MFP calculations right?

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I'm 5' 7" male 39 and weigh 168 pds and MFP calculated me at 1540 for daily calories. Would this be accurate for daily intake to LOSE weight? When I do some web calculators out there it says daily intake 1800 to lose weight. Don't know which one to believe. Please help.

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  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
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    MFP calculates low, because it is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. Most other sites include your exercise into your daily goal. MFP's way will allow you to still lose weight even if you don't exercise.
  • ashleey1000
    ashleey1000 Posts: 256 Member
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    MFP calculates low, because it is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. Most other sites include your exercise into your daily goal. MFP's way will allow you to still lose weight even if you don't exercise.
    Ok now I understand.
  • deevatude
    deevatude Posts: 322 Member
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    for a guy, its way too few calories

    im a female, same height and weigh less than you but i eat 2000 calories and still mange to lose
  • alevett
    alevett Posts: 79 Member
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    Yes, I agree MFP calculates low. It set me at 1200 calories a day but I found it difficult to maintain after a couple of weeks of going over. I reset my amount to 1500 calories and am happy when I eat less than. It feels like more of an accomplishment than always over. I am still losing but probably not as fast. I lose about a pound a week. It also depends on how much weight you need to lose. It doesn't sound like you need to lose much at all for your current height and weight. Good luck.
  • oldsailor
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    The calorie goal that MFP is your caloric amount needed to maintain your basic metabolic rate, i.e. if you are totally resting not doing anything and the calories your body burns all by itself. Knowing this to eat more than this goal, you need to exercise enough to burn off what your body does not need at rest.

    Dr Ron
  • Abi_bug04
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    I just recently started to use the TDEE/BMR method and absolutely love it!
    It let's me eat to my fill (!!!!!) and also makes me very aware of what I am putting in my body!
    I was referred to the "spreadsheet" which does all the calculations for you (you just need to put in your exercise amounts for the week, and it calculates the net amount of calories you should be eating.

    You can download it from here:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/spreadsheet-ver-3-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calcs-macro-calcs-hrm-zones-426221

    I generally stick to the "simple setup" tab because it is straight forward. I may go into it a bit more and tweak it once I have lost more weight, however for now I am sticking to that! I then just manually change my MFP settings to the target indicated by the spreadsheet. Afterwards, I don't add in any exercise, unless I do something absolutely intense. I thought that this method took away the uncertainty of wondering about how many calories were right for me based on my activity level!

    Just another option that makes all of this simpler!


    Good luck!
  • dxtra30
    dxtra30 Posts: 498 Member
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    Thank you all
  • dxtra30
    dxtra30 Posts: 498 Member
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    Still trying to lose 10 more pds. Way to much belly fat :(