How do I change.....

kimg68

My daily calories on MFP? The BMR calculator has me at 1350, but on my diary it has me at 1200 per day. Is that how it should be?

LorinaLynn

First, be sure you have your activity level and weekly weight loss goal set correctly. With 11 pounds to lose, you should aim for .5 pounds a week. That in itself will give you more calories. Also, I'm of the opinion that very few people truly are sedentary. Lightly active is a better choice for most people, but if you do that, don't log normal activity as exercise (ie, cleaning, shopping) unless it's far above and beyond your normal lifestyle. (At lightly active, I don't count basic cleaning, but I will count major cleaning that requires moving furniture, and stuff like shoveling snow in the winter or mowing the lawn in the summer.)

You can also manually change your settings if you go to goals and choose "custom goals." You can select the amount of calories you want, and change your macro ratios. MFP's protein goal is quite low, and I personally do best at 50% carbs, 25% fat and 25% protein. Since you're a runner training for a half, you probably don't want to go too low on carbs either.

rides4sanity

MFP is all about numbers, but you have to give it the proper parameters and input for it to be effective. If you tell it you want to lose 2 lbs a week it will subtract the approriate # of calories from your calculated maintanence value. It will not take this number below 1200 (pre-set minimum), but it will let it fall below your BRM if you BMR is above 1200. It really isn't a great idea to eat below Basal Metabolic Rate, as that is an estimated number of calories your body burns even if you are in a coma. You may need to use a more conservative weight loss plan, say 0.5lb/week if you have less than 15 pounds to lose.

126siany

If you want to set custom goals (calories or nutrient targets):

Go to MY HOME

Then click on Goals

Then Change Goals

Then Custom Goals

Click the green Continue button

Enter your custom information

The click the green Change Goals button.

kimg68

Thanks for the tips, I changed my weight loss to 0.5lbs a week, and it upped my calories to around 1300. I'm heistant to change my activity level because I'm an Executive Assistant, so I sit at my desk most of the day, and I drive 3 hours a day to and from work. So from 6:00am - 6:00pm, I spend the majority of my time sitting on my @ss. I don't feel like I know enough about the "numbers" yet to set custom goals, I'm trying to educate myself more on nutrition and what my individual needs are. Going to be a lot of trial and error I'm sure, but I've got nothing but time Thanks again for the responses.