How come I'm projected to lose 1.1 pound/week?

MFP does not take your planned exercise routine into account when figuring your calorie goals. Basically, it doesn't trust you to actually work out until after you log it, which is why it adds more calories to your goal once it's logged.

The calculator won't put anyone below 1200 calories since that's the absolute minimum recommended to get enough nutrition into your day. It sounds like losing 2 pounds per week would require you to drop to an unhealthy calorie level.

We also tend to think of an intense exercise session like an hour long run as being this huge calorie burner, but in terms of actual calorie expenditure during a day, it just isn't.

I remember a men's health article saying given a relatively normal body weight, a person who was running an hour a day at a ten minute mile (a pretty healthy distance and clip even for a very healthy person) could expect to add about 30% to their maintenance calories.
Most people aren't doing that intense of a workout.

If you figure a 2000 Calorie a day diet (I know I know, this is back of the envelope here, so I'm being very general) you are going to get a little under a 700 calorie a day expenditure. At 3500 Calories for a pound of fat, assuming 100% of your calories came from fat burned directly off your frame, and you don't up your food intake at all to compensate, running 7 days a week, at that intense of a level would net you ~1.33 lbs a week.

You could get the exact same benefit from being 30% more active during the day. Do you think a waitress is 30% more active than a school teacher.

Yes, MFP won't let your net calories be any lower than 1200, and 2lb a week is a 1000 calorie deficit.

MFP works out what your calorie expenditure is before exercise, and then subtracts a figure according to how fast you want to lose (1000 calories for 2lb a week, 500 calories for 1lb a week). You can only lose 2lb a week if your daily calorie expenditure is over 2200 (2200 minus 1000 is 1200 - the minimum calorie allowance). If it's any lower than that then you will be given 1200, but your weekly weight loss will be less than 2lb. So for instance, if your calorie expenditure is 1950, your calorie goal will still be 1200, but you'll only lose 1.5 lb a week (you'll only have a 750 calorie deficit, instead of 1000).

I think what's happening is that when you increase your daily activity level, the "active" setting puts you at 2200 calories or above.

(As others have said, your actual exercise isn't included in this calculation, only your normal daily activity level).

Perhaps mfp should just drop the option to "drop 2 lbs a WK" setting. I've only been on the boards short term and am already sick of seeing so many posts on wanting this goal. I only lasted a WK at that setting before realizing it was just not enough and not a good goal for people just starting out. For people who are overweight we obviously love food and when we try to cut so drastically I think a lot fail that way BC they can't keep w it. Just my 2 cents.

I put mine at the most active and it changed to two pounds per week. I know that if I eat 1300 calories a day, I will lose 2 lbs per week so in my case I just found a work around to get the projected weightloss at the bottom of my food diary to reflect an accurate weight. Seeing a 5lb loss in a matter of 5+ weeks is a little discouraging at least for myself when I know what I'm putting in. By the way 2 lbs a week is healthy for those saying it's not. LOL

Also, I'm about 10 months late but as they say better late then never? hehe

ChelseyMcCaughey wrote: »

I put mine at the most active and it changed to two pounds per week. I know that if I eat 1300 calories a day, I will lose 2 lbs per week so in my case I just found a work around to get the projected weightloss at the bottom of my food diary to reflect an accurate weight. Seeing a 5lb loss in a matter of 5+ weeks is a little discouraging at least for myself when I know what I'm putting in. By the way 2 lbs a week is healthy for those saying it's not. LOL

Also, I'm about 10 months late but as they say better late then never? hehe

For people who have 75+ pounds to lose, that's a healthy rate (about 1% a week). Your ticker says you have 20 pounds to lose. You'll be more likely to lose muscle at that high a rate.

a_candler wrote: »

Perhaps mfp should just drop the option to "drop 2 lbs a WK" setting. I've only been on the boards short term and am already sick of seeing so many posts on wanting this goal. I only lasted a WK at that setting before realizing it was just not enough and not a good goal for people just starting out. For people who are overweight we obviously love food and when we try to cut so drastically I think a lot fail that way BC they can't keep w it. Just my 2 cents.

It worked for me when I started. I was morbidly obese and could actually eat more than 1200 calories and still lose two pounds a week like clock work. Now that I have lost over fifty pounds I can not lose that rapidly on the same amount of net calories.

Pretty sure she lost her 10 pounds by now, it was almost a year ago.

a_candler wrote: »

Perhaps mfp should just drop the option to "drop 2 lbs a WK" setting. I've only been on the boards short term and am already sick of seeing so many posts on wanting this goal. I only lasted a WK at that setting before realizing it was just not enough and not a good goal for people just starting out. For people who are overweight we obviously love food and when we try to cut so drastically I think a lot fail that way BC they can't keep w it. Just my 2 cents.

No it shouldnt because for people like me who had over 150+lbs to lose 1lb a week would take extremely long time. Heck 2lb a week was even too slow for me so I manually edited the calories to give me 2.5lbs/week.