the amount of calories MFP is allowing seems way too high!

Kaitou
Kaitou Posts: 50 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I updated my activity level from being "sedentary" (unemployed) to "active" and it told me my suggested calories for each day was 2,350 calories! On sedentary I was only allowed 1700ish o.0

I'm working as a stocker (on my feet and lifting stuff from a few ounces to 70lbs+ for 20-30 hours a week) which to me sounded like "Spends a good part of the day doing some physical activity" but should I bump myself down to lightly active? I don't see how I can lose weight on 2350 a day...

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    If that does seem too high for you, you can always put it on "lightly active" and then adjust it if you notice you are losing weight faster than you expect.

    But without knowing anything else (like your current weight or sex), 2,350 doesn't seem outlandish for an active person.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Eh...try it and see. It might be "lightly active". I live in NYC, get a decent amount of walking, and lift very heavy 4x per week and I fit under the lightly active category perfectly.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Kaitou wrote: »
    I updated my activity level from being "sedentary" (unemployed) to "active" and it told me my suggested calories for each day was 2,350 calories! On sedentary I was only allowed 1700ish o.0

    I'm working as a stocker (on my feet and lifting stuff from a few ounces to 70lbs+ for 20-30 hours a week) which to me sounded like "Spends a good part of the day doing some physical activity" but should I bump myself down to lightly active? I don't see how I can lose weight on 2350 a day...

    It is about 650 more calories. That doesn't seem that bad of a difference from sedentary to active.
    If you think it is too much of a jump then do lightly active and see how it goes.
  • kristen6350
    kristen6350 Posts: 1,094 Member
    To lose 1/2lb a week (I only have 3-5lbs to lose), MFP tells me to eat 1580. I might make 1400 on a day I drink wine/beer. So what. Eat what you think you should eat and see how it goes. You may find that 1700 is still good. If you are losing much faster than what you want, eat more. Not really rocket science. But you might actually be surprised. MFP isn't dumb.
  • Kaitou
    Kaitou Posts: 50 Member
    edited April 2016
    Villae81 wrote: »
    Do you consider stocker to be active?

    It meets the category description's terms most accurately. I found a chart on Calorie Lab that says "Lifting items continuously
    10-20 lb objects, with limited walking or resting" burns 308 calories per hour at my weight. So I burn an extra 6000ish calories a week from it at my lowest scheduled weeks (or more).

    I don't know if the chart is correct or not though...
  • StephaniexWins
    StephaniexWins Posts: 10 Member
    Days I don't do anything I burn around 2,300 to 2,500 calories and busy and work days I burn 3k or more. Also my bmr is 2k right now. Eating below your bmr isn't healthy so I always eat at least 2k. If you're doing even 5k steps a day you could be burning 400 calories above your bmr every day before you even workout. Just google and check your estimated burns for bmr and tdee and check it against your mfp recommendations and see if it is enough of a deficit but still healthy!
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    StephaniexWins wrote: »
    Days I don't do anything I burn around 2,300 to 2,500 calories and busy and work days I burn 3k or more. Also my bmr is 2k right now. Eating below your bmr isn't healthy so I always eat at least 2k. If you're doing even 5k steps a day you could be burning 400 calories above your bmr every day before you even workout. Just google and check your estimated burns for bmr and tdee and check it against your mfp recommendations and see if it is enough of a deficit but still healthy!

    There's nothing wrong with eating below BMR, especially when you have a lot to lose.

    OP, since you say you're only working 20-30 hours a week, I wouldn't quite classify that as active. Set it to lightly active then look over your results in a month to see how they line up to your expected loss.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Try it for 4 weeks and then you will know.
    It's just a suggested start point - if you don't get the expected results then make an adjustment.
  • MargaretLunan
    MargaretLunan Posts: 5,299 Member
    i cut mine as soon as i started they had me at like 2500 cals a day '. 1300 seems to work

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