amount of calories

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mandy220750
mandy220750 Posts: 65 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi I thought I would check my goals and input my current weight.

Given 1200 but this seems too low

I am female currently 252 pounds and 5 foot 6 and do little exercise

I have lost over 60 pounds

Had to adjust back to 1340 calories

Surely 1200 is too low for my size? or is this correct?
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Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Did you choose an aggressive goal like 2 pounds a week?
  • mandy220750
    mandy220750 Posts: 65 Member
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    Yes I chose 2lb per week, but with the amount of weight I have still to lose do not think its aggressive?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,051 Member
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    If you've recently lost 60 pounds, you know how much you need to eat, right? Were you previously keeping track?

    You don't mention your regular activity...if you have any kind of job or go to school or have kids - don't set it to Sedentary. A higher "activity" setting will give more calories.

    On this site, when/if you exercise, enter that into the Exercise page and you will be given more calories to offset that increased need. This site is different from almost every other site in that way.

    So, use your past data/experience to set your calorie goal. Adjust in a month if something isn't working.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    I took a guess on your age (30) - but a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator gave me (using 1-3 days exercise a week) - a TDEE of 2630cal

    if you wanted to lose a lb a week - then you would need to eat 1000cal under that - so 1630 a day - but DO NOT eat back exercise calories (TDEE is different to the MFP calculator)
  • melissaulmen
    melissaulmen Posts: 123 Member
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    I agree it is because of your current active setting. To lose 2lbs per week, that is about a 1000 per day deficit. From my own use I figured that MFP calculates sedentary lifestyle as burning about 2000 calories per day with normal activity. (my steps and calories burned are estimated on my step tracker, and synced to MFP)

    Unless you know how many calories you actually burn in a day it is hard to tell how many calories you should consume in order to keep your goal of 2lbs per week.

    I am not working out at this time. So I can use my fitness tracker to get a good estimate of how many calories I have burned through the day.

    Cal Burned Steps MFP Cal Earned
    2551 11,141 171
    2530 10,153 0
    2565 11,258 164
  • asomerton1986
    asomerton1986 Posts: 5 Member
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    My goal is 1200 and I weigh and measure everything, I try to eat very clean and I usually come in under 1100. I do have binge days. I am 150, 5'5" with a job that has me sitting a lot, my goal was 2 pounds a week. 1200 is easily done with meal prep and loads of vegetables, fruit are sneaky buggers.
  • bentleytino2010
    bentleytino2010 Posts: 35 Member
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    I forgot to mention I do cardio 4 to 5 days a week and burn about 400 to 500 cals so in actuality I'm eating 1300 to 1500 cals
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    JustMe602 wrote: »
    It's most likely because of the sedentary setting

    Agree with this, I started with similar stats so should have similar numbers to you. If set to sedentary 1200 calories would be 2 lbs/week for me. But, my personal history indicates I burn more than sedentary calories just going to work and bopping around cooking in the evenings, no intentional exercise included. My TDEE is closer to 2400 so 2lbs/week would be 1400ish for me . Very few non disabled people are actually sedentary.
  • mandy220750
    mandy220750 Posts: 65 Member
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    Hi I set my stats to sedentary because I have severe arthritis in my knees so do little walking and my job is in a office so sitting all day. I am not classed as disabled but I only do a small amount of physical activity so the nearest option for my stats is sedentary. I tried to input honest stats nearest to my situation and was given 1200. But I am keeping to 1340 to see if I lose. Thanks
  • charlenekapf
    charlenekapf Posts: 309 Member
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    This seems very low to lose 1 lb. 1000 deficit would be 2 lbs/week....500 kcal deficit = 1 lb week.
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    I took a guess on your age (30) - but a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator gave me (using 1-3 days exercise a week) - a TDEE of 2630cal

    if you wanted to lose a lb a week - then you would need to eat 1000cal under that - so 1630 a day - but DO NOT eat back exercise calories (TDEE is different to the MFP calculator)

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    charlenekapf wrote: »
    This seems very low to lose 1 lb. 1000 deficit would be 2 lbs/week....500 kcal deficit = 1 lb week.
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    I took a guess on your age (30) - but a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator gave me (using 1-3 days exercise a week) - a TDEE of 2630cal

    if you wanted to lose a lb a week - then you would need to eat 1000cal under that - so 1630 a day - but DO NOT eat back exercise calories (TDEE is different to the MFP calculator)

    Yeah I realized after I screwed up the 1lb a week number - still much better than 12-1300 though
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,051 Member
    edited August 2017
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    charlenekapf wrote: »
    This seems very low to lose 1 lb. 1000 deficit would be 2 lbs/week....500 kcal deficit = 1 lb week.
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    I took a guess on your age (30) - but a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator gave me (using 1-3 days exercise a week) - a TDEE of 2630cal

    if you wanted to lose a lb a week - then you would need to eat 1000cal under that - so 1630 a day - but DO NOT eat back exercise calories (TDEE is different to the MFP calculator)

    I think that was a typo. I agree, it should read "one pound" for a 500 calorie daily deficit.

    *edit to say, oh, maybe I should refresh before hitting post. :lol:

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    charlenekapf wrote: »
    This seems very low to lose 1 lb. 1000 deficit would be 2 lbs/week....500 kcal deficit = 1 lb week.
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    I took a guess on your age (30) - but a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator gave me (using 1-3 days exercise a week) - a TDEE of 2630cal

    if you wanted to lose a lb a week - then you would need to eat 1000cal under that - so 1630 a day - but DO NOT eat back exercise calories (TDEE is different to the MFP calculator)

    I think that was a typo. I agree, it should read "one pound" for a 1000 calorie daily deficit.

    *edit to say, oh, maybe I should refresh before hitting post. :lol:

    I tried to math while caffeine deprived....

    So 500 deficit with TDEE would be 2100 cal a day

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