How does the daily calorie goal work?

I set mine to lose 2 lbs per week At my weight height age etc I get 1200 Then I also exercise to get more calories to use I eat backa bout 50% to 75% of my exercise calories On a daily basis with exercise I eat about 1500-1800 You should be eating more than you are I would think so you are not starving yourself If you follow the calories MFP set up for you, you will lose I am proof of that. Don't treat this like a diet and harshly limit your calorie intake It will make a healthier lifestyle something you cannot continually do

TragicWriter wrote: »

Is this the amount I should aim for to lose weight or is this the amount I need to eat to maintain my current weight? My current daily goal is 1370 calories but I've only been eating around 1000-1100 because I'm not sure how it works. I'm trying to lose 100 pounds, so I want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly to become healthy.

1370 is your calorie goal to lose weight without exercise. If you exercise, you get to eat a bit more.

MFP predicts about how many calories a day you burn with your stats and selected activity level before exercise. Then, it takes a deficit off of that prediction and gives you a calorie goal that you will lose weight at without exercise.

An example:

1900 calories burned per day without exercise @ lightly active setting (this number is based on my stats)
0.5 lbs per week (-250)
1 lb per week (-500)
1.5 lb per week (-750)
2 lb per week (-1000)

In my case, the largest deficit MFP will let me have is 700 calories. MFP will not give any one a calorie goal below 1200 calories.
So without exercise, to lose 1 lb per week, I should eat 1400 calories. If I exercise, then I need to eat 1400 + some of my exercise calorie burns to keep my deficit at 500 calories/1 lb per week loss. So I aim to have a NET of 1400 calories consumed (my 30 day avg total intake is 1920 per day).

Keep in mind healthy weight loss will be 1-2 lbs per week. Losing faster than that can risk you losing LBM which usually results in a thin but still jiggly look. I recommend starting some sort of resistance or strength training to help maintain as much of your LBM as you can.

TragicWriter wrote: »

Is this the amount I should aim for to lose weight or is this the amount I need to eat to maintain my current weight? My current daily goal is 1370 calories but I've only been eating around 1000-1100 because I'm not sure how it works. I'm trying to lose 100 pounds, so I want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly to become healthy.

if you told the calculator that you wanted to lose weight, it is going to give you a calorie target based on that goal...otherwise why would you put in that you wanted to lose X Lbs per week?