Please help before I go crazy!!!

KansasCowgirl
KansasCowgirl Posts: 48
in Health and Weight Loss
MFP says I should be eating only 1200 calories per day.

Scooby says:
BMR 1647
TDEE 1554
Step 6: 2043

Which do I put as my calorie goals on my MFP page? I'm so confused!

Replies

  • Kimmy_927
    Kimmy_927 Posts: 27 Member
    I know that MFP posts their minimum as 1,200. In fact I've heard that if you can't lose weight eating 1,200 a day, then you don't need to lose weight.

    Maybe do 1300 or 1400 and see how you feel after a week.
  • phildawson75
    phildawson75 Posts: 205 Member
    MFP says I should be eating only 1200 calories per day.

    Scooby says:
    BMR 1647
    TDEE 1554
    Step 6: 2043

    Which do I put as my calorie goals on my MFP page? I'm so confused!

    As you can't have negative activity :D I assume your TDEE is actually 2043 and the goal is 1554 cals.


    Your goal (step 6) would only be higher than TDEE if you were trying to gain weight.


    (1554/2043)*100 = 76% of your TDEE, so I'm guessing you chose 'Lose - fat 25%'.

    It takes a deficit of 500 calories a day to lose 1b over a week, so if you chose lose 2lb in MFP it would be doing 2043 - 1000 = 1043. As 1043 is under its hard min of 1200 it tells you 1200 instead.

    At either 1554 or 1200 you'll be losing. The 1200 will be quicker to lose obv, but its not that fun from personal experience and you'll also be increasing the amount of muscle lost with the fat. A slightly longer period of ~1500-1600 is probably going to be better choice.
  • iveyroze3
    iveyroze3 Posts: 89
    I started at 1200 calories a day,but after investigating further upped it to 1400 a day and I am much more satisfied and still losing weight. My BMR is 1692 and TDEE is 2326. Even minus 25% it's 1745 calories. So I think 1400 is good and I eat back most of my exercise calories. Everyone is different though. I have 60 more pounds to lose.
  • lisa4you143
    lisa4you143 Posts: 49 Member
    I think it all depends on how much you exercise... on days where I'm not planning on exercising I try to keep it around 1200 but on days where I know I'm going to be hitting the gym hard for an hour I try to increase it. In my experience in the past I usually find a lot of success doing 1200 and I have an office job so I usually eat pretty light during the day (about 600-800 calories) and then a nice meal for dinner (remainder of calories) then usually go work out. Also keep in mind the amount of weight you want to lose a week.
  • RLP3595
    RLP3595 Posts: 3
    I agree very closely with Lisa above-- I have a 2100 daily cal goal (I am a guy) and if I go over my calories for the day, I just tell myself that I need to work out a little bit longer to keep it around 2000... I used to never believe I could be happy eating just 500-700 cal for a meal but I have learned to be content... good luck to you!

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