Why is Mfp telling me to eat only 1200 calories?
Iluvmyfurbabies
Posts: 34 Member
I'm 5'6 190lb 34 years old. I chose sedentary but told it I would work out 5 days a week for 40 minutes. Is 1200 calories accurate?
I'm a noob, I don't understand all this fitness talk.. Macros and micros and TDEE and blah. I've come across good links here on Mfp but it's too much. I just want to know how many calories I should eat.
I'm a noob, I don't understand all this fitness talk.. Macros and micros and TDEE and blah. I've come across good links here on Mfp but it's too much. I just want to know how many calories I should eat.
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Replies
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Because you told MFP you want to lose 2lb per week.
when you exercise you then eat those calories back to NET your calorie goal, thats how MFP works. so if you burn 200 cals when you work out, you should eat 1400 that day.0 -
It's set that based on your weight loss goals. If you were to set it to lose 0.5lb or even 1.5lbs a week you would have more calories.0
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If you're new, just start out with what MFP is telling you. If you think 1200 is too low change your goal to 1lb a week instead of 2lbs a week. The number of times you workout has no bearing on that.0
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I did tell Mfp I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week. That seems safe. I guess I will eat the 1200 then because I would rather shoot for two instead of .5
I didn't think you were suppose yo eat yoir exercise calories back. I thought that was the point of burning them... Saying boo bye to the calories? 0 -
To loose weight you need to consum less calories that you burn on your every day life. SO if you don't do anything and you burn 1800 Calories just by being alive, you need to exclude normally aprox 500 KCALs a day to loose 2 lb a week.
MFP tells you your max is 1200 BUT if you excersises you get to eat more, but you have to track your calories burned.
I highly recomend getting your Macros checked and tweeaked (Macros = Macro Nutrients -> Carbs/Fat/Protein ) and Go with a IIFYM approach (If It Fits Your Macros). There are many coaches that can calculate your macros for a small amount of USD and can help you out a lot. You can get them checked at around... 50 USD at most I think.
Anyway, good luck0 -
It's rare that anyone is truly 'sedentary'. MFP will calculate your deficit from your BMR if you use the sedentary setting.
Most of us are at least lightly active. If you're not spending your life on the couch, tick that box. See how you're going after a week or so, and then adjust as needed.
If you stick with sedentary setting, do ensure you eat back exercise cals. (you should do this anyway, but if you're using the sedentary setting, really do make sure you do!)0 -
Yeah, I would love to do that... I wonder how I would go about finding someone in my area to do that for me. I guess I will google. I'm one of those face to face, hands on learner types and all the reading was making my head spin even though people were trying to explain it as easy as possible..0
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Thank you!0
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Iluvmyfurbabies wrote: »I did tell Mfp I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week. That seems safe. I guess I will eat the 1200 then because I would rather shoot for two instead of .5 I didn't think you were suppose yo eat yoir exercise calories back. I thought that was the point of burning them... Saying boo bye to the calories?
MFP gives you a deficit BEFORE exercise, thats why you should eat the exercise calories back.
Given your stats 1-1.5lb per week is a more realistic rate of loss.0 -
Yeah, I have been going through a lot of depression so I REALLY am sedentary... I'm just now feeling a bit back to normal so I'm trying to move more. I have gained 30 pounds during this "chapter" of my life so I'm panicking now to lose the weight haha
I'm really excited to get back into the swing of things so maybe I will just have to consult with a professional to tell me what to do (for now) thanks for the help.0 -
Tavis- you might be right.. At first I chose 2 pounds a week but then it changed it to 1.5 so I clicked back and changed it again... 0
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General rule is 1 lb = 3500 calories. If you want to lose 2 lbs per week that means you need to reduce 7000 calories per week which mean reduce 1000 calories per day. Since you choose sedentary, your BMR is 2200 calories per day. If you reduce that 1000 calories, you get 1200 calories per day.
