How did you set your daily calorie goal?

FatYellowDog · August 2014

I'm frustrated and lost...

Like so many people, MFP is telling me that my daily calorie goal is 1200. Like so many people, that leaves me crabby, tired and hungry, even on a protein-heavy paleo style diet (I'm not giving up dairy. Don't even go there. Cheese - I wish I knew how to quit you!). At 1200 calories a day, I lost about half a pound over three weeks.

Discouraged but determined, I started reading. I read all kinds of posts here and articles all over the internet about BMR and TDEE. This sounds genius, I thought! I'm starving myself and not making any progress. I should be eating more! I did the math. At 5'3" and 141.1 lbs with a body fat estimated at 29.8%, my BMR is roughly 1350 calories. I consider myself lightly active. I get my 10,000+ steps almost every day and walk the dog at a near jogging pace for 3 miles most days. My TDEE to maintain my current weight calculates at about 1900 calories. I set my calorie goal at 1500 and set off on my doggie walks, optimistic that I'd start to see some changes.

Oh, I saw changes, alright. Big ones. In the wrong direction.

I started putting on weight. Not much. Just 2 pounds in the first week. I panicked and headed back to the internet. "It's normal," the web said. I'll gain a little weight while my body readjusts to having sufficient calories and then I'll start to lose. Optimism restored!

Fast forward a few more weeks. I gained some more. I recalculated my TDEE based on a completely sedentary lifestyle and adjusted my calories to 1400. I was eating back half of my exercise calories. I stopped. I started running again, despite the threats from my doctor that my knee ligaments just can't take it.

A month after increasing my calories, I've gained 5 pounds and the scale hasn't budged since. I don't know how to handle this. I work a 60-hour a week job and am a graduate student.

Has anybody else struggled with finding that "magic number" for calorie intake? How did you finally find what worked for you?

StaciMarie1974 · August 2014

Thru trial & error over years of on-again, off-again efforts. Did a 1200-1500 range for a while except I always tried to stay at the 'low end' and just wasn't happy with that. So moved to 1400-1600 (happy there) and made sure to move enough to burn 2100-2200 per day. Now have settled a bit, as my BMR has decreased, and I'm eating 1600-1800 and expect to burn 1900-2100 per day.

Booda101 · August 2014

A lot of this just comes from trial and error.

But I'd start with the usual suspects that hamper our weight loss: Underestimating how much we eat and overestimating how much we burn.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

Are you using a food scale to weigh your food? If you don't have a food scale, get one. It is your best friend in the kitchen.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide?hl=step+by+step+guide

How are you measuring your calorie burns?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

FatYellowDog · August 2014

I worship my food scale and I am never without my Fitbit. The calorie burn always looked high, so I initially ate back half and eventually none at all.

I'm sure my problem will be resolved with some patience and persistence. I was just curious how others had figured this little puzzle out in hopes that their experiences might give me some insight.

He1loKitty · August 2014

This is probably how I found my way to eating lower carb. I was frustrated with my lack of progress and was cranky eating only 1200 calories a day, so I gave low carb a try beginning on March 1st. Mfp set my calories to 1200 as well but I switched it so that I can eat 1600 calories a day but of that, 65% is fat, 20% is protein and 15% is carbs. Some days more, some days less. It's worked for me. A lot of people will tell you on here not to eat low carb, just to eat at a deficit, etc. Yes, eating at a deficit is important , but I also think that for me, it also matters what I eat. Plus I feel better and fuller eating this way. Anyway, my suggestion to you would be to try thinking about this not in terms of the amount of calories you're consuming, but more in terms of what you are eating. Play around with your macros and see if eating lower carb works for you. Or maybe lower fat will instead. Like I said, 1600 works for me (I'm 5'6), but I'm eating fewer carbs.

cmeiron · August 2014

I'm frustrated and lost...

