How many calories as a daily goal?

Personally I would stick with it for a few weeks and adjust once you see what happens. 1700 doesn't seem high to me. It's where I set my calorie goal when I want to lose. But your mileage will vary, so give it a few weeks and then you'll know better how to proceed.

What's up Sophie! I just wanted to throw in my two cents haha If you multiply your body weight by 12 you will get your estimated daily calorie intake. Subtracting anything more than 500 from that number is considered unhealthy. MFP gives you an accuract reading for weight loss @ a healthy rate. Stick to it and I promise you will see results!

sophiesgettingfit wrote: »

So...I started with "sedentary" activity as I'm a stay at home mum and at the moment, don't do a lot. I also put it to "lose 2lb a week" and it's still giving me 1700 cals a day. Is this right? Only, nearly everyone I've spoke to who's successfully lost weight calorie counting has started at 1200-1400 cals. So I don't know what to do. I'm 6ft tall, so would that make any difference? I don't know whether to lower my intake myself or just stick with what it's giving me for now. Please give me your opinion (am new to MFP). Thanks!

Height, age, starting weight, gender, activity level, exercise <- All of that factors into how much you can eat to lose weight.

I typically eat around 1800-2k calories a day for weight loss. At first this meant losing at a fairly fast rate and as I got closer to my goal it slowed down (typically averaging 1% Bodyweight loss per week). If I eat 2k calories now, I will still lose weight. I'm not super tall (5'4.5") or overweight (125.5 trend), but I'm active. I wasn't very active when I started, but as I lost weight my activity level increased as things began to get easier for me to do. Now I'm the insane person who workouts out roughly 12hrs a week because I love to do it. Not everyone enjoys or has time for that much working out or to be equivalently active and that's okay. People who aren't as active at my stats will often maintain on less than what I lose weight at. 1200-1400 would be to low for me and result in losing the lean body mass I would like to keep plus other side effects like fatigue and being hangry all the time.

The people you spoke to possibly had different stats, different activity levels, and there is even a high possibility that they were underestimating their food intake if not using a food scale. That's all okay. Each person has to find their own calorie goal to eat at that has them losing weight at a reasonable rate and doesn't leave them feeling horrible.

^^^That sounds really dangerous. Calories and protein (and possibly fat) way too low. Cereal, fruit and veggies, that's it?

sophiesgettingfit wrote: »

So...I started with "sedentary" activity as I'm a stay at home mum and at the moment, don't do a lot. I also put it to "lose 2lb a week" and it's still giving me 1700 cals a day. Is this right? Only, nearly everyone I've spoke to who's successfully lost weight calorie counting has started at 1200-1400 cals. So I don't know what to do. I'm 6ft tall, so would that make any difference? I don't know whether to lower my intake myself or just stick with what it's giving me for now. Please give me your opinion (am new to MFP). Thanks!

Oh yeah, height makes a huge difference...

What are the rest of your stats?
Age and weight?

Also, what is your goal weight?

DancingMoosie wrote: »

B4Rachael wrote: »

As you lose weight your calorie goal will go down.

This is also true. You might need to readjust your settings after losing 10lbs or so.

Yep, every 10 or so pounds it is a good idea to recalculate...