Calorie Count Requirements

mdeep04

Hi everyone. I am just asking today a few questions about calorie counts... I'm a bit confused.
I am 5' 5" - weight currently 227.2 - and MFP tells me to eat 1260 calories a day.
But so many sites have told me different, and I see on here calorie counts from 1200-1800.
Is the MFP count reliable for my type? Am I eating to little? I'm still getting used to a lower calorie count, I probably ate 2000 a day before I started dieting. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

khall86790

With MFP, 1260 calories per day is your net calorie goal, meaning that if you exercise every day and say you burn 200 calories, you actually need to eat 1460 calories to hit your goal.

I expect other websites have been TDEE calculators, which accounts for your exercise and daily activities and therefore you eat just to that amount and don't add your exercise calories on top.
That should be where you are seeing the difference.

Personally, I've found TDEE works better for me as I don't have to guess on exercise calories and it gives me more calories per day to consume. It tends to be where most people find success long term. MFP put me on 1200 cals when I first started and it worked great for maybe 2 months then I stalled big time.

shadow2soul

Depends on a lot of factors.

1) Did you correctly choose your activity level.
2) If you chose 2lbs a week loss and set your activity level to sedentary, that would explain the low calories.
3) MFP is designed so that you eat exercise calories back. So if you say have a goal of 1200 and an exercise burn of 400, then you should eat 1600 calories total for a net of 1200.

I personally eat more than 1200 calories. I have mfp and my fitbit set to give me a 500 calorie deficit a day (1lb a week), which means my goal is to net 1560 calories per day (total calories is usually 1700 - 2000+). My daily calorie burn still seems to be underestimated (losing at roughly 2lbs a week since March 13).

You just have to find what's best for you. For me, I can't even image eating so few calories.

mdeep04

Thanks for the input everyone. I am pretty sedentary during the day because most of the work I do is computer based. I do exercise now 3-7 times a week depending upon how I am feeling and my schedule, so I will look into the other info you both mentioned and find what works best for me, because I am really struggling on 1200 calories, I think even another 100 would help cause by the time I go to bed I'm hungry, even with drinking lots of water.

msurads06

You could manually set your calories if you want to. I almost never hit my calorie limit no matter where it is set, I will usually leave 1-200cal on the table at the end of the day (Not necessarily intentional, more psychological) so I set MFP and FB at loose 1/2 lb/week then added about 50 cal to my limit. I still leave those cals but now I am not under eating (except the last two days where work has just been too busy to have time to eat and I have spent the whole day on my feet). and I have lost 1.2 lbs this week. If you think having 100 extra calories a day go into your goals and tell it to set custom and tell mfp your limit is 1300, yes it may make a slight difference in the speed with which you loose weight but if it helps you stick with it it will be worth it.

Also if you feel like you are eating too little, you might set you limit to loose less the first few weeks the increase the amount you want to loose. EX: set limit to 1/2-1 lb for a few weeks then increase to 1.5-2lbs.

melindasuefritz

1800 caleries

jwdieter

More vegetable volume would probably help. The crackers are probably making you hungrier. Also, 1200 is probably a bit too large of a chunk to jump straight into.

keelerangela

I am your same weight but taller and it gives me 1850 for 1lb loss a week

mdeep04

Yea, I ate a lot of crackers today because of not feeling well. I'm hoping to go to the store tomorrow and going to pick up more veggies. I really appreciate everyone's input, this is a big help

mdeep04

Alrighty so I changed myself to 1 LB a week, and I am now at around 1700 calories a day. I will try this for a while and see how my results are with exercise for a few weeks and also see if it's too much.

RobinsEgg

mdeep - I commend you for reaching out and getting info you need to figure out where to set your calorie count. Do try to follow the 1700 cal. figure for several weeks, not just for a week or two. Give it time to work for you and your body. But be rigorous about logging every bite you eat. One thing you can do is, if you do go over your 1700 calories one day is just short yourself calories the next day to make up for it, and try and even things out over your seven day week. Don't freak out if you eat 1800 cal. one day and 1600 cal. another day. Let the week average out and its a bit easier.

Do your exercise, whatever it is, and be consistent about it, and you will be happy with your results.

mdeep04

Thank you! I really appreciate that. It's a good tip too about going over. It will give me good time to figure out what is right for me.