Amount of calories calculated by MFP HELP!

ibach08
ibach08 Posts: 61 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So after I complete my entry for the day it say "if everyday was like this you would weigh xx in 5 weeks". I am current at 138 and would like to get to 125 which is 13 pound. I put my current weight and goal weight under "settings" and it calculates 1200 calories a day.
Today I ate about 1600 calories but i "earned" 800 from exercise so I only ate back 400 of those.
On a day like today where I am below on net calories the projected progress "if everyday was like this..." is NOT 2 pounds pr. week like I would like to loose.

So does MFP only let me loose the 2 pounds pr week if I am below 1200? This means that I can never eat back my exercise calories!

Does anyone have an answer?

THANKS!

Replies

  • Shayztar
    Shayztar Posts: 415 Member
    Short answer: MFP is a number-crunching calculator. It knows nothing except for what you tell it, correct information or not.

    Long answer: Read this link - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • cmcollins001
    cmcollins001 Posts: 3,472 Member
    It's going to be really really hard for you to lose 2 lbs a week if you only need to lose 13 lbs. Actually, the common healthy lose for your weight range is no more than .5 lb to at most 1 lb a week.

    But, to answer your question, you didn't post what MFP said you would lose in 5 weeks, you just said it wasn't 2 lbs a week, so more information would be useful.
  • hkry3250
    hkry3250 Posts: 140
    Apparently not, because like today, for me, "if every day was like today, I would weigh 266 in 5 weeks." That's roughly 6.5lbs a week for me to lose. If this doesn't answer your ??, please explain in greater detail.
  • Crazy4Healthy
    Crazy4Healthy Posts: 626 Member
    Some friendly advice, if you are only looking to lose 13 lbs, 2 lbs per week is way too high. You should lower it to .5 lb a week. It's very difficult to expect a 2 lbs weight loss with so little to lose (may seem like a lot, but not in the scheme of things). Based on what you have stated, you only netted about 800 calories today. Your body needs more than that just to survive. I wouldn't worry so much about what the "if everyday was like this..." states and go with what actually seems to be happening over the weeks.

    Edit: Looks like the poster above beat me to it. :laugh:
  • Shayztar
    Shayztar Posts: 415 Member
    To put it another way....

    MFP often takes 1000 calories away a day from the information you originally provide it (which is usually incorrect - human error and misinformation). The minimum amount of calories it will "tell you" to eat is 1200 and no less. To lose approx 2 lbs per week, you need a 7000 calorie deficit per week (1000 a day). It will not tell you less than that. using those parameters, yes, MFP will only tell you a max of 2 lbs per week, or 10 lbs from your current weight.

    The actual amount of weight you lose is up to you.

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