Questions from a newbie to the site

Mandanbil

I joined MFP last week weighing 266 lbs and I input my details saying I wanted to lose 2lbs a week, I was given daily calories of 1540 and my first week I lost 6lbs.

Having now read some of the forum posts I went to Fat2Fit radio to find out my BMR which says is 1871 (MFP says it is 1832) and I worked out my TDEE Sedentary (I walk the dog for about half an hour a day slowly as he is 13) is 2245. I took off 15 per cent from this and it gives me 1909 calories. My height is 5 ft 6 inches (UK measurements) and I am female.

If I tell MFP I want to lose only 1lb a week it gives me a calorie figure of 1790 before exercise. As both figures from MFP are below my BMR I know do not know what calorie figure I should be following. Obviously I have a long way to go in my weight loss journey and I am feeling guilty if I eat over 1540 calories as I saw such a good weight loss in my first week.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanking you in advance

photojunk

For me to maintain my current weight i could eat around 1500 calories a day.
but because i'm trying to lose weight before exercise i am on the 1200 cal day limit, this creates a 300 cal deficit a day without me having to exercise, if i exercise i then eat back the exercise calories. and i still have the same deficit of 300 calories a day.
This is how i am doing it at the moment, i may have it completely wrong.

I did read somewhere that if you eat for the BMR at your final goal weight then you should get to your goal weight, at 5ft 1 and wanting to weigh 115lbs that puts me at about 1350 a day without exercise. I have lost 8lbs in as many weeks so i think i'm on the right track. what i would say is work out your bmr and eat to create a deficit so you lose weight, or eat your BMr cals but exercise to create a deficit.

Mandanbil

Thank you for your input, I have a lot to learn so appreciate it

ladyraven68

For me to maintain my current weight i could eat around 1500 calories a day.
but because i'm trying to lose weight before exercise i am on the 1200 cal day limit, this creates a 300 cal deficit a day without me having to exercise, if i exercise i then eat back the exercise calories. and i still have the same deficit of 300 calories a day.
This is how i am doing it at the moment, i may have it completely wrong.

I did read somewhere that if you eat for the BMR at your final goal weight then you should get to your goal weight, at 5ft 1 and wanting to weigh 115lbs that puts me at about 1350 a day without exercise. I have lost 8lbs in as many weeks so i think i'm on the right track. what i would say is work out your bmr and eat to create a deficit so you lose weight, or eat your BMr cals but exercise to create a deficit.

you are confusing BMR for TDEE. your sentence should say

I did read somewhere that if you eat for the TDEE at your final goal weight then you should get to your goal weight, at 5ft 1 and wanting to weigh 115lbs that puts me at about 1350 a day without exercise. I have lost 8lbs in as many weeks so i think i'm on the right track. what i would say is work out your TDEE and eat to create a deficit so you lose weight, or eat your TDEE cals but exercise to create a deficit.

Sharonks

The first week or so you will often lose a lot of water.

Pick a method and stick to it for a few weeks and see what happens then change if things aren't working well.

I think I heard that if you had a lot of weight to lose the fat2fit calcs don't work as well.

For me it gave me a BMR of 1260 and said I should be eating about 1500 cals a day. MFP says I should eat 1200 plus exercise which works out to about 1500 cals a day. My compromise is my MFP base cals is 1260 and I eat my exercise cals back. My weight loss is set for .4 lb per week and I average that although I have some weeks I don't lose or even gain and then I have weeks I loose a pound or more. Perhaps if you are close to goal the number kind of converge to find a pretty similar amount.