Questions For Those Who Were Successful on MFP
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I've jumped around a lot while losing these 20+ pounds. At first I was aiming for 1.5 lbs/wk, which was about 1600 calories, then I needed a jumpstart, so I went down to 1350 a day for a week. I lost a couple pounds (and kept them off), but couldn't keep it up, so I gradually increased my calories. I'm now at losing 1lb/wk at about 1850 calories per day. I also eat back at least half of my exercise calories. I am really happy where I am now, and I feel like I could keep this up forever! I have another 45 lbs to lose. Most days I get to eat over 2000 calories and still be well under my goal!
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I've lost 80 lbs consuming an average of about 1750-1800 cals a day. I do work out 5-6 xs a week, some lifting days, some cardio days. I'm 41 and 5'7". I actually haven't adjusted my caloric intake much as I've progressed down. I have, however, progressively upped my work out intensity and added in heavy lifting about 7-8 months ago (HUGE difference for me in body comp and being able to continue to eat a decent amount and still lose).
As others have pointed out, age, starting weight and height make a difference in how much you "get" to eat. Sure, some older lady who is 4'11" and has only 15 lbs to lose may legitimately need just 1200 to lose. However, at your age (no idea your height and weight), you could probably lose eating more than even the 1360 it gave you. But try logging it accurately and consistently for a few weeks. You'll soon see if 1) this works, and 2) if you can live every day on this number of cals.
Good luck!0 -
I have been staying between 1200-1350 cals for 3yrs lost 115 lbs if I eat more I start to gain I have hypothyroid, fibromyalgia that makes it harder to loose eating less.....0
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I've tried the MFP method (adding exercise and eating back exercise calories) and the TDEE method. I like both. You can do either and succeed.
I'm sticking with TDEE because I found that I was hungry on my rest days and overindulging on my exercise days. TDEE spreads the calories out evenly, so now I'm able to eat 3 good meals and have a small treat everyday. That works better for me. But I have to be consistent with my workout schedule for this method to work. That's the drawback. If I take an extra rest day this week, my calories won't work out quite right.I was a 45-year-old, 5' 10" male, starting at 215 pounds. Obviously, shorter and lighter people wouldn't lose so much on 2100 total calories, nor would people who don't exercise an hour or more a day on average.
To put this into perspective, I'm a 28 year old, 5'3" female. My TDEE is ~2350 based on my exercise. I would still lose .5 lbs per week eating 2100. So I would lose slower, but I would still lose.
OP: I recommend calculating your TDEE (scooby is a good site for it). Even if you choose to do the MFP method, it's still a useful number to know.0 -
The TDEE thing works for a lot of people. I lost a lot before I heard of it and decided to stick with what was working rather than investigate a more complicated system that might or might not work.
But I read over and over how well it works for people, so I think there may be something to it. 0 -
The 1200 calorie plan????fitnwhole2015 wrote: »How did you lose your weight? Specifically did you follow the 1200 calorie plan? I'm reading mixed reviews in the posts. Some people lost a lot of weight on 1200 calories. Others are saying that 1200 is too low and to look up TDEE (?). I just want to find the consensus among those who have found success on MFP. MFP currently has my goal at 1380 calories to lose 1lb a week.
Forget that...and forget TDEE. Try my plan instead.
Actually, I just followed the MFP recommendations for safe, lasting weight loss of 1 pound per week. It was quite simple.
I exercised too both cardio and strength and ate back all those calories.
It worked...80+ pounds gone 3 years now.
Today, I work to maintain my weight and just sharpen the saw with strength gains. GOOD LUCK!0 -
SingRunTing wrote: »However, when you spend enough time around the forums, you will notice one thing. A majority of the people who've lost a lot of weight and/or have kept their weight off for years are the ones who eat higher calories.
In general, more food = more likely to stick to your goal = long term success. Less food = more likely to give up = not much if any progress. The next year will pass anyway, you can go with a plan you will stick to and see progress, or you can go with a strict plan and, most likely, give up. I know some people can stick to a strict plan, but why would you want to try if you don't have to?
^^This.
MFP sets your calories based on what you input - from your basic stats (height, weight, age, and activity level) and your goal (lose 1 lb/week vs 2 lb/week). Many people are in a hurry to lose weight, so they put in 2 lbs/week as their goal. The lowest setting MFP will give you is 1200 cals, so that's why you see so much of that. Then people start thinking, well if 1200 is good, I bet I will lose faster if I only eat 1000 cals/day. People then start to find that unsustainable, and when they slip up, they often tend to give up. Which is why I think you see so many posts saying, "I'm back and serious this time!".
Personally, I'd rather lose slower and be able to keep the weight off than lose really fast and not be successful in the long term.
