How did everyone choose their calorie goal

LorinaLynn

Whether I use MFP numbers (base + exercise calories) or TDEE based numbers, they end up being pretty close. MFP is a little bit low for me, though, unless I amp up my activity level really high and eat all my exercise calories.

I recently switched to eating a little below my TDEE (since I only log on weekdays, I wanted to give myself a little wiggle room on weekends) and it's much easier eating about the same amount every day rather than high days on days with a lot of exercise and low days on rest days. My appetite doesn't always coincide with my activity... if I run 8 miles, my appetite is dead for the day, but I'm famished the next.

SheilaN1976

i use MFP and nothing else

SideSteel

I used the information contained in this thread:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121703981


I chose Katsch-McArdle and set a 20% deficit and my results panned out pretty accurately based on that calculator.

waldo56

^^^ THIS! I started doing this a few weeks ago and it has been working out really well for me... My favorite thing about this approach is that I no longer get upset if the scale bounces up from water retention or whatever.... I just watch my trend line and know that my weight isn't really up. I think this method will be key for me during maintenance... Very freeing to not be scared of the scale anymore after a night out with friends or a holiday celebration!

The scale becomes a tool, not the enemy. When the number is consistently higher than you expect for a little bit, either you are retaining water and a whoosh is just around the corner, your metabolism has shifted, or you have bumped into the maximum sustainable fat loss rate wall (which will cause a massive drop in your measurable metabolism that is easily fixed by increasing calorie intake, decreasing your deficit).

SavageFeast

I went to http://www.thefitgirls.com/tdee-calculator.aspx and calculated my BMR and TDEE. Then I chose a number between the two as my daily calorie allowance. It's worked so far!

boudrfra

I don't see it as a diet but more like a lifestyle. I usually will eat back half my calories I burn in a workout.

DebraAukett

I set mine to lose 1.5 pounds per week and I eat my exercise calories back, it works well for me.

marie_2454

I have mine set to my BMR (1,550) and don't eat my exercise calories back. That plus lifting weights and running is what works best for me. I think you should pick a number and stick with it for at least 2 weeks, then re-evaluate. Good luck!

belladonna786

My TDEE minus 20% for now, we will see if I need to adjust that percentage

fbmandy55

I used the calories set by MFP when i started. I was eating around 1200-1300 calories for a year and lost about 47lbs. Then I plateaued for months and the weight crept back on. 20lbs. I cannot stress enough, that MFP's sets you up very low and I believe that to be the cause of many people's plateaus and failure to maintain.

I found eat more to weigh less group and I'm sticking to it. At first 2000 calories to reset my metabolism sounded good but I felt so bloated the first two weeks. Now that has passed and the number on the scale has maintained but I feel "skinny" my clothes feel great and my belly feels more flat. I'm going ot lower to 1900 since I have maintained but I high recommend anyone use a TDEE/BMR calculator to determine goals. The science just makes sense. Like this one:http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

zyxst

Once I got a Fitbit and had something giving me a number for TDEE, I just took off 20% and eat that every day.

Online calculators and even the heralded In Place of a Road Map confused me. I fall between lightly and moderately active. I certainly didn't want to be driven to binging because I was undereating and I didn't want to eat too much. I don't follow the MFP plan; I just use the site to track sodium and calories.

BH_Holl

^^^ THIS! I started doing this a few weeks ago and it has been working out really well for me... My favorite thing about this approach is that I no longer get upset if the scale bounces up from water retention or whatever.... I just watch my trend line and know that my weight isn't really up. I think this method will be key for me during maintenance... Very freeing to not be scared of the scale anymore after a night out with friends or a holiday celebration!

The scale becomes a tool, not the enemy. When the number is consistently higher than you expect for a little bit, either you are retaining water and a whoosh is just around the corner, your metabolism has shifted, or you have bumped into the maximum sustainable fat loss rate wall (which will cause a massive drop in your measurable metabolism that is easily fixed by increasing calorie intake, decreasing your deficit).

EXACTLY!!! It's great to be able to make minor adjustments and get positive results vs letting things get out of control and needing to do major work to correct the current path.

mandy031383

Bump

waldo56

I used the calories set by MFP when i started. I was eating around 1200-1300 calories for a year and lost about 47lbs. Then I plateaued for months and the weight crept back on. 20lbs. I cannot stress enough, that MFP's sets you up very low and I believe that to be the cause of many people's plateaus and failure to maintain.

Its only very low and the cause of failure and plateaus when people buy into this don't eat your exercise calories back nonsense or they continuously make systemmic "safe" errors that causes their estimating to be garbage.

MFP is designed to include exercise calories as negative calories, and designed to use right numbers as opposed to safe numbers. Miss on both of these items and your 1000 cal/day deficit can easily become 1500+ cal/day, in which case you're going to plateau sooner rather than later and in general struggle constantly.

Likewise thereis no disclaimer that unless you've got 30-40+ pounds to lose, chances are a 2 lb/wk goal is too high to be reasonably sustainable and that you will have lots of frustrating plateau problems. Most set it up far too aggressively.

The EM2WL group/methodology provides a solution for these common MFP problems which is why it works so well. But these problems are user error, not an inherent flaw in MFP. To use MFP as is people have to realize that safe estimating is terrible estimating and that exercise calories must be accounted for, and being overaggressive leads to plateaus and stalls.

nphect

my TDEE is 2400 calories.

1900 = 1lb a week
1400 = 2 lbs a week

i usually burn about 500-1300 calories a day depending on exercise.

i usually eat anywhere from 1400 to 2500 calories a day depending on exercise.

just find your TDEE and cut back from that whatever you want to loose, and the more you exercise, the more calories that are added to your TDEE

good thing about lots of exercise (above 1000), is that you can safely cut more than 1000 calories out of your diet, so you can loose more than 2 lbs a week (healthily)

fbmandy55

I used the calories set by MFP when i started. I was eating around 1200-1300 calories for a year and lost about 47lbs. Then I plateaued for months and the weight crept back on. 20lbs. I cannot stress enough, that MFP's sets you up very low and I believe that to be the cause of many people's plateaus and failure to maintain.

Its only very low and the cause of failure and plateaus when people buy into this don't eat your exercise calories back nonsense or they continuously make systemmic "safe" errors that causes their estimating to be garbage.

MFP is designed to include exercise calories as negative calories, and designed to use right numbers as opposed to safe numbers. Miss on both of these items and your 1000 cal/day deficit can easily become 1500+ cal/day, in which case you're going to plateau sooner rather than later and in general struggle constantly.

Likewise thereis no disclaimer that unless you've got 30-40+ pounds to lose, chances are a 2 lb/wk goal is too high to be reasonably sustainable and that you will have lots of frustrating plateau problems. Most set it up far too aggressively.

The EM2WL group/methodology provides a solution for these common MFP problems which is why it works so well. But these problems are user error, not an inherent flaw in MFP. To use MFP as is people have to realize that safe estimating is terrible estimating and that exercise calories must be accounted for, and being overaggressive leads to plateaus and stalls.

The exercise calories are much different. With MFP original set up I always ate back. Now I don't and usually don't even log exercise, just make it a point to do something to move my body and get my HR up daily.