How many calories do I need?

daryltoogood

I have only been doing MFP for two days, third day today..

Day 1 I just ate normally and logged it to see what my 'naughty' days were - I was over 1000 calories over my MFP allowance!!
Day 2 I was pretty good (although a colleague bought my a cake and I had two glasses of wine in the evening) - I was only 500 calories over.

Day 2 I ate pretty healthily and can only see a few ways of reducing my calorie intake, but I know that I will strggle to keep it that low.

MFP says that I should be on 1590 calories, however a different site, fat2fitradio, suggested that I should be on 2578....

I used the same information on both sites but got almost 1000 calorie difference!!

Which should I be?

5ft 8in
Male
Current Weight - 221.8lb
Goal Weight - 190lb
Lightly Active

Aiming for a 2lb a week weight loss

Thanks

Jesse_Hunter

It sounds like The other app isn't calculating all of the variables that MFP is (or vise versa).

You have you MFP set to calculate you the most strictly deficient calorie intake possible, Which means you want to shed the fat off as quickly as you can while still staying within a healthy calorie range. 1500 calories is more than sufficent to keep you healthy while remaining deficient. Granted, You are making sure that you are eating back all of the calories you burn during exercise (This I can't stress enough).

Good luck on your journey!

samtrois

I'd suggest just trying to first keep steady at 1lb a week. then gradually upping it to 1.5 - 2.

Once you've been on it a while you will start to find healthier options and learn to stay away from more of the bad ones (hopefully)

DanStone

Just minus 200-300 calores a day of your recommded amount?

chevy88grl

With only 30lbs to lose, setting your weight loss for 2lbs per week may be difficult to achieve. The closer you are to your ideal body weight, the harder it is to lose weight. I would personally switch it to either .5lb or 1lb a week loss and see how it goes.

Jesse_Hunter

I'd suggest just trying to first keep steady at 1lb a week. then gradually upping it to 1.5 - 2.

Once you've been on it a while you will start to find healthier options and learn to stay away from more of the bad ones (hopefully)

I agree, These programs are actually very flexible in terms of how you go about losing the weight. I frenquently adjust weekly loss(pound) in order to accomodate my exercise . On my days off of work, I know that I will probably burn 1500-2000 calories cycling (per day). On these days, I will set my goals to "2 pound loss per week". On work days when i am in and out of the gym fairly quick and burn maybe 3-400 calories, I will adjust my goals to "1 pound loss per week". See, Either way, It's a win win situation!

megsmom2

MFP builds in a deficit, other programs don't do that, so that accounts for some of that difference. On MFP you also eat back yourvexercise calories so there's more difference. I like this system. Its flexible and easy to understand.

chapparra27

I am 5'5 206 very active and MFP says I should only be eating 1420 a day. Now I am really confused. I burn 6-800 a day at the gym. Why is some one who is less active alotted more calories than some one who is very active? I also have a goal of 2 pounds a week.

Smuterella

^ if someone is bigger to start with, or male, then they will automatically need more calories.

OK. this all depends on how much you have to lose - the more you have to lose, the buigger the deficit so:

20lbs or less - set MFP to 0.5lbs a week
20-50lbs - 1lb
50 + you can probably get away with 2lbs a week for awhile

Also - you only log workouts that you have not already included in your assessment of your activity level. So, if you picked moderately active because you gym it for an hour 6 times a week, don't log those workouts and get the calories back, they are already included in your basic goal.