Like so many people, MFP is telling me that my daily calorie goal is 1200. Like so many people, that leaves me crabby, tired and hungry, even on a protein-heavy paleo style diet (I'm not giving up dairy. Don't even go there. Cheese - I wish I knew how to quit you!). At 1200 calories a day, I lost about half a pound over three weeks.

Discouraged but determined, I started reading. I read all kinds of posts here and articles all over the internet about BMR and TDEE. This sounds genius, I thought! I'm starving myself and not making any progress. I should be eating more! I did the math. At 5'3" and 141.1 lbs with a body fat estimated at 29.8%, my BMR is roughly 1350 calories. I consider myself lightly active. I get my 10,000+ steps almost every day and walk the dog at a near jogging pace for 3 miles most days. My TDEE to maintain my current weight calculates at about 1900 calories. I set my calorie goal at 1500 and set off on my doggie walks, optimistic that I'd start to see some changes.

Oh, I saw changes, alright. Big ones. In the wrong direction.

I started putting on weight. Not much. Just 2 pounds in the first week. I panicked and headed back to the internet. "It's normal," the web said. I'll gain a little weight while my body readjusts to having sufficient calories and then I'll start to lose. Optimism restored!

Fast forward a few more weeks. I gained some more. I recalculated my TDEE based on a completely sedentary lifestyle and adjusted my calories to 1400. I was eating back half of my exercise calories. I stopped. I started running again, despite the threats from my doctor that my knee ligaments just can't take it.

A month after increasing my calories, I've gained 5 pounds and the scale hasn't budged since. I don't know how to handle this. I work a 60-hour a week job and am a graduate student.

Has anybody else struggled with finding that "magic number" for calorie intake? How did you finally find what worked for you?

With the TDEE method you don't eat back exercise calories. You figure out what your total expenditure is (including weekly exercise), take a small amount off it (say 10-15%), and eat that amount every day. If you're eating back exercise cals you're eating at or above maintenance probably.

ETA: an example: I calculated my TDEE to be about 2400 - this is what I need to eat to MAINTAIN weight. That's based on 3 workouts per week. I subtract 300 calories from that to create about a 10% deficit, and eat 2100 per day. If I worked out and burned 300 calories and eat that back, then I'm eating at maintenance. Any measurement of calories burnt is likely to be an overestimate, so it's easy to go over my maintenance intake of 2400 if I eat them back.

As for finding the right amount, it's trial and error. Carefully track your intake (weigh everything) and your weight loss and adjust as needed after a month or so of data collection.

Ludka13 · August 2014

I tried the losing 1 pound a week thing and was miserable. Always hungry and not losing much weight either. Changed it to lose half a pound a week and success! Not hungry and losing weight. I also eat less carbs, I keep it down to about 4 servings a day.

Mr_Knight · August 2014

I calculated how much energy I could reasonably extract from fat reserves. And what I needed to consume to make sure nutrient needs were met.

Eat back cardio calories as carbs, and that's that, done.

365andstillalive · August 2014

Unfortunately, it really is trial and error from person to person.

What I didn't see in your post was how much you were trying to lose per week, maybe you need a less aggressive approach so that you can eat enough to not be grumpy or feel like you have no energy, but still create a necessary deficit to drop.

I'll be honest, to me it just sounds like you've put on a bit of water weight from eating at a larger deficit and changing to a smaller one (in the same way that when most people switch to maintenance they immediately gain 5lbs). You really do have to do trail and error to find what works for you and your body. And because you are on the smaller side and have less wiggle room between your BMR and what you're eating than others will, the comments from others about weighing your food to ensure that you're eating exactly what you think you are is really important advice. When you're creating a 700 calorie deficit and mess up your calories by 150, it doesn't matter nearly as much as when you only have that 150 to work with and under estimate.

Your diary is set to private, but based on both your picture and ticker, you're not too far from your goal weight. You likely can only eat at a deficit at this point that's going to give you 1/4-1/2lb per week.

