Calorie counting.

myhero22716
myhero22716 Posts: 11 Member
edited November 15 in Getting Started
I just started this app and was confused on why it put me at 3000 calories a day. Just seems really high.. maybe I don't know much about calorie counting.? Tips??

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Stats?
  • myhero22716
    myhero22716 Posts: 11 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Stats?

    What do you mean?? Sorry I'm new to all this!
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    edited February 2017
    Age, gender, height, current weight, goal weight, activity level?
  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
    It depends. How much did you say you want to lose a week, how much you weigh, your height, activity level. It may take some manual adjustment if their estimates and your actual numbers (CICO, height, weight) don't give you the results you work for.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    myhero22716 wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Stats?

    What do you mean?? Sorry I'm new to all this!

    Height, weight, age

    Are you trying to lose weight?
  • myhero22716
    myhero22716 Posts: 11 Member
    Yes I'm trying to loose weight.
    About 365 now.
    5'9" - 5'10" height
    Goal weight is at least 200 but my long term is 175.
    I'm 18, 19 in July.
    I work at a local Walmart so my activity level is kinda light with working.
    I wanted to loose at least a pound or 2 a week..
  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
    Give it a shot with careful logging, if you put all that into mfp, you may get some results. But log accurately. You may find buying a food scale (like $10 on Amazon) will be the best way to accomplish this.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    Male or female?
  • myhero22716
    myhero22716 Posts: 11 Member
    serindipte wrote: »
    Male or female?

    Female
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    If you're male, I would lower the calorie goals to 2600. That puts you at a 2lb per week deficit.

    If you're female, drop to 2400 for the 2lb per week deficit.

    You are NOT guaranteed to lose 2lbs every single week. You may lose 6lbs one week and a half pound the next. If you remain consistant, though, it will come off in time. As the lady stated above, your best investment will be a food scale so you can weigh your food. It's far more accurate than using measuring cups/spoons and will help to guarantee your success.

    :smiley: If you need any help, there are a ton of friendly, helpful people right here rooting for you!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Go in and make sure you put everything in correctly...I just put your stats in with a desired 2 Lbs per week rate of loss and come up with 2,300 calories. Are you sure you didn't set it to maintenance?
  • myhero22716
    myhero22716 Posts: 11 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Go in and make sure you put everything in correctly...I just put your stats in with a desired 2 Lbs per week rate of loss and come up with 2,300 calories. Are you sure you didn't set it to maintenance?

    It just changed to that. I put 1lb a week and it was at 3000. That kinda explains it more! I changed it to 2lbs
  • kzooyogi
    kzooyogi Posts: 121 Member
    The more body weight you carry, the higher caloric requirement you have to sustain life (makes sense, right? If you have more stuff, you have to consume more to nourish that stuff).

    Plugging your stats into a BMR (basal metabolic rate = the amount of calories your body requires to sustain normal metabolic processes, assuming all you're doing is sleeping and breathing) gives a value of ~2400 calories. You want to be eating at least that much, as anything less than that will mean you're not giving your body enough energy to sustain life, and your health will suffer. Since you likely don't only sleep and breathe all day long, your body burns more than 2,400 calories (your BMR). The total average number of calories your body burns per day is called your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Again, with your stats, that gives a value of ~3,400 calories. This is the amount of calories you'd need to eat every day if your intent was to maintain your current weight. Since you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer than 3,400 calories per day.

    Eating the 3,000 calories that MFP suggested would result in a 400 calorie deficit each day, or 2,800 calories per week. This would equate to approximately a 0.8 lb loss per week. The higher your deficit (i.e. the less you eat, or the more you work out and burn), the more weight you'll lose.

    If your goal is to lose 1 lb/week, then your weekly deficit should be around 3,500 calories, which is a 500 calorie deficit per day. So you could lower your total calorie goal to 2,900 and then you should be right around that 1 lb/week loss.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    I have never understood any of that stuff. I started out with 1800 calories 2 years ago and I have stayed there the entire time. When I stop losing eating that amount then I will gradually decrease my calories. I have plugged my numbers into many different calculators and the number of calories that it shows I can eat is ridiculous to me. For me simple works best.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    it may seem ridiculous, but it doesn't work - my TDEE has me taking in 1900-2300cal a day to maintain my weight
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