MFP Nutrional Goals - help!

karenbobaren
karenbobaren Posts: 127 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I used a nutrional calculator online to see if I'm eating the right amount of calories, protein, fat, etc because at 200lbs I feel 1200 calories/day is small even though I don't feel like I'm starving at the end of the day. However, I'm afraid my body will start going into starvation mode if I don't eat the amount of calories (approx 1800/day) suggested by the nutrional calculator I used online.

Did you use the MFP goals or did you adjust them and how did you figure out the right nutrional goals for yourself?

Replies

  • natalie1508
    natalie1508 Posts: 11
    I can't believe you've waited 3 days for a reply. It sure seems clicky around here.

    I manually adjusted mine, as 1200 leaves me nowhere to go if I reach a plateau. I put my cals in at 1600 but in 4 weeks I've only lost 2lb (first two weeks) so I personally think there's a bit too much pressure to eat more and for me it's not working, so I will gradually reduce and monitor to see at what point I hit the right point.

    For you, I'd maybe increase and see how you go. You can still lose on more cals but it may be slower.
  • Siege_Tank
    Siege_Tank Posts: 781 Member
    Ok, you're 200 pounds, and you want to lose weight.

    FANTASTIC! we're with you!!

    the question is, how fast do you want to lose the weight? I'm just guessing that you want to lose 60 pounds or so? something like that?

    taking a small cut, like 200-300 calories per day less will take you over a year to make that journey. cutting less, like the much maligned and ubiquitous "1200" will show you faster weight loss, if you exercise every day.

    Online calculators are notoriously innacurate,

    www.fit2fatradio.com/tools

    they have several different ways of calculating BMR and bodyfat, take the average of them and you should have a pretty decent estimate of how much you burn in a day.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,469 Member
    I started off using the MFP goals, at the recommended 1lb a week loss (500 calorie deficit). I switched to 1/2 lb a week loss (250 calorie deficit) when I was finding it too hard, and switched between the two a little.

    After a few months I changed to to a version of the system outlined in IPOARM and others (working out my TDEE and taking a cut). That gave me a deficit somewhere between 1/2 lb and 1 lb a week (about 300+ calories).

    I've gone for slower weight loss all along, so there hasn't been much difference for me between the two systems in terms of how much I eat. If I went back to 1/2 lb a week loss on MFP I would be eating more than I am now. (There would actually be no point on using the other options on MFP, because it gives me 1200 regardless of how fast I want to lose!).

    I don't see any big disadvantages to losing weight more slowly, and there are possibly some advantages (particularly that I find it easier to stick to dieting with a smaller deficit).

    Good luck with whatever you choose to do!
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,469 Member
    I forgot to mention nutritional goals. I adjusted my macro targets BUT I'm not very good at paying attention to them. I just aim for certain things which I think are helpful - protein foods at every meal, plenty of veg, a good amount of "healthy" foods such as oily fish, nuts, seeds, etc., a bit of dairy, not a lot of sugar, only a little bread, pasta, etc. But I don't get anxious about balancing the day exactly. I eat food that I enjoy - that's very important to me!
  • Thena81
    Thena81 Posts: 1,265 Member
    adjusted to weight and height and all
  • jennpaulson
    jennpaulson Posts: 850 Member
    Some of the very helpful people on here have taken a look at my diary recently and said I haven't been eating enough and that my protein intake was too low and my carbs too high. Mfp had my daily protein has 45 grams but I've been told I should eat up to 139 grams (a bit too much) it's more like 116 grams based on my goal weight. I also lowered my carbs. We'll see how it goes from here. Oh and I have to start meeting my calorie goal. Good luck getting yours all straightened out : )
  • karenbobaren
    karenbobaren Posts: 127 Member
    Thank you all for your input! I definitely want to lose the weight as quickly as possibly so I would like to stick at 1200 calories to see faster results. I just didn't want my body going into starvation mode.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Thank you all for your input! I definitely want to lose the weight as quickly as possibly so I would like to stick at 1200 calories to see faster results. I just didn't want my body going into starvation mode.

    You can't have it both ways!

    Change your goal to lose 1lb per week and enjoy having more food to eat!

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