I started at 1200 cals, found that unrealistic for me. Upped mine to 1400 and lost at about 1 lb/week. As I got closer to goal, I upped it to 1650, and lost at about 0.5 lb/week. I am currently maintaining, and I eat around 1800-2000 cals/day. I use a FitBit to track my calories burned and I do eat back my calorie adjustment from FitBit.
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The 1200 calorie plan????fitnwhole2015 wrote: »How did you lose your weight? Specifically did you follow the 1200 calorie plan? I'm reading mixed reviews in the posts. Some people lost a lot of weight on 1200 calories. Others are saying that 1200 is too low and to look up TDEE (?). I just want to find the consensus among those who have found success on MFP. MFP currently has my goal at 1380 calories to lose 1lb a week.
Forget that...and forget TDEE. Try my plan instead.
Actually, I just followed the MFP recommendations for safe, lasting weight loss of 1 pound per week. It was quite simple.
I exercised too both cardio and strength and ate back all those calories.
It worked...
Wow you look great!
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1400/day with a couple of days a week of cardio does the trick for me. I do not eat back exercise calories and never would.0
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The ''everyone is different'' message is absolutely true!
The animal kingdom works in the same way: our two labradors are the same weight (29kilos) and both are slim/fit looking but one eats two and a half times more just to maintain that weight!
Sadly, I realise that I am one of those needing 2 and a half times less food. This would be an advantage in a famine...0 -
Thanks!fitnwhole2015 wrote: »
The 1200 calorie plan????fitnwhole2015 wrote: »How did you lose your weight? Specifically did you follow the 1200 calorie plan? I'm reading mixed reviews in the posts. Some people lost a lot of weight on 1200 calories. Others are saying that 1200 is too low and to look up TDEE (?). I just want to find the consensus among those who have found success on MFP. MFP currently has my goal at 1380 calories to lose 1lb a week.
Forget that...and forget TDEE. Try my plan instead.
Actually, I just followed the MFP recommendations for safe, lasting weight loss of 1 pound per week. It was quite simple.
I exercised too both cardio and strength and ate back all those calories.
It worked...
Wow you look great!
It was simple but very hard, and again, I just tried to find my zone within the MFP system.0 -
fitnwhole2015 wrote: »WOW! How do you guys lose eating such high calories!??!?!? If I ate 2000+ a day I would surely gain. Am I missing something here??
it depends on metabolism, activity and muscle mass.
When i started lifting i was fat and could eat very little calories without gaining fat. i was cutting on about 1400cals a day.
now my maintenance is somewhere around 3200.
What i changed? i've gained a lot of muscle mass and i work out every day.0 -
fitnwhole2015 wrote: »How did you lose your weight? Specifically did you follow the 1200 calorie plan? I'm reading mixed reviews in the posts. Some people lost a lot of weight on 1200 calories. Others are saying that 1200 is too low and to look up TDEE (?). I just want to find the consensus among those who have found success on MFP. MFP currently has my goal at 1380 calories to lose 1lb a week.
I think the infamous MFP recommended 1200 daily calories largely depends on your height. MFP tends to assign 1200 to anyone below 5'5"ish which I'm not sure is all that sustainable over time.
For me, who is 4'10" 1200 was pretty spot on. I lost 38 lbs over 18 mos & surpassed my goal weight. I am maintaining now & my maintenance weight has stabilized to something that I have been able to sustain fairly effortlessly.
If you are above 5' tall, like others has suggested - get a second opinion. Try iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ to figure a more appropriate daily calorie for your height. I would NOT go by the TDEE# but use the BMR# & here is my reasoning.
The TDEE is based on your level of activity. So unless you are a bit 'rain man' with your exercise routine, there is potential to over consume if you set the TDEE calculator to exercise 5 times a week but a particular busy week you only managed to exercise 2 out of the calculated 5.
The safer option is to go with the BMR# and eat only a portion of your exercise calories back in order to create that caloric deficit needed to lose weight.
Best of luck to you!0 -
For me (not quite a total success yet) but I did start with MFP recommendations as well...
Stats 5 ft 7 178lbs (was anyway) and sedentary lose 1lb a week...it gave me about 1360 to eat plus exercise calories....so I usually ate 1600 as I exercised everyday....
Notice that is TDEE-20%...which it typically is...I switched to TDEE because I lift heavy weights and it's hard to figure out the burn on that..
Why has mine gone up...exercise...
If I don't exercise my maitenance is 1995...plain and simple...0 -
I have never gone down to 1,200 and I've lost 50 lbs in about 9 months. As I've approached my goal, I've gone from 1.5 lb/week to 1 lb/week. I'm town to 1,480 NET calories a day. That means that if I work out (and I do, most days) I earn more calories to eat. Most days I earn about 200 calories through exercise. I have 16 lbs left to lose before I reevaluate, so I'm going to be switching to .5 lb/week soon.0
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I've lost 81 pounds.. never ate under 1600 calories (and typically I ate around 1700). I'm 36 (34 when I started) and 5'5". I'm quite sure I very rarely burned over 450 calories a day in exercise (at least not until lately).
