So confused about what to set goals at...please help

carlalwhite14
carlalwhite14 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 3 in Getting Started
Hello all. I'm trying to lose at least 30lbs. Having just had a baby I'm at home but I am trying to keep active. I have a jawbone up which tracks my steps and is linked with MFP. I'm so confused at the net calories section. I've put that I want to lose 1lb a week with a sedentary lifestyle. It's given me 1650 calories to eat. Does this sound right? And what is the net calories under weekly goal number all about?? I just can't get my head around it .x

Replies

  • kschramm7
    kschramm7 Posts: 72 Member
    I had the same question a week ago. The calories MFP gave me to eat seemed high.

    Well I just finished my first week. I'm 50 yrs old, only want to lose another 10 lbs at the rate of 1/2 pound a week and I put in sedentary (I ride a desk all day) and it gave me 1430 net calories a day. In the 9 days now I've been doing this, the scale has moved 2.4 lbs!

    My pedometer doesn't sync with MFP, but I go on a 2 1/2 - 4 mile walk every day at lunch and I use MapMyFitness for that so I can track calorie burned for my walk. I also get to the gym a few times a week for spin class, which I enter manually.

    I don't go out of my way to eat back my exercise calories, but on a particularly active day, I have eaten some back (yesterday I ate 150 of the 700 I earned). I like knowing they're there for a craving or cocktail, or totally change in plans.

    As I was told, follow the plan, plan & track your meals, try to get some exercise in, and give the plan a good month to see if it works or needs some tweaking.

    Good luck!

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    MFP estimates what you will burn without exercise based on your stats. When you tell it you want to lose 1 lb per week it subtracts 500 calories from that to give you a NET calorie goal.

    When you don't workout or get a lot of daily activity since you have a Jawbone linked, you will eat 1650.
    When you workout or get a lot of daily activity, you have increased your calorie burn beyond what MFP originally estimated for you. For this reason calories will be added to your calorie intake. Intake - extra burn = 1650

    example:

    At Sedentary, MFP estimates I burn 1620.
    The max deficit MFP will give me is 420 (women bottom out at 1200, men bottom out at 1500). This gives me a NET goal of 1200.
    If I am really sedentary for a day, I won't get a calorie adjustment from my Fitbit.
    If I am active like Monday where I burned 2504 calories, to maintain a 420 calorie deficit I would need to eat 2084. So MFP would add 884 calories to my 1200 goal for a total calorie goal of 2084 or Net 1200 (2084-884=1200).

    I could choose not to eat the calories, but that would make my calorie deficit too large for what I have to lose which would result in lean body mass loss (muscle, organs, bone, etc). Since I want mostly fat loss, I need to keep my weekly loss to no more than 1% of my bodweight per week (1.2 lbs in my case), but to keep things sustainable 0.5-1 lb per week is reasonable for me. To keep at that rate I have to eat a lot more than 1200 calories. I'm actually currently averaging an intake around 2300 and losing about 0.4 lbs per week according to my trendweight.
  • JeffreyBurkhalter
    JeffreyBurkhalter Posts: 67 Member
    I have the best results when I see only eat back portion of the calories I burn exercising. I burned like 450 yesterday and ate back 200 of them.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,282 Member
    Are you nursing your baby? If you are, remember not to set your calorie goal too low. Baby needs the goods too :)
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    Personally I don't go below the BMR of my goal weight. BMR is the calories needed just to function every day. If you don't at least eat enough calories to maintain your goal weight, then you'll be losing much more than fat.
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