Daily Goal Calorie Intake Question?

iamthelie
iamthelie Posts: 19
in Health and Weight Loss
Why is my Daily Calorie goal so much higher than everyone elses that I have seen?
Mines like 1000 calories more then the majority of peoples I have seen.
Anyone tell me why? or the significance behind it?

Replies

  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Why is my Daily Calorie goal so much higher than everyone elses that I have seen?
    Mines like 1000 calories more then the majority of peoples I have seen.
    Anyone tell me why? or the significance behind it?

    Your daily calorie goal on MFP takes into account your height, age, sex, weight and daily activity level. There is also the factor of what you chose for a weekly weight loss goal, i.e. 1 lb per week, 1.5, 2.

    ETA - some people may have altered their goal. Others may be aiming for a weight loss goal per week that is too high for them (people often choose 2 lbs a week when that is not a reasonable goal for those with less than 75-100 lbs to lose).
  • hannah1011z
    hannah1011z Posts: 113 Member
    Most of us set our own,Mine technically with working out is about 2500 but I personally lowered it to 1200 because thats the calorie intake that causes the most efficient weight loss from what ive heard.
  • Etienne54
    Etienne54 Posts: 88 Member
    it proportion to how much you weight. The heavier you are, the more you need to consume so the body can function properly. That's why in many case of the infamous "manual" 1,200 calories roaming on this forum is nonsense. Few of my friends needs 3,000 calories daily intake just to lose weight and not fall under starvation mode.
  • hannah1011z
    hannah1011z Posts: 113 Member
    Yeah. Ive been losing about 2lbs a week. But im also drinking almost 2 gallons of water a day, taking a green tea supplement, and working out for an hour each day. 1200 keeps me full and happy and im full of energy and happier then ever. For people that 1200 is too hard, or it makes them tired and unhappy i wouldnt reccomend it.
  • natasa26ca
    natasa26ca Posts: 107 Member
    My goal is 1200 but it ends up at 1350 a day. I am at 137 lbs and i dont do much throughout my day other then 1h of exercise so my body doesnt require much energy. If i would eat more than 1500 a day, i would probably gain weight.
  • anne_adams284220
    anne_adams284220 Posts: 2 Member
    iamthelie wrote: »
    Why is my Daily Calorie goal so much higher than everyone elses that I have seen?
    Mines like 1000 calories more then the majority of peoples I have seen.
    Anyone tell me why? or the significance behind it?

    Same!! I went from about 215 to 175 with noom at 1200calories/day but then stalled hard and I was STARVING all the time! I got a fitbit and found I was burning about 2400 calories/day (still not sure how accurate that is if someone wants to enlighten me!) and not wearing it to bed. I'm working on figuring out where I need to be to lose weight and not be so hungry all the time. I'm trying 1800 cal/day now and seem to be losing but slower (down to about 167 until I went bananas with a bad week!). I'm trying to gauge my hunger better to see if I can maintain this goal but some days it still seems like not enough. Has anyone been successful with their weight loss switching to a higher calorie intake?
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    edited June 2021
    also replying because this is a new reply.

    I hate math. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. It gives me anxiety. I made it a whole freaking 9 months just letting mfp do my goals and math.

    I finally, finally, broke and did my own because guessing at my calorie needs was not working very well. (Note: I don't log exercise separately, as MFP is designed to do. I use a TDEE method) . I went to the report tab and the weightloss graph for 30 days to see what I had lost in 30 days.

    That was 5lbs.

    Then I multiplied that number by 3500 (amount of cals required to lose or gain a pound of fat).

    That number was 17500

    Then divided that by 30 (days in the month I used).

    That number was 583.3. That was my rough daily deficit in order to have lost what I lost. Not exact, but more personalized than the calculator

    Given that I was attempting at 250 cal deficit at this point (I'm into vanity weight and 'I dont' actually know if I want to lose more land), I... adjusted some things and eat more and feel better.

    I'll have to do this again periodically, but it was worth facing the whole 'math thing'.
  • candysashab88
    candysashab88 Posts: 71 Member
    mine is lower because IM short, i want to lose 2lbs a week ( though that remains to be seen), and my age and Im sedentary as well. I work on a computer all day so there's not much movement. I look at these targets that may need to be adjusted to my reality.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,965 Member
    candysashab88 wrote: »
    mine is lower because IM short, i want to lose 2lbs a week ( though that remains to be seen), and my age and Im sedentary as well. I work on a computer all day so there's not much movement. I look at these targets that may need to be adjusted to my reality.

    I'm only 5'5" (which is not short, but average), age 65, and sedentary outside of the exercise I eat back (retired). I should've said that. The numbers suggest that women who are older, shorter, less active *may* need to eat as low as 1200 to lose weight, but it's not true for all. (MFP's estimates do take age into account.)

    If you have enough current weight to support losing healthfully at 2 pounds a week, and 1200 does that for you, that's great. As you say, it's a good plan for each of us to run that 4-6 week experiment, then adjust to personal reality, since all of these numbers are just estimates, until we see our real-world results.

    Many around here think it's wise to lose no more than 0.5%-1% of current body weight weekly, with a bias toward the lower end of that, especially when getting closer to goal weight. For the person who posted recently (not those people from 2013) at 167 pounds, that would be about 0.8-1.6 pounds per week. (I should've said that previously, too 😉.) I suggested 1 pound per week.

    She has a Fitbit suggesting she's burning around 2400 calories daily (which is not crazy high). Eating 1200 would be about 2.4 pounds loss a week, crazy fast for someone at 167 pounds IMO, though likely to lead to some pseudo-stalling on the scale due to cortisol-related water weight weirdness and temporary adaptive thermogenesis, so that 2.4 pounds might not really show up on the scale as expected.

    She did not indicate her age, looks fairly young in her profile photo, but IMO, the older we are, there's more tendency to be less physically resilient. Since a big calorie deficit (fast loss) is a physical stressor, I'd argue that older folks like me should typically be more conservative, go for a slower than maximum loss rate, for health preservation reasons. (MFP estimated that I needed to eat 1200+exercise for reasonable loss. It was incorrect, I lost too fast, got weak & fatigued, took weeks to recover - not good. I'm not saying that specific experience would generalize to others my age, because the statistical estimates like MFP's are close for most. As a practical matter, my current calorie needs are around the 2400 that the PP says her Fitbit is estimating - in a personalized estimate - for her. That's why I was saying it was quite possible that she'd lose fine at higher than 1200.)

    I get that slow loss can be frustrating, but fast loss increases health risks. Others may differ, but I prefer the lower end of the risk spectrum, and as a bonus higher calories are easier to stick to, which is (1) more likely to work out if substantial weight needs to be loss, because it's easier to stick with long enough to succeed, and (2) is better practice for eventual weight maintenance.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,886 Member
    candysashab88 wrote: »
    mine is lower because IM short, i want to lose 2lbs a week ( though that remains to be seen), and my age and Im sedentary as well. I work on a computer all day so there's not much movement. I look at these targets that may need to be adjusted to my reality.

    How many pounds do you want to lose total? After watching The Biggest Loser, I thought 2lbs a week was a reasonable goal, but with the amount of weight I needed to lose that thought did not last past lunch.

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  • RosyBest
    RosyBest Posts: 303 Member
    Depends on ypur weight and your goals. So naturally everyone is at a different colorie goals

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