Bottom line... eat your exercise calories.0 -
I eat 1200-1400 daily - but I am in my late 50's. I am losing a bit less than a pound a week. I am almost half way to my goal.0
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The TDEE thing works for a lot of people. I lost a lot before I heard of it and decided to stick with what was working rather than investigate a more complicated system that might or might not work.
But I read over and over how well it works for people, so I think there may be something to it.
I think TDEE works best for the people who are scheduled with their workouts. I know that I Iam going to the gym 6 days a week. I know that I am going to ride a certain amount or run a certain amount. That doesn't change for the most part. That makes it a lot easier. For the people that only exercise when they feel like it and are very sporadic, the MFP plan would probably work better in my opinion.
Although, there are some on here that have been super successful that still use the MFP plan just cause they prefer ( I believe JoRocka is one).0 -
1200 is too low 'for me'. I can't speak for anyone else. Before using MFP I used Sparkpeople a few times, and got the default low range of 1200-1550. Which is fine - except I felt bad if I went to the high end so always tried to do 1200-1300. I could do that, eat enough, etc. - but not every day for 6-9 months.
If you're looking to lose enough weight that losing 1-2 pounds a week is a reasonable goal, then you need to think longer term. Can you do 1200? Probably for a day or even a few weeks. Can you do 1200 for 6-9 months or longer? For me, no. From Jan-Jul of this year I ate in the range of 1400-1600. (And I've since gotten over the idea of always being at the bottom of the range.) In August I cut my deficit smaller and aimed for 1600-1800 in. Since the beginning of the year I've increased my activity as well, not letting myself give in to the tendency to be lazy and sit around 23 hours of every day.
I went from 178.5 Dec. 25 2013, to 129.4 as of this past Saturday. I'm female, 5'5.5" and turn 40 tomorrow. I've hit my goal. I'm now aiming for 1800-1900 - as my maintenance should be 2000. Its going to be a bit of an adjustment to eat at the higher range... This is a trial run, the slight deficit to allow for estimation. I've weighed pretty much all of my food for the past 9.5 months and now need to try estimating portions somewhat. So built in a very small deficit to allow room for error.0 -
Yes, MFP has been such a blessing for me! I have lost 16lbs since August, and I have surpassed my goal weight (which was 115, and is now 112lbs. I'm 5'2). I started out with a daily cal intake of 1510, then after I lost 10lbs MFP lowered my goal to 1200/day. It was tough, I'm not going to lie, but I did it for about a month or so (with the exception of a cheat day here or there), then slowly started increasing to 1250, then 1300, 1350, and now I'm eating about 1400/day while I try and lose the last 2lbs. I basically just followed what MFP told me to eat though, until I didn't want to keep up the 1200 cals any longer.0
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I've lost 81 pounds.. never ate under 1600 calories (and typically I ate around 1700). I'm 36 (34 when I started) and 5'5". I'm quite sure I very rarely burned over 450 calories a day in exercise (at least not until lately).
Bottom line... eat your exercise calories.I've lost 81 pounds.. never ate under 1600 calories (and typically I ate around 1700). I'm 36 (34 when I started) and 5'5". I'm quite sure I very rarely burned over 450 calories a day in exercise (at least not until lately).
Bottom line... eat your exercise calories.
I'm 5'3" 180lbs (36 years old as well)! Hoping to lose at least 35lbs in 7 months (graduating from grad school). This week I ate my exercise calories (some not all)in addition to the 1380 MFP has calculated for me to lose 1lb a week. I work out about 4x/week (Mon-Thur) 20-30 min Cardio & 25 Strength. Hopefully if I'm consistent this plan will work. I'm considering throwing in a 20 min cardio OR strength on Friday so I won't go 3 consecutive days without working out. Praying it all works out
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The TDEE thing works for a lot of people. I lost a lot before I heard of it and decided to stick with what was working rather than investigate a more complicated system that might or might not work.
But I read over and over how well it works for people, so I think there may be something to it.
I think TDEE works best for the people who are scheduled with their workouts. I know that I Iam going to the gym 6 days a week. I know that I am going to ride a certain amount or run a certain amount. That doesn't change for the most part. That makes it a lot easier. For the people that only exercise when they feel like it and are very sporadic, the MFP plan would probably work better in my opinion.
Although, there are some on here that have been super successful that still use the MFP plan just cause they prefer ( I believe JoRocka is one).
