How did you pick your total daily calorie goal

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xtrasweet4
xtrasweet4 Posts: 2 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Just curious if you chose the amount that MFP suggested or had to choose less for maintenance goal? I am not at maintenance yet..... but so close I can taste it!! I'm just scared of gaining weight back once I increase my caloric intake

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  • kuranda10
    kuranda10 Posts: 593 Member
    edited November 2016
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    I chose to lose my weight by eating at the maintenance calories for my goal weight. That way when I get there I won;'t have to change a thing.
    Now, if I had a large amount of weight to lose, or if I was incredibly active this would probably be a bad method.
  • xtrasweet4
    xtrasweet4 Posts: 2 Member
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    I guess scared because I haven't been my goal weight in years. Two babies and lots of ups and downs with weight... I'm scared because it IS an unhappy experience, It's hard to lose weight, especially now that I've grown older. and I don't want to have to do this again!!

    But you are right. I will think about it and try to have a different outlook. I don't want to obsess about my weight any longer and I also don't want the number on the scale to determine my happiness. Thank you :)
  • ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken
    ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken Posts: 1,530 Member
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    Maintenance worries seem to be popular. I can understand not wanting to work to lose the weight only to have it go out the window later. The good thing is you can find what your needs are by tweaking it as YOU see fit. I am not changing my intake for maintenance. I highly doubt I will keep losing once I get to a certain point. When the weight stops coming off I will accept my current intake as maintenance. IF what I have researched is correct I *should* land somewhere in the 130 lb range. If I get to that point and I find I am still losing I plan to increase in small increments until I find my "zone". Currently I have my MFP setting set to lose a pond a week. MFP put me at 1,400 calories for this. I go over by 100 or less sometimes, occasionally I go over by a lot more. But I don't lose a pound every week even when I adhere to the goal MFP generated.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    I use my Fitbit to track my TDEE and cut 50 calories under that. I set up a custom calorie goal on MFP to match those calories.
  • ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken
    ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken Posts: 1,530 Member
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    xtrasweet4 wrote: »
    I guess scared because I haven't been my goal weight in years. Two babies and lots of ups and downs with weight... I'm scared because it IS an unhappy experience, It's hard to lose weight, especially now that I've grown older. and I don't want to have to do this again!!

    But you are right. I will think about it and try to have a different outlook. I don't want to obsess about my weight any longer and I also don't want the number on the scale to determine my happiness. Thank you :)

    I haven't seen my goal weight since I quit smoking back in 2005. I was at 125 lbs and went right up to 165 lbs seemingly overnight. once I got my diet back under control I could never get under 145 lbs again no matter what I did. After 2 babies, a thyroid problem, a vitamin D deficiency, a bakers cyst in my knee, and a few injuries including a sprained ankle, and a hyper-extended knee I found my self at 187 lbs. I'm 5' 3" so that made me very round. And obese. I feel like now I am finally seeing results and am at 156 lbs. I worry that when I get to 145 lbs I will get stuck again. So I feel your worry.

    I think we get so involved in remembering where we were, that we worry we won't be able to avoid going there again. So to this I say, don't go down the same road and you won't hit the same bumps. If you find yourself gaining little bits then adjust your intake by a little bit here and there until you level out.
  • stormyview
    stormyview Posts: 81 Member
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    I didn't. My maintenance does seem to be close to what MFP said, but I'm basing that on my weight loss speed only. I don't actually track in maintenance.

    Instead I weigh myself daily (if I notice I don't weigh myself for a few days or am dreading it, that's a sign to get on the scale and start tracking for a week or two). I also followed a version of IF where I tend to eat about 1.5 meals a day. One meal is quite light, and the other is normal. I also eat some snacks like chips sometimes, usually at the weekend. This has worked for me for a few years now.
  • ahlife27
    ahlife27 Posts: 8 Member
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    I sort-of go by MFP, and sort-of by how I'm feeling. I do weigh and/or measure myself every day in maintenance, just to remind myself I'm doing okay and staying stable, and if I feel like I have an off day I'll track calories just to be sure. Some days I find I'm eating way above/below maintenance, but most it's around the MFP number.

    Your body also does a whole heck of a lot of things you don't even know about half the time (eg, calories and nutrition needs for PMS and when you're sick or fighting off illness are different than everyday, etc). So I try to factor that in when I'm a couple hundred over/under and in maintenance - we don't know everything about the body yet and I can't be 100% sure why my body doesn't need more/really seemed to need more that day. As long as it's consistently okay, my weight stays about the same number, and I feel good, I'm pretty happy :)
  • ahmshaki
    ahmshaki Posts: 37 Member
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    zyxst wrote: »
    I use my Fitbit to track my TDEE and cut 50 calories under that. I set up a custom calorie goal on MFP to match those calories.

