women I just cannot see how I am suuposed to be eating only 1200 calories a day. I weigh 146 and am working on getting to 127. If you shouldn't eat less than your BMR that would give me a base minimum of 1460 a day right? How many should we really be eating?? Please help! Thanks so much!

    i am eating the amount set for me.. but i weigh much more than you. I would say for you being an active person you would need more than 1200 calories though..
  • gatecityradio
    gatecityradio Posts: 401
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    I end up eating less, I like to have a 100-200 cal buffer just in case, but a lot of times I have a hard time reaching my net goal.
  • Moorlady
    Moorlady Posts: 3 Member
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    I had been thinking that my recommended daily intake on this site wasn't quite right for my goals, so I used this tool: http://www.healthycalculators.com/calories-intake-requirement.php. I put your numbers in (double check me), and depending on whether you exercise 3-5 times/week or 6-7 times/week, with the goal of losing 1 lb./week, you should be eating 1,743 to 1,996 calories per day. (If you're losing weight faster than you think you should, thus us an indication your daily calorie intake is too low.)

    I don't know what you're eating, but try to avoid a lot of simple carbohydrates (like baked goods). They're worth a lot of calories and they don't have a high sustained energy yield. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains, cereals, beans, fruits, and vegetables will give you more sustained energy for working out. I feel like I get hungry less often with complex carbohydrates.
  • jessersue
    jessersue Posts: 10 Member
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    You should watch your calorie deficit. It is recommended to have a calorie deficit between 500 and 1000 calories for weight loss. According to MFP your BMR is 1372. But then your also have your Active Metabolic Rate which is you BMR multiplied by your activity level. They are broken down into 4 groups
    1. Sedentary- you sit in a desk all day if so then multiple your bmr by 1.1
    2. Light - Are you on your feet more than half the day if so then multiple your bmr by 1.2
    3. Moderate- Are you on the move all dayif so then multiple your bmr by 1.3
    4. High- Are you always on the move and your job requires a lot of manual labor if so then multiple your bmr by 1.4

    You sound like you are a 3 so your AMR=1.3*1372=1783.6 then add your exercise onto that so lets say you do 30 min on the elliptical and 30 min strength training burning 500 calories. Your total calories burned for the day would be 2283, so you would want to eat no less than 1283 but could eat up to 1783 and lose about a pound a week.

    You can also modify your calorie goals on MFP under the MyHome tab section Goals, and once in change my goals select custom and you can change them to what ever you feel comfortable with.

    I hope this helps I am a little bigger than you and a little less active and I keep my calories right averaged around 1200 on day I don't work out which works for me to 1450 on days I do. Plus I have a few naughty days every once in awhile, where I don't even think about the calories.

    Source: Research I have done looking for the right calories settings for myself and the AMR calculations come from Jillian Michaels it has worked pretty well for me
  • jalenedyck
    jalenedyck Posts: 17 Member
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    I am doing the livefit trainer by Jamie Eason. It is a is a 5-6 day a week program. I love the muscle gain and feels so healthy but I am still figuring out the eating portion. There are meal plans that I follow that are approx 1700 cal/day so when MFP says 1200 it makes me unsure of what to do. Thanks for your input.

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