Setting proper profile and question

Activity level doesn't include purposeful exercise.

preyaticintent wrote: »

So, I'm a computer programmer. I am at the office 8-9 hours a day, and I have roughly 2 hours cumulative of being away from the desk(walking to restroom, going to the water cooler, walking to co-workers office for help, etc). In that 2 hours, I walk roughly 1-1.5 miles. I set my goal at 2 lbs per week, with lightly active. However, in the last few months, I've been going to the gym at least 3 times a week for 60-90 minutes at a time. MFP says my calorie goal is 2290 a day. Is this accurate? Should I change my activity level at this point?

Also, I'd assumed the 2290 was a "if I hit 2290 everyday for a week, I'd lose 2 lbs". Is that an accurate assumption? Thanks!

Keeping in mind that the goals are estimates based on averages, you would average a 2 lb loss over the long term if you did no exercise and then ate 2290 calories. (If you exercise and log it on MFP, you will see that calories are added into your daily goal. Since the 2 lb deficit is built into the 2290 number, you can eat those exercise calories and still lose the 2 lbs. Many people find that the exercise calories are off a bit so if you want to start eating them you might want to eat something like 50% for several weeks and then tweak the percentage up or down.) It is unlikely that you would lose 2 lbs every single week, though, since weight loss is not linear and instead can come in fits and starts, such as .5 one week, 3 another week, nothing another week, 2.5 another week, etc.