Reaching Daily Calories

thegoya

After determining that females should never go below 1,200 calories a day (even for someone 5 ft ) with the great help of MFP, I find that I reach and often exceed my protein and fat percentages without coming close to 1,200 calories; I deliberately keep the carbs on the low-mid to high-mid side without depriving myself of clean carbs.
I have an additional 20 pounds to lose and after yo yo dieting for way too long I am determined not to go back into starvation mode. I am currently exercisng (again) and I eat clean (vegetables, seeds, nuts, lean protein, whole grains) with no refined or packaged foods, no red or white meat, very little dairy and nothing startchy.
Is there a formula or a way to take the foods I eat and determine how I can reach the 1,200 calories and stay within the nutritional percentages that have been determined by the system based on my personal data?
Any advice would be so appreciated. Thanks.

jan5555

MFP sets the carb percentage kind of high as the default. You can change it under "goals" to something more reasonable for the carb goals you want. I set mine at C/P/F 40/30/30, which seems to be what many others on this site do as well. Or you can drop the carb amount even lower and up the protein higher. It really is a matter of what works best for your body/energy levels.

susannamarie

Set your goals differently. Mine are currently 45/30/25 c/f/p. Also you can't hit your calorie goal AND your macro goal exactly imo. I try to keep the carbs under my current goal but don't worry about the other two, except I try to get ENOUGH protein.

thegoya

Thanks so much, great advice...I just changed my 'goals' and the totals seem a lot more manageable. I'll be able to add more protein and hopefully come a lot closer to 1,200 calories.