Question on daily calorie goal

pinkupooh

hi! My BMR was calculated to be around 1500, I set to lose 2 lb each week, MFP gave me my dail intake should be 1200 calories, isn't it too less if my BMR is 1500? I do work full time and do light house work during day. I just want to know as I don't want to eat too less and not lose at all. Please help me out with these calculations...:)

kimy701

Hi, I am having the same problem. I got a calorie count also of 1200 per day. It has been very hard to follow and I have been doing it for a few weeks now. And I am a stay at home mom, moderately active at home, I try to work out at least 3-4 times a week. I never know if these tools to measure BMR are right or not.

pinkupooh

Thanks for your response Kimy701, hopefully, someonoe who has been on MFP will help us out.
I did lose 2.6 lb my first week, but I am just scared that my body will go into starving mode and stop loosing, I just need to see myself losing about 1.5-2.0 lb each week for first few weeks to keep going.

Gwoman2012

You are going to have to change your goal to 1 lb/week to up the calories. MFP can go under your BMR in this situation (not much to lose and 2 lb a week goal).

I have 20 lbs to lose and set my goal to .5/week.

gemiwing

MFP is a computer program- sometimes they're wrong. You are right to eat AT LEAST your BMR.

BMR is the amount you would be fed through a tube if you were in a coma. You want to eat more than that if you get up and walk about at all- and it sounds like you're quite busy.

broox80

I am really glad that someone posted this and there were real concrete answers to the question!!! I wondered this myself. I am currently not trying to lose, bun in oven , but when I first joined my daily goal was set at 1200. I too thought this was too low. My BMR said 1600. I am on 1800 now and thought, I will starve if I have to go from 1800 to 1200 after I have the baby!!!!!!! I do exercise a lot, but try to save my exercise cals for something special so I dont cry in my spicy garlic wings at BWW . Thanks everyone for the information!!!!!

shortysinsane

If you enter in your daily exercise, even gardening, housekeeping or whatever, the system gives you credit on your calories, so you can eat more. I think its pretty accurate. I also agree that you need to look more at a range of loss and not a firm 2lbs. Although, that would be nice. If your goal is more like .5 lbs, it's more realistic and less disappointing and healthy!!! I just remind myself that in order to lose a pound, you have to have a 3500 calorie deficit.

MinnieInMaine

I agree that you need to change your weight loss goal. Not sure where this came from but it's a great great guideline for setting weekly weight loss goals:

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.

1200 is the minimum # of calories for women to make sure they are getting proper nutrition.

BMR is an estimate of the # of calories you'd burn if you were in a coma (what your body needs just to function - breathing, circulation, healing, etc). Therefore, usually if you eat somewhere between 1200 and your BMR, you're you're still likely to lose. Of course it does depend on your size - a slender petite sedentary woman doesn't need as many calories as a woman who's 5'7", slightly overweight but very active - so try playing around with your calories a bit, make sure your activity level is correct and give every change 3 to 4 weeks to show it's effects. Patience is needed in this process!
Good luck!

carly_pear

Very good information!!! Thank you!:bigsmile:

pinkupooh

thank you all so much for really good and helpful info. I really appreciate and I am certainly glad that I posted my question here.
Would it be ok to maintain 1200 cals for a couple of weeks to see some results to motivate me and then set it back to 1lb a week?
Would that do any harm to my body and path to losing weight?

Sparklie23

Eating less is not necessarily better for everyone. For myself I barely lost anything when I first started MFP (1200cal). I ended up changing my goal to 1lb/week and the weight started going down I would absolutely lose as much as I can in as little time as I want too, but unfortunately it's just not working for me...I hate logic! haha !

JustLiftJess

also make sure you have your activity level set correctly on MFP huge difference!