MFP automatic calorie calculation

heathereve2102
heathereve2102 Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, just looking for some advice.

Do people use the MFP automatic calculator to work out the calorie intake per day or is it better/more accurate to do a manual calculation.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 cals per day but this seems pretty low to me (I usually eat back the extra calories from exercise as well). Some days I eat 1200, or less and that's fine but others it's a real struggle to stay at 1200.

I'm 5ft 3in, 146lbs and 31 - using a couple of different calculators my BMR is around 1400 and TEED is around 1700 so should I actaully be aiming for 1400 - 1500 daily and not eat back the exercise calories?

Any advice would be great, thanks.

Replies

  • dopeysmelly
    dopeysmelly Posts: 1,390 Member
    It works for me, but then, that's just my body, my lifestyle and my goals. I find 1200 is a decent target, although I try very hard not to go under it. I'm losing weight as quickly as I want, able to balance my nutrition and don't feel deprived, or even particularly hungry apart from just before a meal, and I'm not obsessing over food or weight (my trips on this site are pretty limited). But then, I'm essentially sedentary, and shorter than you.

    I'm sure others can give better advice than me, but as long as you lose weight at a rate you're comfortable with and it helps you, why not try adding a few more carefully selected calories?
  • heathereve2102
    heathereve2102 Posts: 19 Member
    Thank for the reply. I think I am be "wasting calories" on things like cheese when I could just eat more veg or low calorie foods.
  • 89nunu
    89nunu Posts: 1,082 Member
    If you are doing 1200 + exercise calories you are probably pretty close to 1400-1500 most days anyway. But what do you have your target set as? Biggest problem for most people is that they want to lose to much weight to fast and do it to aggressively. With 16lbs to lose you should set mfp to losing 1lb or .5lb a week...
    But you are pretty short so you do probably have to get used to the idea of having to eat pretty little in order to lose weight.
  • scubasuenc
    scubasuenc Posts: 626 Member
    What do you have your weekly weight loss goal set to? With about 20 lbs to lose you should probably only have it set to .5 or 1 lb per week. If your TDEE is 1700, then 1200 is a 1lb per week loss. You might want to try changing your goal to .5 per week loss which would up your calories by 250 per day. It is better to lose more slowly, but be able to sustain your eating than to lose quickly, feel restricted and binge.

    While MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories, many have found the exercise calories in the database to be high. For example MFP says my morning bike ride burns 596 calories, my HRM says it is more in the 350 range. So most folks start by eating back about half their exercise calories. So if you start with 1200 calories, and then burn 200 exercising, you might try eating back 100 of them for a 1300 daily total.

    All of the numbers, MFP's, TDEE calculators, etc are estimates. If you are faithful in weighing and logging everything you eat, you will have the data you need to make adjustments so that it works for you.
  • heathereve2102
    heathereve2102 Posts: 19 Member
    Hey nunu/scubasue, I had my goals set automatically based on height etc which give me 1200 for 1lb per week loss.

    I've just updated it manually to give myself 1400 calories which should still work out at 0.6lb loss per week, which I'd be happy with and I think this would be more managable for me. With 1400 cals per day I wouldn't eat back any exercise calories, you're def right about MFP overestimating the calories burned.

    I've just started weighing all my food so that should help me keep a better track on my calorie intake and after a few weeks can review my diary and see how i've been getting on and adjust if necessary.

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