Also, changes in exercise can cause you to hold water weight as well, so switching back to running may actually be keeping your scale higher for the time being while your body adjusts (which can take up to a month). I have knee problems as well, and doctors don't warn willy-nilly that you shouldn't run, so if you're at risk of doing further damage or fully snapping a ligament, I'd definitely return to walking.

FatYellowDog · August 2014

Thanks for the clarification. Syncing with Fitbit makes my calorie goal change daily (I don't log additional exercise) and I've read a bit of conflicting info about what to do with those extra calories. It never ended up being much (100-200 extra calories, usually). Doesn't sound like much but that would definitely add up!

accelerashawn · August 2014

Trial and error for me. I ate 2700/day at first THINKING I was burning about 3500/day (thanks caloriecount.com) but I was stuck at 215 lbs for months. So i dropped my calories to 2500 and barely lost anything...I talked to a friend who has a similar job to me and he said he was only eating around 2000 calories. I tried that and started losing a pound a week.

Found out later that my bmr was 2030 calories and my tdee was close to 2700 calories. No wonder I couldnt lose at that many calories.

2000 calories a day is way more strict than 2700 so it was tough at first but if you eat mainly nutrient dense and calorie sparse foods you can feel full and remain energetic....Shoot today I had about 3 cups worth of broccoli for lunch.

cwolfman13 · August 2014

I just put my stats into this calculator and input my activity level sans exercise and selected a reasonable rate of 1 Lb per week and voila...this calculator gave me my goal. Since my exercise was not factored into my activity level I conservatively estimated my burns and logged those calories to eat back...I lost around 40 Lbs pretty easily...it wasn't always linear...it wasn't exactly 1 Lb per week or whatever...but over the course of about 40ish weeks I lost 40 Lbs roughly.

It was all pretty bang on for me...I was consistent with my logging, I didn't do the whole "cheat" meal/day thing, and I was conservative in my exercise burn estimates and was as precise as possible with my intake. Worked like a charm.

MKEgal · August 2014

To answer your question of "how did you set your calorie goal?", at first my doctor did, but he explained the "healthy weight x 10" method. And when I stalled a bit on what he'd recommended, I cut another 50 cal/day & started losing again.

When someone has a lot to lose, and that method results in a drop of more than 1000 cal/day, multiply the current weight x 10, then subtract 1000 cal. Adjust downward as you lose weight.
When I started losing, those got me the same number.

Like so many people, MFP is telling me that my daily calorie goal is 1200.
Like so many people, that leaves me crabby, tired and hungry

Then don't do it. You'll just lose a little more slowly.
Or have you tried increasing your intake of dense, low-calorie foods, which trick your stomach into feeling full longer? (Things like vegetables, soup.)

I was eating back half of my exercise calories. I stopped.
I started running again, despite the threats from my doctor that my knee ligaments just can't take it.

Don't eat back the exercise calories. Most people overestimate burn & underestimate intake.
My doctor at the weight-loss practice says not to eat back exercise calories, just aim for your total calorie intake to be below the level you've set.
And there are plenty of non-impact aerobic activities, that won't leave you a cripple. Elliptical. Walk in the pool. Swim. How about roller skating? Ice skating? Bicycling? Dancing.

At 5'3" and 141.1 lb

Here's a blog post I did about setting goals, both weight & calorie.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-06-08-setting-goals-667045

It includes links to several BMI calculators; here's a chart: http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
At your height, 105 to 135 is a healthy weight range. So you're only 6 lb over.
If you want to go lower, fine, but start with that 6 lb loss.

With so little to lose, 1/2 lb per week would be reasonable. That's 250 cal per day off what you need to eat to maintain your current weight, so 1410 - 250 = 1160.
Oops. Don't go below 1200.
So you'll aim to lose weight more slowly. Anything below 1410 will do it. To get to 135, aim for 1350.

serindipte · August 2014

Personally, I figured what my TDEE will be when I reach my goal weight and set it right about there. That means I'm basically eating what my future maintenance will be so I'm just letting my body shrink to match.

How did you set your daily calorie goal?

Replies

Categories