Maintenance Calories Accuracy In MFP

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stej5639
stej5639 Posts: 57 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi,
Just wondering how accurate people find the amount of calories MFP gives you for maintaining weight? Do you find you maintain if you eat the amount it says, more or less?
Thanks,
Ste
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Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    low for me
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    Mine's basically accurate. I use it as a baseline assuming no exercise that day, and then add exercise separately. That's what I did while I was losing, so I've just continued doing it.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    Mine is too high by about 200, I think. It's hard to be sure with exercise calories also questionable.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
    edited July 2018
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    It's about 150 calories too low for me.
  • stej5639
    stej5639 Posts: 57 Member
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    Thanks for the replies. Strange how its so different for so many people. I think ill try eating slightly under and see how it goes then tweak it if i need to. Do you eat all exercise calories, as they seem to be really high?
    Thanks.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
    edited July 2018
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    stej5639 wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies. Strange how its so different for so many people. I think ill try eating slightly under and see how it goes then tweak it if i need to. Do you eat all exercise calories, as they seem to be really high?
    Thanks.

    They're all just estimates and are going to vary from person to person.

    As far as exercise calories go, they again are all just estimates. For some, they're very inflated, for others, they are pretty close. You have to go off actual personal results. I started with eating 50-75% back and evaluated my progress and how I felt after about 4-6 weeks then adjusted accordingly. I know what I burn now and eat them all which helps me with my workouts and never kept me from losing at the rate I wanted.
  • stej5639
    stej5639 Posts: 57 Member
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    Thanks for the help. I always tried to avoid eating my exercise calories when i was trying to lose weight but think ill start eating some back and experiment a bit with how many etc.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    stej5639 wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies. Strange how its so different for so many people. I think ill try eating slightly under and see how it goes then tweak it if i need to. Do you eat all exercise calories, as they seem to be really high?
    Thanks.

    Low calorie burn activities done for long periods may be accurate (walking for instance) as far as calories burned during that chunk of time goes - but because of the fact MFP already accounted for some level of calorie burn - those appear the most inaccurate and are inflated.
    That's also for level walking, did you have inclines and really keep the stated pace on average for whole time?

    Other database entries have no intensity level - Spinning - did you do it the same level? Were you honest on time spent, ect.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    It was low for me too
  • ITUSGirl51
    ITUSGirl51 Posts: 192 Member
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    I think mine are 100 - 200 calories low. I set it as sedatary because I have a desk job, but I try to get up and move and take stairs when possible. I use the calorie level MFP sets so I can be a little sloppy with logging when I eat at a restaurant and am just guessing about the calories in the food. I’m not gaining and trending down slightly so that’s why I think it’s a little low. I don’t use MFP for my exercise calories, I use the Apple Watch for that and eat most of those calories back. It could be my AW is low.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    stej5639 wrote: »
    Thanks for the help. I always tried to avoid eating my exercise calories when i was trying to lose weight but think ill start eating some back and experiment a bit with how many etc.

    Depending on what your exercise actually is there could well be better ways to estimate your calories burned rather than using the MFP database.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    well I have mine set to active @2900 cals. Actual measured calorie overage for last 6 months during bulk is 85 cals, current intake on average has been 3260. Average calorie adjustment based solely on walking is 340, I do not log weight lifting.... so really.. pretty kitten close I guess. slightly high I guess. Though adjustments can be slightly inflated.
  • ryenday
    ryenday Posts: 1,540 Member
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    It is about 25 to 30% too high for my maintenance calories. But I figured it probably would be as It was off similarly for weight loss.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,978 Member
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    I have never used MFP for anything other than logging and tracking my food and exercise cals.

    Used online TDEE calculators, when starting out (all of which were on the high side BTW) to establish a base and then made adjustments as needed to first lose weigh and then to maintain it over the past 2 years.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Mine is a bit too high compared to my actual maintenance, but I know why because my case isn't typical. Generally, MFP calories are based on a formula that was created from averages, so very few people will have it spot on. The best course of action is to observe and modify. Eat what it tells you, increase your calories if you lose weight consistently, and reduce them if you gain weight consistently. Weight does fluctuate, but if your average this month is higher than your average last month you need to eat less and vice versa.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    stej5639 wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies. Strange how its so different for so many people. I think ill try eating slightly under and see how it goes then tweak it if i need to. Do you eat all exercise calories, as they seem to be really high?
    Thanks.

    It's about right for me, and I eat back all my exercise cals.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    CarvedTones wrote: »
    It always strikes me as odd that we go to great lengths to get the calories in food as close as we can, weighing down to the gram and looking for verified product or USDA entries. Then we total them up and compare them to a number we got off a Ouija board...

    True... I have been thinking that most of us are kinda a strange lot. Well, speaking for myself. I think sometime a motto. "The counters, the the strange, the exercisers, we are the hopeful maintainers." Lol
  • SummerSkier
    SummerSkier Posts: 4,799 Member
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    Well the truth of the matter is that the whole deal is like putting your thumb up to judge distance. Hard to give advice to anyone when even a specific individual will change over time. I think having the TOOLS here to monitor and make adjustments are what is important. And also being flexible enough to make changes when they are needed.
  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,468 Member
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    I found I could eat more and maintain, I've since realized That I hadn't been using the correct activity level, so I think mfp had it right, I just had no idea my step count was so high.

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