Calorie reduction

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ssbmacdaddy
ssbmacdaddy Posts: 124 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am curious if I continue to progress in my weight loss Will MyFitnessPal reduce me below 1500 cal as of 5ft 11" male. So far is lost 11 pounds there has not been a reduction in calories from 1510. Has anyone had experience with this?

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  • nicoleisback
    nicoleisback Posts: 184
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    It reduces your intake based on both your weight and your height. I am only 5'3". I started off on 1300 allowance, but after I lost 10kg (22lbs) it was reduced to 1200. I don't know what the exact calculations are, but I know it will reduce you every so many kg (or lbs) until 1200, but won't go any lower. I don't know if there is a minimum calorie allowance for each height, but would be curious to know.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    After you have lost about 5lbs MFP will ask you to re-evaluate your goals.

    That means change it from 1lb a week to 1/2 a week and until you do that it will adjust your calories to fit your goals.

    If you are set for 1500 calories and not sedentary then make sure you eat your exercise calories back...men shouldn't be under 1800...
  • ssbmacdaddy
    ssbmacdaddy Posts: 124 Member
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    Thank you for your comments. I saw on another site that calories generally don't get reduced below 1500 cal for men. I started at 246 lbs and now at 234. Goal is 2 lbs per week. I usually don't eat back all my exercise calories and leave a deficit of calories not consumed just in case some of my food calculations were off. I try to be as presise as possible on calorie calculations. I am assuming that the mfp knows what it's doing. My wife did weight watchers and her calories were reduced each time so I was concerned there was a glitch. Would like to hear if any male got reduced below 1500 of similar height (5ft 11in) or woman below 1200 at heights of 5ft 8in? Maybe that's the basal metabolic calorie number? Any knowledge, experience or opinion would be appreciated.
  • GenoPrice
    GenoPrice Posts: 477 Member
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    MFP has been dropping my calorie intake steadily and recently it went to 1420 after I lost 51 pounds. I am 6'2".

    My goal is still 2 pounds a week which I am considering dropping to 1 pound but I have now started eating some of my exercise calories which I never did before because some days especially the day after a run I am so hungry.

    I feel I just need to listen to my body, if I am hungry I will eat some of my exercise calories, if not I dont and I ignore the message that I am starving myself.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    I think MFP uses a floor of 1200 for everyone.
  • ssbmacdaddy
    ssbmacdaddy Posts: 124 Member
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    Thank you that has been very helpful. I will continue the process. Are you hungrier now at the lower calorie counts GenoPrice? Did you list yourself as sedentary or active? Great job to all doing the program and to all loosing weight. Geno 51 lbs is awesome. Keep up the good work.
  • cebreisch
    cebreisch Posts: 1,340 Member
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    I tend to think that MFP's numbers are a little on the low side.

    I log my food on MFP for all the nutritional information, then convert those to Weight Watchers points. I do get more food with Weight Watchers, so I've made the MFP (low) to Weight Watcher's (high) numbers my range. That way, if I'm a little hungry after I have MFP numbers, I can set parameters to not go higher than WW numbers.
  • eldamiano
    eldamiano Posts: 2,667 Member
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    Dont set yourself to lose so much a week. Why not 1/2lb per week? You would then be up to around 2,000....
  • GenoPrice
    GenoPrice Posts: 477 Member
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    Thank you that has been very helpful. I will continue the process. Are you hungrier now at the lower calorie counts GenoPrice? Did you list yourself as sedentary or active? Great job to all doing the program and to all loosing weight. Geno 51 lbs is awesome. Keep up the good work.

    If I stick to the calories given I would be hungry, but I now eat a % of my exercise calories back. I have listed myself as sedentary as I have a desk job.

    Even though I use a HRM for all my exercise if I only eat half of my calories back then it gives me room for error when weighing/measuring food.
  • ssbmacdaddy
    ssbmacdaddy Posts: 124 Member
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    It dropped me to 1490 finally when I went in and pressed the activity button from sedentary to light and back to sedentary. In reality I have a standing desk at work and stand for 4-5 hrs a day. I have not logged it in as standing yet recently check how many calories I burn while standing in a calorie calculator and it was 120 per hour at my weight 234 lb. Do you thing I should log in the standing calories on my work day.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    Just manually set your calories at a decent level. According to MFP I should be on around 1400 calories for a 212 pound 5'11 man that's not realistic. I manually set mine back up to a reasonable level. It may take a bit of trial and error to find a good balance but it makes sense. MFP calorie figures just rely on the Maths they don't take into account how practical it actually is to stick to those figures

    Alternatacly you could go over to the TDEE system go to fitness frog or scooby workshop and work out your TDEE and take 20% off and use that as your daily goal (you don't eat exercise calories back doing that)
  • alibee88
    alibee88 Posts: 31
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    I am sure that your 120 calories per hour for standing includes the calories that you would have burned whatever you were doing (eg. sitting, sleeping...) it's not extra calories burned through the activity of standing.

    You definitely shouldn't add 120 calories for every hour you spend standing!! That said, you clearly will burn some extra calories over sitting so if you find your calorie goal isn't enough, you could consider upping it. It sounds like you were keen to reduce it though!

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