Did MFP Screw You Up?

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BamBam1113
BamBam1113 Posts: 542 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
MFP recently adjusted my calorie intake due to my weight loss. Now it seems harder to lose the weight and for the first time in almost 3 months I actually gained. Only a 1/2 pound so I'm not torn up about it, but it just seems that I had a hold on what I was doing before it got adjusted. Now I feel like I'm lost again. Anyone else had this problem?

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  • keb80
    keb80 Posts: 394
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    YES!! This just happened to me. It dropped my calorie allowance from 1450 to 1380. I stuck to the 1380 this week and lost.... .3 pounds..... I actually just when into my settings and adjusted it so it went back up to 1500.

    edit: thats .3 pounds (NOT 3 pounds)
  • Jenscan
    Jenscan Posts: 694 Member
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    Yup, it will drop your calorie allowance as you lose weight. I started at 1310 and was down to 1250 at one point. Do you know how hard it is to stay over 1200 net when your whole day is worth 1250 without going over??? I was not making it, was feeling like crap, so I manually changed my goal to 1350.

    I've been losing 2 lbs a week. Moral of this story: tweak your goal if you see fit to do so and see where it takes you!
  • eeeekie
    eeeekie Posts: 1,011 Member
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    was your original deficit 1000?
    Have you ever adjusted it on your own?

    If you have you will now need to adjust it from now on. I customized mine few months back to give myself 1000 cal deficit and ever since I have to change it. Even before 10lbs hits I check it. Right now it's on 980...gonna change it soon.
  • yanicka
    yanicka Posts: 1,004 Member
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    i manually put my cals at 1350 because i am not losing at 1220. Play around and find what work for you
  • nikmaack
    nikmaack Posts: 28 Member
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    The closer you get to your goal, the less you weigh, the fewer calories you get to eat, the harder it gets. You have a few options.

    1. Up your exercise. The more you work out, the more you can eat. I know I'm not the only one who has said, "I've got to work out on the elliptical trainer this morning for an hour -- I need those calories to get through the day!"

    2. Change your goals. Two pounds a week is a lot. If you change it to 1 pound (500 cal deficit) or 1/2 pound (250) it will slow you down, but you'll continue to lose weight. Think long term, big picture. We gained the weight slowly, so we have to recognize we'll lose it slowly too.

    3. Change what you eat. Every time my caloric goals changed, I changed my diet a little. More fruits, more veggies, less gross crap. It is possible to fill yourself up with a 400 calorie meal.

    Hope this helps.

    Nik
  • BamBam1113
    BamBam1113 Posts: 542 Member
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    I'm eating plenty of fruits/veggies. I'm not even close to where I would be to start maintenance or where I would feel like I hit a plateau. I've lost right at 30 pounds and still have 70 to go to reach my first goal, but not even to be within a normal BMI for myself. I'll still have 50 pounds after that! lol It just seems like I had everything down cold with awesome results and then when my profile got updated, it all went to he!!. I upped myself back to just a standard 2,000 calories, so I'll see how that works for me. If nothing else, it's an easy number to track. Thanks for all the suggestions.
  • TS65
    TS65 Posts: 1,024 Member
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    MFP recently adjusted my calorie intake due to my weight loss. Now it seems harder to lose the weight and for the first time in almost 3 months I actually gained. Only a 1/2 pound so I'm not torn up about it, but it just seems that I had a hold on what I was doing before it got adjusted. Now I feel like I'm lost again. Anyone else had this problem?

    Go to your settings and adjust it back to how it was. If it ain't broke, don't fix it (or let MFP fix it!).
  • Bootzey
    Bootzey Posts: 274 Member
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    That's not MFP's fault. Everyone is different and you have to figure out what YOUR target should be
  • HotSouthernMess
    HotSouthernMess Posts: 474 Member
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    i see a lot of people on here saying "as you lose weight, your calorie allowance will go down..." mine is set at 1200 calories a day and i am still 85 pounds away from my goal. how could it go down any more? i have lost almost 40 pounds and it asks me every 10 pounds if i want to recalculate and it has still never changed. i guess it is different for everyone!
  • Laceylala
    Laceylala Posts: 3,094 Member
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    What I found through wearing a bodymedia fit band is that I didn't have my activity level set correctly. I had it set to sedentary or lightly active. Now that I see how many overall cals I burn a day I had to change it to highly active. It was quite the surprise.

    I couldn't lose weight eating 1800 calories at 207 lbs to save my life. Then I started eating 2200 and lost weight. Then I started P90X and stalled out. Dropped my cals down to 2000 and before I went on vacay last week I had started to lose weight, so hoping that I finally found the magic number and work out routine to lose weight finally.

    Moral of the story - I think many many many people on here underestimate their activity level. I know I did.
  • barwwd
    barwwd Posts: 63 Member
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    i see a lot of people on here saying "as you lose weight, your calorie allowance will go down..." mine is set at 1200 calories a day and i am still 85 pounds away from my goal. how could it go down any more? i have lost almost 40 pounds and it asks me every 10 pounds if i want to recalculate and it has still never changed. i guess it is different for everyone!

    MFP won't put you at less than 1200 calories a day because it isn't technically healthy.
  • FitToBeFab
    FitToBeFab Posts: 537 Member
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    MFP runs on estimates, do what works for you.

    I have to keep my "per week" weight loss at 1.5lbs, because with the 1lb setting I either gain or maintain, or sometimes lose .5. With 1.5lbs, I lose about 1lb a week, sometimes two, but it averages 1.25 a week within the month.

    Bottom line, do what works for you.

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