Can someone help me decipher what this chart means

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chriseema
chriseema Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! New to the app. I have this weekly chart. My goal is to eat 1200 a day to lose 2 lbs in February. I'm 5'2, 117 lbs, 22 and female (and sedentary like you wouldn't believe, I work on a computer). Anyways, this chart says I'm 1627 over for the week... what does that mean?ke6c0te6g9ig.png
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Replies

  • arobey11
    arobey11 Posts: 87 Member
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    That means that in the past week, you have eaten 1627 calories total over your goal. The net average is basically telling you that that's an average of 1368 calories a day, which is 168 calories per day over your daily goal of 1200.
  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
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    Please also note that at your current size, 2lbs a week is too aggressive. You might want to change your rate of loss to .5lb a week so you get more calories. Then maybe you won't be over your goal as your goal is larger.
  • arobey11
    arobey11 Posts: 87 Member
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    sammyliftsandeats wrote: »
    Please also note that at your current size, 2lbs a week is too aggressive. You might want to change your rate of loss to .5lb a week so you get more calories. Then maybe you won't be over your goal as your goal is larger.

    I understood the original post to mean 2 pounds in the month of February, so .5 pounds a week.
  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
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    arobey11 wrote: »
    sammyliftsandeats wrote: »
    Please also note that at your current size, 2lbs a week is too aggressive. You might want to change your rate of loss to .5lb a week so you get more calories. Then maybe you won't be over your goal as your goal is larger.

    I understood the original post to mean 2 pounds in the month of February, so .5 pounds a week.

    Ah right. I stand corrected.

    Thanks.

    Sorry, OP.

    I jumped to a conclusion and for that, I take back what I said.
  • chriseema
    chriseema Posts: 19 Member
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    sammyliftsandeats wrote: »
    Please also note that at your current size, 2lbs a week is too aggressive. You might want to change your rate of loss to .5lb a week so you get more calories. Then maybe you won't be over your goal as your goal is larger.
    Yep! I mean 2 lbs a month. So 0.5 lbs a week. I'm probably not even losing since my maintenance is 1500.
    arobey11 wrote: »
    That means that in the past week, you have eaten 1627 calories total over your goal. The net average is basically telling you that that's an average of 1368 calories a day, which is 168 calories per day over your daily goal of 1200.

    I'm confused cause if I eat over 168 a day on average, how would that be an extra 1627 a week? Kinda depressing.
    I don't understand how I could possibly gain that way if the average is 1368? Cause 1368 is close to 1200.
  • Stella3838
    Stella3838 Posts: 439 Member
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    What's the black line on that chart? Almost looks like the target is below 1200.
  • cnadiger
    cnadiger Posts: 168 Member
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    Stella3838 wrote: »
    What's the black line on that chart? Almost looks like the target is below 1200.

    That's how you got to 1627 over for the week. The goal is actually set lower than 1200.
  • FLBeachluvr
    FLBeachluvr Posts: 110 Member
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    The goal now says 1200 but maybe it was changed?
  • KrystinaMTL
    KrystinaMTL Posts: 1,338 Member
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    ^^^^ What she said. :)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    chriseema wrote: »
    sammyliftsandeats wrote: »
    Please also note that at your current size, 2lbs a week is too aggressive. You might want to change your rate of loss to .5lb a week so you get more calories. Then maybe you won't be over your goal as your goal is larger.
    Yep! I mean 2 lbs a month. So 0.5 lbs a week. I'm probably not even losing since my maintenance is 1500.
    arobey11 wrote: »
    That means that in the past week, you have eaten 1627 calories total over your goal. The net average is basically telling you that that's an average of 1368 calories a day, which is 168 calories per day over your daily goal of 1200.

    I'm confused cause if I eat over 168 a day on average, how would that be an extra 1627 a week? Kinda depressing.
    I don't understand how I could possibly gain that way if the average is 1368? Cause 1368 is close to 1200.

    You're not going to gain on 1368 as it's under your maintenance, you're just not going to lose as quickly as half a pound a week.
  • Stella3838
    Stella3838 Posts: 439 Member
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    The math almost works if the original target was around 1,100.
  • chriseema
    chriseema Posts: 19 Member
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    Stella3838 wrote: »
    The math almost works if the original target was around 1,100.

    Wait I notice that too... but it says goal 1200... maybe a glitch?
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    chriseema wrote: »
    sammyliftsandeats wrote: »
    Please also note that at your current size, 2lbs a week is too aggressive. You might want to change your rate of loss to .5lb a week so you get more calories. Then maybe you won't be over your goal as your goal is larger.
    Yep! I mean 2 lbs a month. So 0.5 lbs a week. I'm probably not even losing since my maintenance is 1500.
    arobey11 wrote: »
    That means that in the past week, you have eaten 1627 calories total over your goal. The net average is basically telling you that that's an average of 1368 calories a day, which is 168 calories per day over your daily goal of 1200.

