Eating 3000 calories to hit my goal??

themightymex
themightymex Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
MFP has been a YUGEEE help, but recently I haven't been losing as much weight as I wanted to and I wanted to know if it was because I never really reach my calorie goal on MFP. I'm 6 foot 1. 202 lbs. Around 25 percent body fat. I'm fairly active as I bike to work everyday, workout 6 days a week (4 strength days + cardio and 2 pure cardio days). I have a fitbit which tracks my steps. (18,000 steps avg) Usually I eat around 2300 calories. But mfp is telling me to eat 3000 calories. Should I really eat that many calories or should I just stick to my diet. ( I have lost around 13 lbs in 73 days) any advice would be much appreciated.

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited December 2016
    It's too close to bedtime for me to do numbers. But eating more will not make you lose weight. Chances are there is an issue with exercise calories there. But you are averaging over 1 lb per week loss, which is awesome! Weight loss isn't linear, even when you do everything right, you will have weeks the scale doesn't move. A real slump is more like 4 weeks of no loss. Patience :) and congrats on your success so far!
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited December 2016
    13 pound in 73 days is really good. That's around 1 pound every 5 days or just over 1 pound/week. So, that tells me that the amount you are currently eating is a good amount for weightloss.

    Have you checked your profile settings? A jump from 2300 to 3000 calories could be something like a 1 pound/week goal suddenly getting jumped to "eat at maintenance".

    If that's not the issue, it's also plausible that you really do need to eat 3000 calories to sustain your activity level at your size *and* that you're underestimating your current calorie intake and are actually eating 3000 calories/day on average already. Based on my husband's stats, a 3000 calorie intake sounds very reasonable for you. BUT based on your reported weightloss, you don't need to eat more than you're currently eating (unless you've recently increased your activity level).
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    I mean.....-daydreams about getting 3,000 calories a day-

    That part
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    edited December 2016
    maintenance TDEE for your age/height/weight (and medium energy expenditure - although you may go up a level) is 3000...so it sounds like MFP is in the believable range

    https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=male&age=25&lbs=202&in=72&act=1.55&f=1
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    That's an average of 1.25 pounds per week. Which is pretty good. If you put in a goal of losing 2 pounds per week, and in this amount of time you're losing an average of 1.25, you're probably not spot on with your food logging or are burning less in the workouts than expected. But 1.25 pounds per week is pretty good. So if you are happy with the amount of food you are consuming and the work you're putting in, keep going as you are.

    If weight loss stalls so that you are not losing weight over 4-6 weeks, and you think you have more #s to lose, then tighten up your logging accuracy.

    But no, eating more will not mean losing more.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited December 2016
    themightymex wrote: »
    MFP has been a YUGEEE help, but recently I haven't been losing as much weight as I wanted to and I wanted to know if it was because I never really reach my calorie goal on MFP. I'm 6 foot 1. 202 lbs. Around 25 percent body fat. I'm fairly active as I bike to work everyday, workout 6 days a week (4 strength days + cardio and 2 pure cardio days). I have a fitbit which tracks my steps. (18,000 steps avg) Usually I eat around 2300 calories. But mfp is telling me to eat 3000 calories. Should I really eat that many calories or should I just stick to my diet. ( I have lost around 13 lbs in 73 days) any advice would be much appreciated.

    If you lost 13 pounds in 73 days has that been consistant loss over that period of time or did you lose like 8 pounds in the first week and then just 5 more pounds over the next 65 days?

    Either way if you are happy with your weight loss, happy with your diet, feeling like you have plenty of energy to complete your workouts...then why try to fix what isn't broken?

    At 6' 180 pounds fairly active man I lost about 1.5 pounds per week eating 2400 calories a day so that was about a 750 calorie deficit for me. I fully believe being that active you could lose weight at 3000 calories, however if you are losing weight at a reasonable rate at 2300 there is no reason to change.

    "At a reasonable rate" is the important part though. 13 pounds over 73 days is something like 1.3 pounds a week which seems to me...reasonable. So probably just stick to what you are doing.
  • themightymex
    themightymex Posts: 5 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    themightymex wrote: »
    MFP has been a YUGEEE help, but recently I haven't been losing as much weight as I wanted to and I wanted to know if it was because I never really reach my calorie goal on MFP. I'm 6 foot 1. 202 lbs. Around 25 percent body fat. I'm fairly active as I bike to work everyday, workout 6 days a week (4 strength days + cardio and 2 pure cardio days). I have a fitbit which tracks my steps. (18,000 steps avg) Usually I eat around 2300 calories. But mfp is telling me to eat 3000 calories. Should I really eat that many calories or should I just stick to my diet. ( I have lost around 13 lbs in 73 days) any advice would be much appreciated.

    If you lost 13 pounds in 73 days has that been consistant loss over that period of time or did you lose like 8 pounds in the first week and then just 5 more pounds over the next 65 days?

    Either way if you are happy with your weight loss, happy with your diet, feeling like you have plenty of energy to complete your workouts...then why try to fix what isn't broken?

    At 6' 180 pounds fairly active man I lost about 1.5 pounds per week eating 2400 calories a day so that was about a 750 calorie deficit for me. I fully believe being that active you could lose weight at 3000 calories, however if you are losing weight at a reasonable rate at 2300 there is no reason to change.

    "At a reasonable rate" is the important part though. 13 pounds over 73 days is something like 1.3 pounds a week which seems to me...reasonable. So probably just stick to what you are doing.

    Thanks for the response and exactly what happened was I lost 10 lbs in the first month when I wasn't working out and just eating clean but in the last 2 months(when I started working out) I've been dropping like maybe .5 or .4 weight every week. I have been feeling supper tired after my workout.
  • themightymex
    themightymex Posts: 5 Member
    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    I mean.....-daydreams about getting 3,000 calories a day-

    It's a pain In the *kitten* honestly lol. Sticking to the macros and consuming that many calories need super careful planning.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    If you have lost 13lbs in that many days then I'd keep doing what you're doing. Don't increase calories unless you really feel like you need to.
  • irandra23
    irandra23 Posts: 35 Member
    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    I mean.....-daydreams about getting 3,000 calories a day-

    You and me both....

    But well i don't think you should up your calorie intake. Stick to the 2300
  • themightymex
    themightymex Posts: 5 Member
    UPDATE: I've increased my calorie intake to 2800. I feel a lot better with more energy. My muscles are getting bigger 2. Before I was not Seeing an increase in muscle mass but now bam, welcome to the gun show lol. I've lost 16lbs so far. Only 14 left. 16lbs in 4 months. Now that's what I call progress
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Just a word of caution, it is more likely you are seeing the muscles that were hidden by, not necessarily seeing an increase in mass. It's pretty hard to gain visible muscle mass whilst eating in a deficit (losing weight).
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