Starting today and have a few questions

As long as you are at a calorie deficit, you will lose. Example: if you burn 200 calories first thing in the morning, you will have 1400 calories to eat during the day. It is recommended you eat back 1/2 your exercise calories AT THE VERY LEAST, so 1300 is probably the lowest you'd want to eat that day. Eating up to 1400 is just fine (going over every once and a while is just fine too! ) NOW. Let me tell you that 1200 is too low, and you should probably be aiming for about a 1/2 lb per week loss at your size.

I started out on here at 1200 and guess how much weight I lost? I GAINED. I did awesome for about 5 days and then the hunger caught up with me and I ate way too much and I then I'd have 2 more good days and then a really, really bad day...repeat.

Since I've switched my goal from losing a pound a week to a half pound, MFP switched me from 1200 cal/day to 1500 and guess what? No more good days and bad days, no more frustration, no more overeating, no more unhappiness, just cruising!! I'm steadily losing weight at an extremely slow pace but I know it's happening! and it sure as hell beats loving myself one day and hating myself the next.

As for the extra splurge calories or whatever, the site is not designed to give you special incentives or anything. It's basically just a big calculator. You should decide to splurge when you really feel like it and be okay with "going over" sometimes. People starting out on here are so freaked out about "going over". Just do it when you feel like it, and stay under the next day. Be kind to yourself.

I think that MFP sets the calories too low as well. I am 5'7 and have mine set for 1650 and it is very manageable and I don't feel deprived. The weight loss is slower - 5 pounds in a month so far - but I am in my 40s and that just may be a fact of life! I think that if you put your calories too low you are destined to fail or feel miserable.

if you know your % Body Fat use the Katch-McArdle formula option with that data.

You don't have a lot to lose and those last 5-10 lbs are always the hardest to come off.

Stick to 1200 calories and definitely eat back those exercise calories (if you have the appetite of course) so you can continue to fuel your body and your workouts.

Good luck!

Hi everyone,
I just signed up for MFP today and I have a few questions. I'm a former WW member, so I'm trying to figure out how this works in relation to the WW system of points, exercise, extra weekly points, etc... I am 5'3" and weigh 146 lbs. I put in my information and that I would like to lose 1.5 lbs per week. It set me up to eat 1200 calories a day (which, from reading some posts here seems to be the norm for a lot of people) and said I'd lose .8 lbs per week. I certainly don't want to lower my calorie intake from 1200 because I don't think I could survive (well, I could survive but wouldn't be very pleasant to be around). So is that just the most I can lose on this number of calories? And how does the exercise work in terms of getting more calories to eat? And is it recommended to eat the calories burned? Also, is there a weekly allotment of extra "splurge calories" you can save up for a special occasion?

Any info. and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello and Welcome! Here are a few threads for you to look through that may help you:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet?hl=short+sweet+<span class=

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

There is a lot of good and bad info here at MFP - use your common sense, everyone is different, listen to your body and most importantly weigh and track everything as accurately as possible.

Good luck with achieving your goal.

Thank you so much for this advice. I had no idea about the iifym website and it is a very useful tool. I do agree that 1200 is too low for me, even without exercise. I've been sticking to that for the past 3 days and I feel crappy and deprived. Felt like I was "splurging" by going over by 90 calories last night b/c I was hungry -- and the extra calories were from fish, not anything unhealthy.

So my only other question re: this issue is that when I put in my info. in iifym it give me these options:

Mifflin-St Jeor
Harris-Benedict
Enter Activity Level
Katch-McCardle Body Fat %

Which one should I use? Thanks in advance for your help. Everyone on this board has been super helpful and welcoming.

Use any (or all of them) except %body fat (unless you've been tested) It should give you 3 estimates that are probably really close (within 50-100 calories) Pick one, stick to it, don't eat back exercise calories (TDEE already accounts for that) and do it for 2 months. Do the following things as well

- Weigh your food.
- Weigh yourself
- MEASURE YOURSELF
-weight sometimes stalls when hips/waist are shrinking
-Be honest with yourself about eating
- Exercise
- BE PATIENT
- you didn't gain weight in a day, you won't lose it in a day either
- See results. Skip any of the above and you'll be back here asking why you don't see results



Good luck

I'm a shorty too - 5'0" and currently at 139 (down 13 from beginning of year - 152) I left MFP at my 1200 calories because my activity level at work is NIL - but I don't sweat about going over - more than 100 and I take a double look at what I ate - if its relatively healthy - no worries - if it was a crap ton of junk - well then I try to reevaluate so I don't do it again - at least not too soon. I eat back most exercise calories that I earn, except on Sunday, because we go roller skating and MFP says I burn a CRAZY amount during that time and I don't trust it entirely and I typically don't eat too well that day either - try finding something 'decent' at a roller rink - it's all chips/hot dogs etc.

I used to do WW Momentum - I was the 18 pt. girl with the 35 pts to carry in the week - the old 'rule of thumb' was 1 pt for 50 calories - so if I used 23 pts a day that was roughly 1150 and I was always miserable. By staying between 1200-1300 and eating back my exercise - I feel much less deprived and have been losing a little over a pound a week.

The biggest thing I have found - is that I gave up sodas. I didn't drink diet - so that was a LOT of empty calories.

I recommend giving it some time - playing with the settings to determine the loss/calories and activity level that give you the results you want without wanting to kill the people you love.

Many say that 1200 is too low - you have to decide that. For some it is WAY TOO LOW - for some - not so much and may be about right. I wouldn't go any lower tho.

Good luck to you! Remember even .5 loss is still a loss!

** edited because I mixed up points and calories-- duh!