Calorie Formula - MFP's # Doesn't make sense

CoachReddy

Exactly.

Your body has to adjust to lower caloric intake. If you don't get hungry at the beginning of your diet, then what's the point of a diet? Your body is SUPPOSED to be craving more, because you're USED to more. Food can become like a drug.

a lot of different things work. everyone's body works differently. there's no ONE correct way.

AnvilHead

nope! you have to add the calories you burn while exercising to that number, then create a deficit for yourself if you're looking to lose weight (about 500 cal or so)

so if MFP says you need to eat 2000 cal/day, and you burn 400 exercising, you'd need to eat 2,400 calories to MAINTAIN your weight. If you want to LOSE weight, knock off up to 500 from that 2,400 and you're at 1,900/day.

That's how you figure it out.

Personally I just use a BMR calculator instead of whatever MFP's algorithm is.

Once again, you're incorrect. When MFP sets up your calories, there is a deficit already built in. The size of the deficit is based upon how many pounds per week you've specified that you want to lose. No matter what you put down about your exercise habits, MFP does not subtract exercise calories until you log them on the exercise page. At that point, you've deepened your deficit from what it was originally set at, and eating the exercise calories back brings you back to your original deficit.

Seriously, "coach" - you may want to stick with giving advice about BeachBody products, as I'm sure you're quite adept in that arena - but the advice you've been dispensing about other health/nutrition matters is either outdated and/or outright incorrect.

sixout

Deal with the hunger. Your body will get used to it.

A better answer would be HOW to deal with the hunger. Perhaps OP isn't getting enough protein and fiber? Or maybe he needs to drink more water?

Responses like this are not helpful; they're solely judgemental and holier-than-thou. Being hungry all the time is one of the main reasons people give up, so it's better to help them work through it than to tell them to "deal". I'm all for tough love, but that was just stupid.

So my opinion on the matter is stupid? Sweet.

I eat less calories than that, and am only slightly shorter. I've been losing weight like a champ. Why? Because I dealt with hunger. Hunger eases as your body adjusts to lower calorie intake. The entire point of a diet is to be calorie deficient. So yes, you will be hungry. Yes you will have to deal.

But hey, I'm just stupid with my silly idea that has made me lose quiet a bit of weight.

"i eat less calories than that"

fewer. fewer is the correct word usage.

plus you need to take a chill pill.

I was actually quite chill there. Maybe tell the one throwing around insults to chill instead?

And yes, there are many different ways to lose weight. I merely offered the way that has worked for me.

waldo56

My point is that the math can be overwhelming....

This is so sad.

Calorie math is elementary school level stuff.

CoachReddy

nope! you have to add the calories you burn while exercising to that number, then create a deficit for yourself if you're looking to lose weight (about 500 cal or so)

so if MFP says you need to eat 2000 cal/day, and you burn 400 exercising, you'd need to eat 2,400 calories to MAINTAIN your weight. If you want to LOSE weight, knock off up to 500 from that 2,400 and you're at 1,900/day.

That's how you figure it out.

Personally I just use a BMR calculator instead of whatever MFP's algorithm is.

Once again, you're incorrect. When MFP sets up your calories, there is a deficit already built in. The size of the deficit is based upon how many pounds per week you've specified that you want to lose. No matter what you put down about your exercise habits, MFP does not subtract exercise calories until you log them on the exercise page. At that point, you've deepened your deficit from what it was originally set at, and eating the exercise calories back brings you back to your original deficit.

Seriously, "coach" - you may want to stick with giving advice about BeachBody products, as I'm sure you're quite adept in that arena - but the advice you've been dispensing about other health/nutrition matters is either outdated and/or outright incorrect.

you know nothing about me, nothing about what i do, and you have no idea what knowledge I do or don't possess. let's stop making assumptions ok? I've never personally used MFP's numbers because they've always come out wrong for me, so I do it myself. The formula I laid out makes perfect sense and it works. I apologize for not fully understanding the ins and outs of how MFP comes to the numbers it does.

777twist

I don't know if the OP ever got this answered to his satisfaction... but I was kind of in the same boat until I realized how MFP was calculating things.

First off, if you set your numbers under your "edit profile" to be...
- Sedentary
- Maintain Weight
- No Exercise

You should get a number that reflects how much you can eat, being a sloth and still not gaining any weight. My personal number (and I'm 10 years older at 41) is 2770. Personally based on my experience, not sure I buy that. I feel like I can eat about 3000 - 3400 cal/day and maintain. I will touch on this later... but lets use their number and move on.

Now, no one is really sedentary... again unless you are a sloth. So if you have any kind of job, if you leave the house to do things daily, I would select at least Light Active. For me, that takes my number to 2990.

Now here is the key to all of this. Do not count the exercises you do in this activity number. Think of the activity number as those things you do that aren't sports, isn't working out and isn't something out of the ordinary (even strolls on the beach shouldn't be counted). What you want to do is count your exercise in your exercise goals. So say you want to workout 60min x 3 days, and 30min x 2 days. Put down 4 days at 60 mins.

Now, this will seem odd, because if you were to finish the calculations, your cal/day number will still be 2990. Seems wrong right? Okay, lets move on and see what's happening.

Next, obviously we want to lose weight... and we want to lose it at 2lbs a day. So make that your setting. Since 1lbs of fat = 3500 calories, divided by 7 days gives us 500cal. Multiple by 2, since we want to lose pounds, and that means we have to drop our cal/day by 1000. So my number shows as 1990. Well, I can tell you, that BLOWS! I can't imagine doing exercises and only eating that much.

But here is the Ah-ha moment:

On the results page "Your Suggested Fitness and Nutrition Goals" will show your Nutritional Goals, and my number is the 1990, but if you look at your Fitness Goals, you will have another number there... my says 2560 cal/WEEK. And if I break that down to 7 days, that means I can eat an extra 366 cal/day. For a total of 2356. That's much more reasonable for me.

So why don't they just include those calories in our Nutritional Targets... well, because they are doing it the RIGHT WAY! If you skip a workout and your daily intake target is 366cal higher, that means you have eaten too much. MFP makes you earn those exercise calories by actually doing the work first.

Now, I do want to revisit the formula they use and the possibility of the number being a little low... I think I read they use the "Mifflin-St Jeor" formula which isn't bad... but I have read that the "Katch-McArdle" is more accurate (though it gives us even less calories to work with). That being said... If you still think the calorie target MFP gives you is too low, I would adjust your Activity Level to compensate. In other words, pick a higher activity level, which will increase your base calories. For me it increased by 220/day. So I will just see how I fair over the course of 4 - 6 weeks at 2210 cal/day, plus my exercise cals when I do in fact exercise. If I'm meeting my goals and the weight is coming off... GREAT, I will keep going. If not, then I may need to eat less or work out more. And in that case, I will re-adjust my activity level back down one notch to the 1990 cal/day target.

I hope this helps anyone who was looking at the math thinking it was wrong.

Good luck!

Francesco (aka SeveTwist)