    Which fitbit do you have? Mine is the Zip. Note sure how accurate it is.
  • mlsh1969
    mlsh1969 Posts: 138 Member
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    kuranda10 wrote: »
    I chose to lose my weight by eating at the maintenance calories for my goal weight. That way when I get there I won;'t have to change a thing.
    Now, if I had a large amount of weight to lose, or if I was incredibly active this would probably be a bad method.

    I think this is a brilliant idea. How did i figure out the calories for ur goal weight? Did u just put ur goal weight in mfp?
  • kuranda10
    kuranda10 Posts: 593 Member
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    mlsh1969 wrote: »
    kuranda10 wrote: »
    I chose to lose my weight by eating at the maintenance calories for my goal weight. That way when I get there I won;'t have to change a thing.
    Now, if I had a large amount of weight to lose, or if I was incredibly active this would probably be a bad method.

    I think this is a brilliant idea. How did i figure out the calories for ur goal weight? Did u just put ur goal weight in mfp?

    I used one of the various calorie calculators on the internet. I think it was on the IIFYM site. But it came up relatively close on most of them.
    I entered all my info as usual, but instead of my current weight and "lose weight" as a goal I entered my goal weight and "maintenance" as a goal
  • ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken
    ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken Posts: 1,530 Member
    edited November 2016
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    mlsh1969 wrote: »
    kuranda10 wrote: »
    I chose to lose my weight by eating at the maintenance calories for my goal weight. That way when I get there I won;'t have to change a thing.
    Now, if I had a large amount of weight to lose, or if I was incredibly active this would probably be a bad method.

    I think this is a brilliant idea. How did i figure out the calories for ur goal weight? Did u just put ur goal weight in mfp?

    Here is one site that I used. Their values were slightly different from MFP. but not by too much. calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=&csex=f&cheightfeet=&cheightinch=&cpound=&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1.375&printit=0&x=107&y=17
  • mlsh1969
    mlsh1969 Posts: 138 Member
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    ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »
    mlsh1969 wrote: »
    kuranda10 wrote: »
    I chose to lose my weight by eating at the maintenance calories for my goal weight. That way when I get there I won;'t have to change a thing.
    Now, if I had a large amount of weight to lose, or if I was incredibly active this would probably be a bad method.

    I think this is a brilliant idea. How did i figure out the calories for ur goal weight? Did u just put ur goal weight in mfp?

    Here is one site that I used. Their values were slightly different from MFP. but not by too much. calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=&csex=f&cheightfeet=&cheightinch=&cpound=&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1.375&printit=0&x=107&y=17

    Thank u, thats great
  • PandoraGreen721
    PandoraGreen721 Posts: 450 Member
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    I allowed MFP to pick it, then adjusted it base on loss/gain. I found my "sweet spot" and typically fluctuate from 122-125. I've been maintaining for the last year. I eat back my exercise calories as needed.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    A trainer. I was originally eating too little to make any type of muscular gains.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    I used another calorie calculator and adjusted from there. Also my Fitbit helped give me an estimate. But mostly it was trial and error.
  • DWBalboa
    DWBalboa Posts: 37,255 Member
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    I did as pandora721 stated. Just program your data into MFP and start where it starts you and I adjusted it as I felt I needed. Mostly the macros for me, more protein, less carbs. It worked great as long as I could work out like I was. But injuries happened so now I need to recalculate and start eating less.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    I recorded my daily calorie intake and daily weight for 6 months and have used my total change in weight and average calories consumed, to calculate my average TDEE.
  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
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    I had my fitness pal set up on maintenance even during weight loss and synced with fitbit. It's still set up like this, I just make sure that I recalculate if there is weight change. I change my carb fat protein % but I don't look at them that much so I don't know why I bother!

    My goal was, and still is not to go over and end up in -. Anything between 0 and 500 left I count as goal achieved during fat lass. Still same, but my days in deficit are much less.

  • handeye
    handeye Posts: 52 Member
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    I chose to lose weight by eating anywhere from the recommended amount for weight loss at my height (1200) up to maintenance for my goal weight (1600-1800). It was slow, but great because I never felt like I was depriving myself. When I got to maintenance I kept my intake around 1600-1800. However, I started running and have vastly increased my calorie intake (averaging 2000-2250/day, total not net) and have still lost another 5 pounds! So I guess it depends on how active you are and what your goals are!

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