You make a good point. I see the logic in using one versus the other. Thanks0 -
StaciMarie1974 wrote: »1200 is too low 'for me'. I can't speak for anyone else. Before using MFP I used Sparkpeople a few times, and got the default low range of 1200-1550. Which is fine - except I felt bad if I went to the high end so always tried to do 1200-1300. I could do that, eat enough, etc. - but not every day for 6-9 months.
If you're looking to lose enough weight that losing 1-2 pounds a week is a reasonable goal, then you need to think longer term. Can you do 1200? Probably for a day or even a few weeks. Can you do 1200 for 6-9 months or longer? For me, no. From Jan-Jul of this year I ate in the range of 1400-1600. (And I've since gotten over the idea of always being at the bottom of the range.) In August I cut my deficit smaller and aimed for 1600-1800 in. Since the beginning of the year I've increased my activity as well, not letting myself give in to the tendency to be lazy and sit around 23 hours of every day.
I went from 178.5 Dec. 25 2013, to 129.4 as of this past Saturday. I'm female, 5'5.5" and turn 40 tomorrow. I've hit my goal. I'm now aiming for 1800-1900 - as my maintenance should be 2000. Its going to be a bit of an adjustment to eat at the higher range... This is a trial run, the slight deficit to allow for estimation. I've weighed pretty much all of my food for the past 9.5 months and now need to try estimating portions somewhat. So built in a very small deficit to allow room for error.
WOW!! Okay I'm sold LOL! I'm just going to remain consistent since I am averaging 1600-1800 calories (this includes my exercise calories). I can't wait to be a success story
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I'm down 33 lbs. I started at 318 and am 284. My settings are set at 1.5 lbs a week and I get 1870 calories a day. I eat back almost all of my exercise calories as well and it's worked for me so far (:0
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fitnwhole2015 wrote: »How did you lose your weight? Specifically did you follow the 1200 calorie plan? I'm reading mixed reviews in the posts. Some people lost a lot of weight on 1200 calories. Others are saying that 1200 is too low and to look up TDEE (?). I just want to find the consensus among those who have found success on MFP. MFP currently has my goal at 1380 calories to lose 1lb a week.
No. One size does not fit all. 1200 is not some ideal end all be all number where if you eat more than that then you won't lose weight. I eat 1500 have about 15 lbs to go before in "normal" bmi, (30 pounds to goal) and I'm losing at 1.5-2/week. Oh and I'm 5'2. I refuse to eat a measly 1200 when I workout as much as I do.0 -
I lose around .5-1 lb. a week eating 1200-1400, usually, but I only burn about 1600-1700 on average so it's absolutely not too low for me.
There are links in my profile that discuss 1200 not being dangerous, if you're interested in that. Though if MFP recommends 1380 for you, that's probably a very do-able number. 1200 isn't that hard if you're really disciplined and a kitchen ninja but if you like a fair amount of alcohol, restaurants, bread, cheat meals, desserts, or you dislike vegetables, it's probably going to be a challenge after a few weeks.0 -
I didn't even know 1200 was an option when I started. Then again, I was almost 250 pounds and that would have been too low for me at the time. I think I was at like 1850-1900? Nine months and 46 pounds later, I'm eating 1570, trying to exercise six times a week (though it usually ends up half of that) and losing steadily at 1-1.5 pounds a week.0
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At 250lbs MFP gave me 1400 calories to lose 2lbs per week. I walk everywhere, usually about 5 miles a day and I would eat back these workouts. As I lost weight, MFP would recalculate my calories until I hit 1200 a day. I said 'F that noise' and went about what I'd been doing previously. Worked great for about 40lbs, and then for two weeks I stalled hard. I did some reading on stalls and it was recommended that I needed to find some way to shake things up, like a new workout. I've fallen off the diet wagon before because I peg my diets to my workouts and I hate working out in a gym but I love walking. So that wasn't an option for me. I dropped my 1400 + workout calories down to 1200 without workouts and it's worked well for me so far.
That being said, if you can in any way avoid it do not be me. There's plenty of examples on MFP of people eating 1800 calories and losing just fine. I am hella jealous of these people - if I eat 1500 a day now for several days running I will stall. I would absolutely love to make that work for me. But as I still have 60lbs to lose (about 45lbs down currently) I won't be eating to maintain for quite some time.
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Since starting MFP, I've eaten between 1750 and 1950 calories most days while losing. I have taken a few weeks off here and there and have eaten at (approximate) maintenance, so 2100-2200 calories.
Prior to joining MFP, I just ate "clean" and, looking back, I ate a lot less. Probably somewhere in the 1400-1500 range. I lost more weight per week back then but I also had more to lose so I was still in that honeymoon period when the weight just kind of flew off. I wasn't weight training or exercising nearly as much so even with fewer calories I didn't feel exceptionally hungry.0 -
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