ladies- what is your calorie goal?

I go with what MFP gives me and eat back all my exercise calories. I'm in maintenance now, but did this while I was losing too.

The goal mfp gives you plus exercise will be about the same as your TDEE. If you use mfp's goal you should be eating back at least a portion (if not all) of your exercise calories. The best thing to do is just pick one formula and use that. If you have inconsistent exercise then mfp's Neat formula is often a good way to go. But if your exercise is consistent then TDEE may work best for you. I used mfp's method and ate back most of my exercise calories and lost weight with no problems and I was rarely hungry. I probably would have been hungry if I neglected to eat back the exercise calories.

I use TDEE with a goal of 1850. I have a desk job, but I work out 4ish times a week, plus lots of walks in the evenings. I'm between 15k-18k steps a day except Sundays, when I deliberately try to stay below 5k steps. I lose about 1.5/wk. I would starve on the MFP kcals on non-exercise days, lol!
36/F
5'7"
SW 217
CW 205
GW 155

I would gain weight at anything over 2000 calories. What works for me is what mfp sets for maintenance with 1/2 pound loss a week, set for sedentary and I eat at least 1/2 of my calories back. Looking at 1700 calories a day maximum.

But the real question is.. are you losing at the desired rate given what your calorie intake?

I'm several years into maintenance but in a short weight loss phase to trim off my winter 'fluff' lol. Loosely aiming for .5lb loss a week and calories are between 1,200-1,500 a day. Today I'll clock in at 1,330. Current stats are-female/38yrs old/5ft, 6in/current weight 126lbs, working down to 123lbs (summer maintenance range will be 123lbs-125lbs).

imgr8stmom wrote: »

i have been on MFP for about a month, and still cannot figure out what my calorie goal should be?
Do you go off what MFP gives you? do you go based on your TDEE?

I'm 48/f
current weight: 202
Height- 5'5"
i have a desk job, but average 8-10k steps per day. I also workout 4 days per week

I currently have my goal set at 1800- this is using my TDEE as sedentary, and adding in/eating 1/2 back my activity..

What is working for you??????????

I've lost weight before (got lazy with my tracking so I gained a few back in the last 2 years) so I start with what I already know from last time.

I am 60/f, 5'7", currently at 165 lbs. I lost 25 pounds last year (and gained back a few over the winter that I am currently shedding).

You do say that your goal is 1800 cal/day but you do not indicate if you are trying to maintain or if you want to loose a lb./week, or more, or less. Logically, you have to have a 500 cal DAILY deficit to loose a pound per week, which would bring your goal at 1300 cal/day for a TDEE of 1800 cal.

For me 1800 cal/day is my TDEE, i.e. maintenance not weight loss. I used a very simple formula, indicating sedentary and a goal of loosing 1 lb./week, and MFP gave me a goal of 1200 cal/day (this is the absolute minimum and you should not go below).

Now that is pretty low so I exercised for 500 cal/day/7 days a week and SOMETIMES ate part of those to upgrade my menus. As I am impatient, I added two days a week where I did a modified fast of a 300 cal breakfast + a protein shake of 100 cal for lunch and one for dinner, or a grand total of 500 cal for the day. With the exercise this meant that my net intake was 0 cal. This allowed me to shed the weight in about 3 months. I then moved to maintenance by just stopping the fasting and slowly starting to eat all of my exercise calories.

Now I would not advise you to do the fasting without your doctor's OK. It is hard, specially at the beginning, and concentrating is difficult. I chose to do it but made sure first that I did not risk anything. As I have very low blood pressure, it was tricky at times.

Hope this helps.

my calorie goal is 700kcal per day, but I still eating like 1.000kcal for now

My goal is under 1400 a day. I think MyFitnessPal actually gave me a lower number, but it looked too low, so I upped it arbitrarily. Down 7.3 lbs in 37 days, so it seems to work just fine for me

I manually set mine to 1600 based on some averages of online calorie estimators. I'm thinking about raising it though.... I'm losing good but feeling pretty hungry towards the evening.

I'm 5'4
SW- 195 lbs
CW- 177 lbs
GW- 140 lbs
I'm also still nursing my 17 month old baby.

i work at a desk, so i'm pretty sedentary.
MFP gives me 1400 calories for a 0.5 pound loss per week. i usually eat 1200-1500 calories though, i'm generally happy if i'm below my TDEE.

I stick to 1000kcal week days and up it to 2000kcal on weekends. I find it fits in better with my lifestyle and I am seeing good results. I work at a desk, walk 30 minutes every day and do strength training 3 x a week.
5'6/26/F
SW 185
CW 159
GW 150

I'm 5'3, 135, 37 y/o. I maintain around 2200. I bulked twice...worked up to 2600 cals. a day (only put on 10 lbs in a year). I've been on a cut for 2 months...worked down from 2300 to 2100. I'm down 3-4ish lbs.

I lift 5 days a week and am fairly active on rest days (volunteer at an animal shelter and do heavy duty clean a few hours a week). I heart food.

I think your plan sounds reasonable OP, the best thing to do is pick a number, stick with it, and monitor results for 6 or so weeks. If you are losing faster then desired, eat a little more of the exercise cals. If not as fast as you'd like and is reasonable for your total weight loss goal, cut back 100 or 200 cals.

I'm 5'2, 42, and also have a desk job. I lost ~ 30 lbs when I started on MFP while eating 1600-1800 cals/day and am maintaining at 120 now with a TDEE of 2200 measured by my FitBit and actual results.