Yes, Repeat Question, I'm sure.

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NewMK08
NewMK08 Posts: 399 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've looked through some old posts, and I'm just as confused as ever. I caculated my BMR using MFP and it came up with 1534 calories. So why is it that MFP gave me a calorie goal of 1200 every day?

Sorry to be a repeat questioner, but I'm just looking for a straight answer!

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  • NewMK08
    NewMK08 Posts: 399 Member
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    I've looked through some old posts, and I'm just as confused as ever. I caculated my BMR using MFP and it came up with 1534 calories. So why is it that MFP gave me a calorie goal of 1200 every day?

    Sorry to be a repeat questioner, but I'm just looking for a straight answer!
  • pinkpixies
    pinkpixies Posts: 277
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    B/c you have to eat less calories than you burn to lose weight. Depending on how much you want to lose a week, your caloric intake will be more/less.
  • Poison5119
    Poison5119 Posts: 1,460 Member
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    Pink is right. MFP will adjust your allotted cals depending on how much weight you want to lose per week to reach a certain goal.

    My BMR is 1590, but MFP set it at 1450 so I can lose a half pound a week. Had I told MFP I wanted to lose a whole pound a week, MFP would have set that 1450 figure to about 1200.

    If you're willing to lose LESS weight per week, go back in and adjust your GOALs, and it'll add cals to your daily allottment cals. You'll lose weight slower, but you won't be so restricted. That's the bad news.

    The good news is that when you EXERCISE, MFP automatically ADDS more cals to your diet, enabling you to eat a little more to replace what you burn.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    Yes, but. . .

    Unless you have a lot of weight to lose, it's not good to make your deficit from maintenance calories (which are not the BMR calories. . .BMR calories are what your body needs to stay alive motionless [like in a coma]).

    MFP just works the math, so if you set for a two-pound a week loss, that's 1000 lower than maintenance, but no lower than 1200.

    For me, I stop losing weight if I eat under my BMR. I don't recommend going lower.:flowerforyou:
  • SoupNazi
    SoupNazi Posts: 4,229 Member
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    Yes, but. . .

    Unless you have a lot of weight to lose, it's not good to make your deficit from maintenance calories (which are not the BMR calories. . .BMR calories are what your body needs to stay alive motionless [like in a coma]).

    MFP just works the math, so if you set for a two-pound a week loss, that's 1000 lower than maintenance, but no lower than 1200.

    For me, I stop losing weight if I eat under my BMR. I don't recommend going lower.:flowerforyou:

    Absolutely 100% correct!

    Me too.
  • NewMK08
    NewMK08 Posts: 399 Member
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    Yes, but. . .

    Unless you have a lot of weight to lose, it's not good to make your deficit from maintenance calories (which are not the BMR calories. . .BMR calories are what your body needs to stay alive motionless [like in a coma]).

    MFP just works the math, so if you set for a two-pound a week loss, that's 1000 lower than maintenance, but no lower than 1200.

    For me, I stop losing weight if I eat under my BMR. I don't recommend going lower.:flowerforyou:

    Absolutely 100% correct!

    Me too.

    So...For me to maintain my weight as of right now, I need around 1900 calories. And if I wanted to lose 2 pounds/week I would need to eat 900, but MFP goes no lower than 1200...Okay, I think I understand all of that.

    But-some of you eat your BMR calories? And just ignore what MFP sets up?? Do you find yourself losing more weight that way? And, if you're eating your BMR calories, and you exercise, do you still eat your exercise calories? Geez-Sometimes losing weight is so confusing.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
    Options
    Yes, but. . .

    Unless you have a lot of weight to lose, it's not good to make your deficit from maintenance calories (which are not the BMR calories. . .BMR calories are what your body needs to stay alive motionless [like in a coma]).

    MFP just works the math, so if you set for a two-pound a week loss, that's 1000 lower than maintenance, but no lower than 1200.

    For me, I stop losing weight if I eat under my BMR. I don't recommend going lower.:flowerforyou:

    Absolutely 100% correct!

    Me too.

    So...For me to maintain my weight as of right now, I need around 1900 calories. And if I wanted to lose 2 pounds/week I would need to eat 900, but MFP goes no lower than 1200...Okay, I think I understand all of that.

    But-some of you eat your BMR calories? And just ignore what MFP sets up?? Do you find yourself losing more weight that way? And, if you're eating your BMR calories, and you exercise, do you still eat your exercise calories? Geez-Sometimes losing weight is so confusing.


    To answer the questions, I eat 200 calories over my BMR (which I had tested at my gym) and am still losing body fat (not weight, body fat) I eat nearly all my exercise calories when I earn them.

    It's about trial and error. Some folks get fabulous results doing exactly what MFP says, and some folks (like me. .. ) need to tweak it. The main lesson I learned is if you undereat, your body will hang on to every pound. It was a tricky adjustment. . .this "eat to lose weight". . .but it's true.:flowerforyou:

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