Of course if you exercise on some day, those calories are added to what you can eat that day.0 -
MFP tells you what to eat if you don't move from the couch all day
If you do - log it as exercise, half the calories MFP gives you (just click in the box with calories when you enter it) and EAT them
most diets account for exercise - MFP is set to help you lose weight even if you don't move
so move and eat more
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I believe that MFP tells you to eat only 1200 so that posters in the forum can then get all excited and castigate you for only eating 1200 calories.0
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Right?! I keep reading people getting chastised for eating only 1200 calories in the boards and then Mfp told me to only eat 1200...that's actually what prompted me to ask this question.
I do appreciate the answers though..
Anyone have any idea what I should google to find someone in my area that can help me with my macros? Macros coach, macros help isn't coming up with anything.0 -
Iluvmyfurbabies wrote: »Right?! I keep reading people getting chastised for eating only 1200 calories in the boards and then Mfp told me to only eat 1200...that's actually what prompted me to ask this question.
That was pretty much my experience (although I hadn't put 2lb weekly loss in). By the time I'd read enough of the forums to realise, I'd been happily eating 1200 plus exercise calories for a couple of weeks, so stuck with it.
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Iluvmyfurbabies wrote: »Anyone have any idea what I should google to find someone in my area that can help me with my macros? Macros coach, macros help isn't coming up with anything.
At first, I'd just worry about total calories. What do you want help with in terms of macros?
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I eat the 1200, but I do it net. If I don't exercise or move, that's all I get. I have a sedentary job and I don't make a concentrated effort to move, I can be pretty still as my evening hobbies are sedentary too.
I wear a fit bit to help me track steps and to log exercise.
If you feel good and aren't having any issues and your doctor is fine with the 1200, then it's fine. I discussed my calorie goals with my doctor, she stressed to not feel deprived, and to eat more if I was continuously hungry.
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MFP gives you that based on what you input. You set your goal too aggressively. Additionally, its usually assumed you will be earning exercise calories.0
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Hey Iluvmyfurbabies. I started MFP again on 8th September at 201lbs (I am 169cm). Today I am 182.7 (I measure in kilos so excuse the decimals!) based on the 1200 calories a day.
I exercise 4-5 times a week for at least 40 mins each session and eat almost all my exercise calories (usually have between 500-700 left over each week). I put myself as sedentary as like you I have an office job, but I have started making an effort to move more (walking places I would have driven, taking stairs etc.) I've just changed my goal from 1kg of loss a week to 0.8kg and set myself as lightly active as 6 or so weeks in I can see that 1200 calories is quite restrictive and I think that the rate I am losing at is not sustainable long term, and will probably result in muscle loss if I keep it up much longer. With another 18lbs to go I want to be sensible for the rest of my loss so I don't yoyo.
Trust your body - it will tell you when you need more food, I think as long as you are prepared to try and readjust you'll be ok.
Good luck 0 -
Iluvmyfurbabies wrote: »I'm 5'6 190lb 34 years old. I chose sedentary but told it I would work out 5 days a week for 40 minutes. Is 1200 calories accurate?
I'm a noob, I don't understand all this fitness talk.. Macros and micros and TDEE and blah. I've come across good links here on Mfp but it's too much. I just want to know how many calories I should eat.
You've gotten lots of good answers, but let me see if I can explain it even more clearly.
MFP asks how much you will exercise so you can set it as a goal, but unlike lots of methods of setting a calorie goal it does not take the exercise into account when it gives you the calorie goal. Whether you say no exercise or 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, you will get the exact same calorie goal.
Instead, MFP has you log the exercise when you do it and then adjusts the calorie goal to reflect that you actually are exercising. That way someone ambitious in their goals but lacking in their execution doesn't end up with too high a calorie goal and fail to lose when he or she fails to exercise.
Eating back the exercise calories, then, is not counterproductive, but essential to how MFP works, certainly if you say 2 lbs/week as a goal.
Many plans have you split your calorie cutting between exercise and calorie cutting (I will cut 500 calories/day for one lb/week and then try to exercise an additional 500 calories/day for another one lb/week). In essence, if you tell MFP 2 lbs and then exercise and eat back exercise calories, that's what you are doing.