    I'm confused cause if I eat over 168 a day on average, how would that be an extra 1627 a week? Kinda depressing.
    I don't understand how I could possibly gain that way if the average is 1368? Cause 1368 is close to 1200.

    You're not going to gain on 1368 as it's under your maintenance, you're just not going to lose as quickly as half a pound a week.

    Huh. This is a confusing website. I think they should use more clarity for that 1627 thing. Thanks !
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    1627 is pretty clear. That's how much you are over your weekly goal. Underneath that is what your daily average is.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    edited February 2017
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    Sometimes when I view the weekly chart on my Android app for the first time, especially if I have just made changes in my Food Diary, the averages on the chart can be inaccurate. If I tap the back arrow a couple of times to go back about four weeks until the weekly data is forced to refresh itself, then go back to the current week, the data gets corrected. Maybe that could be why that chart seems weird?

    Edited to add: Just noticed the OP is new to MFP. I wonder if there could be a syncing issue between the app and the main account on the web verison. If so, maybe contact Customer Support at...

    https://myfitnesspal.desk.com
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Being 1627 over your weekly goal means that you'll lose .5 lb less than if you'd eaten at goal every day. (1 lb is 3500 cals, so 1627 is about half that.) As others have said, 2 lb per week is too aggressive a loss rate for your small size. Set up a plan that is sustainable, .5 lb per week as others suggested.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    lorrpb wrote: »
    Being 1627 over your weekly goal means that you'll lose .5 lb less than if you'd eaten at goal every day. (1 lb is 3500 cals, so 1627 is about half that.) As others have said, 2 lb per week is too aggressive a loss rate for your small size. Set up a plan that is sustainable, .5 lb per week as others suggested.

    OP is on 0.5lbs per week deficit it
  • thielke2015
    thielke2015 Posts: 212 Member
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    Hi, I have a question about this chart too. Something I have been trying to understand but not sure if I am getting the wrong end of the stick.
    The bottom figure ...the goal is your daily reduced calorie amount. So how come the top number that says you are either under your net calories weekly or over makes the difference when projecting what you are under or over by? ( if this makes senc?).
    If you eat at the reduced amount MFP works out for you then you should already be in a deficit? So how come the bar is lowered even more to be under your net weekly carlories intake( or over)

    I'm not sure I am explaining this very well
    Example. My daily calorie intake MFP worked out for me is 1530 and this is to lose 1.5 lbs per week. So a deficit of approx 750 calories.....
    so the fact that I am eating 750 less per day means I should already be losing at that rate ( which I am by the way) so why is the weekly net under/over so important if the deficit is already there?

    Sorry if I confused anyone!
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Did you manually change your calorie goal to 1100/day?
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I think that part of the confusion is stemming from the fact that you changed your calorie goal from 1100 to 1200 between Saturday and Sunday. (Notice that the line between green and red is at 1100 for Thurs/Fri/Sat then moves up to 1200 for Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed.)

    I'm also going to question your numbers. I plugged your stats into a TDEE calculator ( http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ ), listing you as sedentary. It suggests that you burn about 1600 calories/day. So, you would have gotten a goal of 1100 cals/day to lose 1 pound/week - not 0.5 pounds/week. To lose 0.5 pounds/week, you're looking at eating about 1350 cals/day. Which is what you did, so you're on track for the goal you mentioned in your original post.

    So, I suspect you manually entered both the 1100 goal and the 1200 goal? Try letting MFP pick your goal calories for you (with 0.5 pounds/week as your weight loss goal). That will give you a better calorie target that you'll likely be more able to stick to.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    thielke2015 wrote: »
    Hi, I have a question about this chart too. Something I have been trying to understand but not sure if I am getting the wrong end of the stick.
    The bottom figure ...the goal is your daily reduced calorie amount. So how come the top number that says you are either under your net calories weekly or over makes the difference when projecting what you are under or over by? ( if this makes senc?).
    If you eat at the reduced amount MFP works out for you then you should already be in a deficit? So how come the bar is lowered even more to be under your net weekly carlories intake( or over)

    I'm not sure I am explaining this very well
    Example. My daily calorie intake MFP worked out for me is 1530 and this is to lose 1.5 lbs per week. So a deficit of approx 750 calories.....
    so the fact that I am eating 750 less per day means I should already be losing at that rate ( which I am by the way) so why is the weekly net under/over so important if the deficit is already there?

    Sorry if I confused anyone!

    It's showing you how close you are to hitting your full required deficit for the week. Say it showed 3500 over your weekly goal, that would mean not losing a 1lb that week. Your goal is the number required for the loss entered. Over or under will mean more or less of a loss that week.

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