Are calorie intake too low?

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FernandoAnguiano
FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone! I've just opened up my account a few days ago and MFP shows that my goal calorie intake should be just under 1400 cals a day. As a 37 male who weighs 220 lbs and is 5'9" tall, should my daily calorie intake be that low? I don't know much about this, but seems a bit low. My goal is to lose 40 lbs. I'm not worried about how long that could take, I'm just a bit concerned about the calories being too low. Or is that more or less a normal range?
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Replies

  • misskarne
    misskarne Posts: 1,765 Member
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    Did you set it up properly? The minimum for men is 1500.
  • davidmanfred
    davidmanfred Posts: 20 Member
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    What activity level did you enter? I started at 245 (44 year old male, 5'10) with a "lightly activity" level and it gave me a similar calorie level. I am now "active" level and it gives me ~1900 calories per day for 2lbs per week at 200lbs.

    I am losing around 1-2 lbs per week with around 2 hrs per day of exercise (bike commuting) on the weekdays and occasional exercise on the weekends. FWIW I have been at this since beginning of March and have lost 45lbs.
  • dhimaan
    dhimaan Posts: 774 Member
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    You are better off calculating your TDEE and then subtracting 500 calories to start.

    1400 is too for an adult male.
  • FernandoAnguiano
    FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
    edited September 2015
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    I'm pretty sure I did set all the specs right. Age, sex, height, weight set to lose 2 lbs per week. The only thing was that I did set my activity level at 'sedentary'. Would that have anything to do with it?
  • dhimaan
    dhimaan Posts: 774 Member
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    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure I did set all the specs right. Age, sex, height, weight set to lose 2 lbs per week. The only thing was that I did set my activity level at 'sedentary'. Would that have anything to do with it?

    Are you sedentary? I am except for the 4-5 day workouts. You have to decide if you are sedentary or not. With higher activity levels your calorie levels would be higher.
  • FernandoAnguiano
    FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
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    Actually I do workout. When I'm motivated, I do it 4-5 days a week, but I have gone weeks at a time where I just don't do anything, other than yoga. Which is why I chose sedentary.
  • dhimaan
    dhimaan Posts: 774 Member
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    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    Actually I do workout. When I'm motivated, I do it 4-5 days a week, but I have gone weeks at a time where I just don't do anything, other than yoga. Which is why I chose sedentary.

    Fair enough. I still think 1400 is too low for a grown man. Just go to scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and find out your TDEE. Subtract 500 calories or if you want a bigger deficit 1000 calories.
  • FernandoAnguiano
    FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
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    Ok, I'll give that a try. Thanks.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    Activity level isn't based on exercise, but how active you are in your day to day life.

    How much weight do you have to lose? Aiming for two pounds a week may be too aggressive.
  • FernandoAnguiano
    FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
    edited September 2015
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    jkal1979 wrote: »
    Activity level isn't based on exercise, but how active you are in your day to day life.

    How much weight do you have to lose? Aiming for two pounds a week may be too aggressive.

    I want to lose 40 lbs. I'm not very active through out the day then. Just when it I get to my workouts. This can be very confusing.
  • FernandoAnguiano
    FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
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    dhimaan wrote: »
    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    Actually I do workout. When I'm motivated, I do it 4-5 days a week, but I have gone weeks at a time where I just don't do anything, other than yoga. Which is why I chose sedentary.

    Fair enough. I still think 1400 is too low for a grown man. Just go to scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and find out your TDEE. Subtract 500 calories or if you want a bigger deficit 1000 calories.

    So that calculator shows I should consume 1952 cals a day. If I subtract 500 cals, I end up with 1452 cals to consume.
  • dhimaan
    dhimaan Posts: 774 Member
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    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    dhimaan wrote: »
    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    Actually I do workout. When I'm motivated, I do it 4-5 days a week, but I have gone weeks at a time where I just don't do anything, other than yoga. Which is why I chose sedentary.

    Fair enough. I still think 1400 is too low for a grown man. Just go to scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and find out your TDEE. Subtract 500 calories or if you want a bigger deficit 1000 calories.

    So that calculator shows I should consume 1952 cals a day. If I subtract 500 cals, I end up with 1452 cals to consume.
    If you put everything into the TDEE calculator correctly and it shows 1952 then yes to lose 1 lb/week you would need to eat 1450 calories.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ gives me 2500 for you as maintenance.
  • random5483
    random5483 Posts: 63 Member
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    Every pound you want to loose a week is 500 less calories you eat a day or 500 more calories you burn a day. MFP subtracts 1000 calories from your daily maintenance quota if you set your goal as 2 pounds a week of weight loss. If you exercise and log it, you will gain additional calories you can eat. If your calorie quota is 1452 for a weight loss of 2 pounds a week, you should probably scale back your goal to 1 to 1.5 pounds a week, unless you plan on raising your activity level. Eating less than 1800 calories a day is probably not a good idea, though 1500 is probably manageable as a minimum.

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    Lower the aggressiveness of your goal.
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    As far as I'm aware 1400 is too low, impossibly low as in you set something up wrong.

    Sounds like your new to this stuff, maybe check your settings in mfp before looking at tdee and othe calculators.

    If I set my weight loss to max the lowest it goes is 6276 kj which is 1500 calories.

    Also check your goal. If you have 40 pounds to lose 1 pound a week I think is about right, 2 pounds it's probably too aggressive.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    Yep. Like @merkavar says, recheck your setting and change your goal to one pound a week.
    He who eats the most food but still loses is the winner.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Is it possible you've had the app for a long time but haven't updated it? Months ago there was a bug giving people lower than the limit (1500 for men and 1200 for women) goals.
  • jaqcan
    jaqcan Posts: 498 Member
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    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    dhimaan wrote: »
    FernandoAnguiano wrote: »
    Actually I do workout. When I'm motivated, I do it 4-5 days a week, but I have gone weeks at a time where I just don't do anything, other than yoga. Which is why I chose sedentary.

    Fair enough. I still think 1400 is too low for a grown man. Just go to scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and find out your TDEE. Subtract 500 calories or if you want a bigger deficit 1000 calories.

    So that calculator shows I should consume 1952 cals a day. If I subtract 500 cals, I end up with 1452 cals to consume.

    If scooby gave you 1952 EAT 1952. I plugged in your info and got 2473 to MAINTAIN and 1972 to Lose.
  • FernandoAnguiano
    FernandoAnguiano Posts: 9 Member
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    Thanks guys! I've tweaked it a bit. I've changed my settings to 'Lightly Active' rather than 'Sedentary' and moved it down to 1.5 lbs a week. Gave me just a bit under 2000 cals. I hope I don't get any glitches. I just opened this account 3 days ago and I'm using it on a laptop. Hopefully it'll work properly as my 'Your Daily Goal' on my food diary has changed in the past 3 days that I've recorded my food intake. Two out of those three days have the same result of about 15 lbs in 5 weeks. I'm ok with that.

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