If you tell MFP 2 lbs/week and then exercise on top of that and actually log and track accurately, you are going for a loss goal (more than 2 lbs) that MFP considers extreme and that for people who are not extremely obese is probably too extreme and likely to undermine their fitness goals.
Does that make sense?0 -
You don't need to pay someone to calculate your macros. Try this site: iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
Their calorie recommendation worked for me as well.0 -
The exercise you enter in your goals is pointless, it's just used to keep track of your own goals, but it's not factored in your calories at all. You're supposed to log your exercise and eat the calories back on top of your 1200 calories.0
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You need to understand what your BMR is, and what sedentary means. Your BMR is what you would need to maintain your bodyweight if you literally stayed in bed all day. I assume you do not in fact stay in bed all day? In which case 'sedentary' isn't for you. Lightly active will be just fine.
We all want to lose weight fast. Fast weight loss is rarely the same thing as successful weightloss.
Eat a little less, move a little more.0 -
^^^^^TavistockToad wrote: »Because you told MFP you want to lose 2lb per week.
when you exercise you then eat those calories back to NET your calorie goal, thats how MFP works. so if you burn 200 cals when you work out, you should eat 1400 that day.
(*) THIS (*)
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I don't know my BMR and have never learned my TDEE. A lot of people find that the TDEE thing helps them! You may want to try it some time!
But you can lose weight without doing all that.
}
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I think that MFP tells people 1200 calories because the way the interface is designed, it gives you the option of choosing two pounds per week. And sure, if you ask a hundred people whether they'd rather lose half, one or two pounds per week, probably ninety-nine of them will say two pounds. All things being equal, of course I'd love to lose weight faster. But all things aren't equal.
The TDEE calculator at http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ is much smarter, I think. It gives options up to a 25% calorie deficit, but puts in a strong warning to consult a doctor before attempting more than 15-20%. It's just more realistic for most people to lose weight at a slower, steadier pace that can be maintained longer.0 -
Iluvmyfurbabies wrote: »I'm 5'6 190lb 34 years old. I chose sedentary but told it I would work out 5 days a week for 40 minutes. Is 1200 calories accurate?
I'm a noob, I don't understand all this fitness talk.. Macros and micros and TDEE and blah. I've come across good links here on Mfp but it's too much. I just want to know how many calories I should eat.
Because MFP only includes activity level (ie: sedentary)....and not exercise.
When you log workouts you "earn" more calories. If you don't like the up/down of workout/non-workout days......use TDEE less a percent. That calculation will add in an exercise estimate up front.
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal
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ETA: According to the TDEE calculator I linked above, At 5'6, 190lbs, 34 years old, you'd be looking at 1500 calories/day at a sedentary activity level, which will give you a weight loss of about 0.8lbs/week or 40lbs/year.
If you add in a moderate exercise level like you said, of 5 days/week at 40 minutes, you should up your calories to 1960 and that will bump you to 1lb/week.
More than that is probably bordering on unhealthy and unsustainable. But these calculators are only tools to get you started. Try eating at that level for a bit, log your results, and adjust as you go.
(All this to say, 1200 calories/day is probably too low for you, with or without your workouts but especially with them.)0 -
Iluvmyfurbabies wrote: »I did tell Mfp I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week. That seems safe. I guess I will eat the 1200 then because I would rather shoot for two instead of .5 I didn't think you were suppose yo eat yoir exercise calories back. I thought that was the point of burning them... Saying boo bye to the calories?
1.5 pounds a week would be safe (for now)....that's 750 calories off TDEE.
The point of exercise is health & fitness. Exercise helps you keep lean muscle while dieting. Zero exercise, very large deficit, or low protein may result in a higher percentage of muscle loss than you are comfortable with.
Eating calories back (using MFP as designed) just gets you back to the original deficit. 1200 and eating nothing back increases the deficit.
A popular analogy.....food is fuel. If you expect your car to go you need to put gas in the tank. You don't want your body to use lean muscle for fuel.0
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