How does reevaluating calories work when losing weight??

moosey2011
moosey2011 Posts: 8 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I've lost about 6lbs since June and have about 15-20 more to go. Initially, MFP set my calories to 1290, but then I realized it moved down to 1240 recently. I manually set it back to 1290 because I feel like 1240 is a bit low. Just for fun, I looked at what MFP would set my calories to when I'm a pound away from my goal, and it was only 1200! Now that I've manually set my calories I know MFP won't adjust it as I lose more weight, but what should I do about figuring out how much I should eat as I lose weight? I'm confused :(

Replies

  • iManifestGoals
    iManifestGoals Posts: 40 Member
    I noticed it adjusts when you add cardio. For some reason it doesn't when you add weights...
  • SophieSmall95
    SophieSmall95 Posts: 233 Member
    edited August 2016
    The reason it readjusts is because the less you weigh the less energy (calories) your body needs to maintain its weight. Therefore you need to eat less to be at a calorie deficit and to lose weight.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    I do not know your stats (height, age, current weight, etc) or what weight loss goal you wanting to achieve each week. But when you changed your weight (for fun) to the weight that is 1 pound a way from goal and told MFP to loose X pounds a week, the lowest it will go is 1200 calories.

    The more you loose the less food you need and if continue to choose to loose X pounds a week, it will decrease in order for you meet the goal you setup in MFP. 1200 is lowest MFP will allow a women to loose.

    You might want to adjust your weekly goal for example instead of 1 pound a week to .5 a week the closer you get down to the last 10 pounds till goal.

    If you are exercising, you should be eating some of these back in order to NET 1290, 1240 or what ever your goal is you setup.
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    If you changed your goal to lose 0.5-1lb a week, you'd get more calories to eat. That close to your goal, its really unrealistic and hard to lose 2lbs per week.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited August 2016
    iManifestGoals wrote: »
    I noticed it adjusts when you add cardio. For some reason it doesn't when you add weights...

    And when you exercise, those calories are added to your daily goal. For example if your goal is 1400 calories to consume and you exercise 300 calories, you will be able to eat 1700 calories in order to NET 1400 calories.

    You can choose to eat some these back or all of them, depending on how much you trust the estimated calorie burn you received from MFP estimations, cardio computer data output, fitness tracker with or without HR, etc..

    You might want to read the stickies at the beginning of the forums that explains in detail how NET calories work in MFP.

    edited to add: enter weight lifting under cardio/strength training.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    iManifestGoals wrote: »
    I noticed it adjusts when you add cardio. For some reason it doesn't when you add weights...

    Right, because the way MFP is set up you eat back your exercise calories. And it does count weights if you log strength training under the cardio section.
  • moosey2011
    moosey2011 Posts: 8 Member
    edited August 2016
    Thanks everyone! That makes sense that I would need to eat less the closer I get to goal. I currently have it set to lose 1lb a week, but I'm thinking once I have about 10lbs to lose, I should set it to .5lb loss/week? I should also add I'm not currently exercising other than walking to and from work, as I live close enough to walk.
  • JDixon852019
    JDixon852019 Posts: 312 Member
    Smaller bodies require less calories. To stay at a deficit you must lower your calories as you loose.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    kmsalern wrote: »
    Thanks everyone! That makes sense that I would need to eat less the closer I get to goal. I currently have it set to lose 1lb a week, but I'm thinking once I have about 10lbs to lose, I should set it to .5lb loss/week? I should also add I'm not currently exercising other than walking to and from work, as I live close enough to walk.

    Yes. You should do exactly this.
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