TDEE -20% and mfp

wifeymou1112
wifeymou1112 Posts: 129 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just changed my calories to TDEE-20% (1863cal) and my projected weight loss from MFP has gone down to 0lb a week.:-( ??

I have been stuck for weeks at 154lbs, exercising and getting nowhere! So I decided to up my calories from the 1200 to see if it will help. Please help. Does it work? Am I going to GAIN?! Do I have to eat some exercise calories back or just leave it at that??

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Replies

  • babychris1
    babychris1 Posts: 159 Member
    Interesting topic.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    What do you have your activity level set as in MFP? It will never line up exactly, just due to calculation method differences, but if your activity level in MFP is lower than the activity level you used to figure out your TDEE, then MFP will *think* you're not going to lose any weight because it's going to *think* that you're burning less calories in a day than you truly are. You know?

    So, for example (and I'm making up #s here off the top of my head so please no checking my math) let's say you have MFP set to sedentary and previously logged all of your exercise separately, but when you figured out your TDEE it turns out you're more like moderately active. So, your sedentary burn is 1900 calories per day, but including your exercise for moderately active you're really burning more like 2400 calories per day, TDEE - 20% would be 1920. If you leave MFP at "sedentary" and then enter a daily calorie goal of 1920, it will tell you you're going to maintain because it thinks you're only burning 1900 calories per day. Does that make any sense at all?

    So, anyway, moral of the story is that if you're confident that your TDEE is accurate, set your goal for 20% less than that (if that's what you want) and ignore what MFP tells you it thinks you'll lose...or you can try to fiddle with your activity level so that it's closer, but as long as you're eating and burning the right about, ultimately it doesn't matter a bit.
  • thekcpiper
    thekcpiper Posts: 12
    The mistake I made was this:

    I work an office job (sedentary) but exercise like crazy (2500 cal/week). So I set it to sedentary and got a really low number, but I went with it, thinking MFP would take into account my exercise. I found out it doesn't. It always assumes you eat ALL those calories back (no setting for this, I've looked). What I'm gonna try is setting my lifestyle to active or something, see what number this gives me and then not eat back my calories. I just discovered all this about 10 min ago (with help), so I'll let you know how it worked out in a month or so...

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