lose it compared to mfp??

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Can someone tell me why when I try figuring out my daily calorie goal mfp is always less then any other calculators I've used? For example the lose it website gives me 1573 vs mfp that only gives me 1450 and that's with putting all the same info in including the deficient?? Anyone else notice this??

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  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    MFP expects you to add in and then eat back your exercise calories - other sites usually include them. So if you exercise even a minimal amount you'll easily get to that 100ish calorie difference and it's all equal.
  • lunapetu0311
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    I noticed that too -- Lost It gives me 1811 calorie goal and MFP is 1760. Not a huge difference - I am guessing they just use different calculations. One thing I notice is that Lose it doesn't ask my daily activity level - maybe that has something to do with the difference.

    To Ready2Rock: "Lost it" also allows you to eat back the calories you burn through exercise - just like MFP.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    All calculators use slightly different formulas...that's really not a substantial difference in the grand scheme of things. All of these calculators are just good starting points...nobody has calorie requirements of exactly XXXX calories per one of these calculators...you have to make adjustments as per real world results.

    Add to that, different calculators use different methods...for example, MFP uses the NEAT method whereby exercise calories are accounted for after the fact when you log those calories and get them to "eat back"...other calculators that utilize the TDEE method will include some estimate of your exercise calories up front in your activity level...thus they are included in the number from which your cut for weight loss is taken. You also have to take into account rate of loss...2 Lbs per week with MFP is a lot faster than a TDEE - 20% cut...about 500 calories difference between the rate of loss right there alone.

    Here's an example of both methods using my numbers.

    MFP gives me a calorie goal to lose 1 Lb per week = 1,850 calories
    IIFYM gives me a calorie goal to lose 1 Lb per week - 2,245 calories

    What's the difference...on average I burn around 400 calories per day in exercise...those calories are already included in my IIFYM calculated calorie goal...they are not included in MFP's goal.

    Pick one, go with it, make adjustments as necessary.
  • ladybarometer
    ladybarometer Posts: 205 Member
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    Lose it gave me more calories to eat, but not by much.
    It doesn't have as many choices when it comes to entering food.
    I like the lay out though :)
  • synchrohobbit
    synchrohobbit Posts: 58 Member
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    All I know is that I'm pretty good at entering my food and exercise accurately, and my weight coincides almost exactly with what MFP predicts.