Are they kidding with the calorie intake?

peterpreston
peterpreston Posts: 7 Member
edited September 23 in Introduce Yourself
They must be, right? I've looked into several resources and checked with my friend who is a dietician and none of them agree with this site's target of 1200 calories for an 18stone man. My intake to maintain my weight is over 3000 and every other source suggests around the 2100 mark for a 2lb/week loss.

The site looked so good but that is such a fendumental error that it has made me mistrust it.

Has anybody else seen an error like this one?

Replies

  • strongchick
    strongchick Posts: 2 Member
    Mine is quite low as well. I don't pay attention to the recommendations and just use it to log my meals and workouts.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    actually MFP will only allow you to go as low as 1200 but it is recommended for a man not to drop below 1500.

    If your maintenance intake is 3000, then to lose 2 lbs/week your goal should be 2000, not sure what you are entering as your goal or did you enter your weight in KG's but have the settings set to pounds. 100 KGs is a lot different than 100 lbs. You may want to re-enter all your info and make sure the units are correct.
  • BigBoneSista
    BigBoneSista Posts: 2,389 Member
    You can go into your goals and up that calorie intake to reflect what you want it to start off at. I've set mine to 1470.
  • PaulC9554
    PaulC9554 Posts: 117 Member
    Hi
    Have you said that you'd be doing any exercise?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Hi
    Have you said that you'd be doing any exercise?

    That does not get taken into account until you actually enter the exercise each day
  • kevianos
    kevianos Posts: 1 Member
    I think the fact that so many people including myself say it works proves they must be right. I was nearly 15 stone and there is no way i could consume 3000 calories per day without getting fat and i do 3 hrs of exercise a day.
  • Phoenyxtears
    Phoenyxtears Posts: 173
    Mine's fine. I talked to my doctor about it. It took a bit of tweaking because of variables like working out and things like that, but I figured it out so my intake is 1640 ish without exercise to lose 2lbs a week.
  • togden
    togden Posts: 324 Member
    Im wondering if you have everything filled out correctly because the lowest calorie intake it should list for a man is 1500 from my understanding ..... I however would not be surprised if it is wrong because well nothing is perfect .... I too have consulted a dietitian and other sites and luckily for me MFP seems to be pretty accurate.
  • kjsweigart
    kjsweigart Posts: 12
    You have to have your settings incorrect. But if not, you can manually change it to what you would like it to be.
  • WhiteStar2351
    WhiteStar2351 Posts: 87
    Its a 'dumb' system so is based on a mathematical calculation rather then medical advice. It will work out what you should be eating based on BMR/activity calculations, etc and then introduce around a 3,500 calorie a week to lose 1lb, 7,000kcal to lose 2lbs, etc. It simplifies the coding of the system.

    If you know what your maintenance intake is, knock 250 off it per day and stick with that, once you stop losing weight, knock another 250 off and continue in this manner. Its the best way to safely lose body fat :o)
  • rvice2
    rvice2 Posts: 132 Member
    Go into settings and change it. They just use a very general number. I follow the p90x diet thus changed mine from 1200 to 1410 and I changed the percentages of carbs, proteins, and fats. You can totally customize it. Just make sure you research before you change the number to make sure your number will still allow you to lose weight safely. Good luck!
  • natsahotty
    natsahotty Posts: 3
    I'm a bit of an idiot ok and very new to dieting. I was going perfectly by eating 1200 calories a day (was 10 and a half stone I'm a 22 year old woman 5'4) and lost half a stone in a month I felt amazing. Then nearly lost another half this month but keep struggling to eat even 600kcal and my metabolism is suffering i have bad skin and i have started to work out and proven I must follow it. I don't know how much you are used to eating or how much you are exercising remember to put everything you do. I'm just about to go out on a walk so will put that down when I get back.
  • peterpreston
    peterpreston Posts: 7 Member
    I went into my settings and checked everything: weight in KG, height in cm, and let it tell me again that it should be 1200cals/day. I changed everything to imperial (lbs feet.inches) and it decided I should be on 1460cals/day, which is still rubbish for a 2lb/week.

    I'm already using a different website which has better tracking tools and information but doesn't have a very good food database, which is why I looked in here.

    I have a friend who has 4 years training as a professional dietician and she laughed at this figure.
  • PaulC9554
    PaulC9554 Posts: 117 Member
    Hi
    Have you said that you'd be doing any exercise?

    That does not get taken into account until you actually enter the exercise each day


    If a daily average was needed, say 2500, would the figure on the food screen say 2000 and then add the 500 exercise cals when I did the exercise to take it up to 2500?
  • blackj
    blackj Posts: 3
    Check your units perhaps? 18 stone is around 252 pounds or 114 kilograms. Which one did you enter?

    My daily intake is 2210 kcal, and it was calculated when I was at 103kg.
  • xxMsComptonxx
    xxMsComptonxx Posts: 53
    1200 is the universal amount for the average ((skinny)) person to lose weight. I know sounds funny but true.
  • peterpreston
    peterpreston Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks for all the replies - and so many so fast. Wow!

    It looks like the concensus is that the calculation is just plain wrong and I should override it manually. That seems a shame because it's a good looking website, although the one I'm currently using is more attractive. I was tempted by the 673,000 item database, but it looks like there are a lot of duplications.

    Let's see how I get on.

    Well done to all of you losers out there. It's good to see there are a lot of people who can do it. Keep it going!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Thanks for all the replies - and so many so fast. Wow!

    It looks like the concensus is that the calculation is just plain wrong and I should override it manually. That seems a shame because it's a good looking website, although the one I'm currently using is more attractive. I was tempted by the 673,000 item database, but it looks like there are a lot of duplications.

    Let's see how I get on.

    Well done to all of you losers out there. It's good to see there are a lot of people who can do it. Keep it going!

    I don't think it is the calculation, I think you entered something wrong. You ticker show kgs at first and is now showing pounds so something is up with your settings.
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