Decreasing Allowed Calories as You Lose Weight

littlemontenegro
littlemontenegro Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been on MFP for almost 6 months, and when I started, the system told me that if I wanted to lose 2 lb/week, I should eat 1200 calories per day. I've been doing that, and I've lost 15lb so far. I've noticed that when I work out, I burn fewer calories for the same workout as I did 6 months ago (which makes sense, because I weigh less) but my allowed calories for each day is still 1200. I tried to redo my profile to see if it would decrease, but it still says 1200 calories/day to lose 1.4lb/week. Is there a way for me to get the system to recognize my weight loss and decrease my calories allowed so that I can continue to lose 2lb/week (or closer to that than I am now?), without having to enter it myself (because I don't really know enough about nutrition to set up my own calorie goal).

Thanks!

Replies

  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    MFP won't drop you below 1200 because that is considered the bare minimum calorie amount needed for women.
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
    1200 is as low as MFP will go. You may be able to manually lower it, I'm not sure. But it is generally not recommended to go lower than that.
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    You can manually lower it but it is probably a better idea to leave it at 1200 and just increase your energy expenditure. Do harder workouts or do High Intensity Interval Training to burn more calories.
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
    I really wouldn't recommend going any lower than 1200, you'll do more harm than good.
    Don't mean to be harsh but what's with the "got to lose 2lbs" per week? The closer you get to your target weight the longer it takes to shift lbs so don't give yourself tight deadlines. The most important thing is to lose it and make sure you don't put it back on!
  • sbjmorgan
    sbjmorgan Posts: 158 Member
    I really wouldn't recommend going any lower than 1200, you'll do more harm than good.
    Don't mean to be harsh but what's with the "got to lose 2lbs" per week? The closer you get to your target weight the longer it takes to shift lbs so don't give yourself tight deadlines. The most important thing is to lose it and make sure you don't put it back on!

    This! It's not a race, keep fueling your body with what it needs and change up your exercise. That will make more of a difference than eating 200 less calories when your body really does need food.
  • xfit3
    xfit3 Posts: 3
    You really need to tweak your Basic Metabolic Rate. the only way I've found to do this is to go into your goals and tweak the sedantary, active, etc, lifestyle, although with very limited results. I haven't found anyway to manually adjust BMR. The other thing that would be nice is if there was a way to calculate BMR off your Lean Body Weight vs total weight, but I haven't seen any way to do this. If you want to lose more weight per week either eat less calories than it recommends or do about 3500 calories more per week/lb that you want to loose. If you want about 1 lb per week you need about a 500 calorie deficit per day. 2 lbs per week, then you will need about 1000 calorie deficit per day. The issue is you don't want to starve yourself or you'll set yourself up for failure. If you aren't providing your body with daily nutrition your body either won't have what it needs or will catabolize your own muscle to get it, which means you are going to be losing the muscule which burns calories even when you are at rest...not going to work well for you if you are trying to lose weight.

    I concur with the "about" 1200 BMR to support daily activity (and that's for about a 5'4' weighing about a hundred lbs). If you're that size you probably don't need to lose weight. If your more than that then you should probably up your exercise vs decreasing your calories to get the deficit. Also, as you tweak your diet make sure you are paying attention to where your calories are coming from. There are 4 cal/gram carb, 9 cal/g fat and 4 cal/g protein. There are important reasons why all categories should be in your diet. Most of the controversy is over what percentage, but I've been loosly following Crossfit's guidance which is about 40% calories from carbs, 30% from healthy fats, 30% from protein.
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
    Actually, as you lose weight, you should be INCREASING your calories and eating closer to your TDEE.

    Figure out your TDEE and subtract 15% and eat that number of calories: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    Then go to "home" and "goals" tabs to manually adjust your calories. But you won't lose weight until you raise those calories because of the strain it's putting on your body to be at that low intake.
  • oldsailor
    oldsailor Posts: 21
    Please see my blog about caloric needs. I am going to assume you are 60 years old, 5'0" tall and weigh 100 lbs and female and you sit on the couch all day without doing anything. If that is the case then you truly need 1300 calories to maintain your basic body functions. At 1200 calories you will eventually start to burn muscle mass and weight loss will start to decrease to try to maintain basic energy needs. Instead of lowering your calorie goal, just increase your activity; any activity is better than no activity.
  • jrmartinezb
    jrmartinezb Posts: 147 Member
    MFP will not put you at under 1200 calories, since that is what is considered an absolute minimum. The more you weight, the easier it is to lose the extra pounds. As you get thinner your calorie requirements get smaller too, and maintaining a calorie deficit is harder. It is easy to create a 1000 calorie deficit if your maintenance level is 4000, it is much harder and most likely unhealthy if it is 2000. When I started I was losing over 2 pounds/week, now I lose less than one. Maintaining the same weight loss speed over months is practically impossible and most likely not healthy.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    You decrease the deficit as you lose fat mass to the point you are eating closer to your TDEE. Additionally, you can't just choose how much weight to lose per week because it's based on how much fat mass you have and wish to lose. Two lb per week weight loss is recommended for those who have a substantial amount of fat mass to lose (75 lbs or more).

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