Best way to find daily calorie goal?

chriscmccall · August 2018

I’m just getting started . 6’6” tall, a little over 400 lbs.

Everything I see online tells me ridiculous numbers like 4700 calories and such. Madness.

I was planning on using 3000 to start.

Thoughts?

2snakeswoman · August 2018

If you go through the setup process of My Fitness Pal, it will offer you a calorie count.

There's also a site called Fat2Fit that has more in-depth calculators.

Even if it sounds high to you, don't dismiss your result as "madness". Better results come from gradually changing your habits. As your body weight decreases, your calorie target will decrease, too.

quiksylver296 · August 2018

You’re really tall. And male. And 400 lbs. I don’t know how old.

I’m 43, female, 5’9, 180 lbs and I can lose on 2000 calories.

What did this site tell you when you went through the set up questions?

chriscmccall · August 2018

quiksylver296 wrote: »

You’re really tall. And male. And 400 lbs. I don’t know how old.

I’m 43, female, 5’9, 180 lbs and I can lose on 2000 calories.

What did this site tell you when you went through the set up questions?

I’m 39.

Honestly I don’t recall the exact number. Somewhere around 4200 calories.

Thing is, I changed the way I eat. I don’t indulge in going out to eat several times a week anymore, nor do I drink beer like a fish or eat processed sweets.

That said, I ate plenty today, was never hungry, and only ate 2200 calories.

AnnPT77 · August 2018

Here's the thing: Major weight loss isn't about a sustainable today. It's about sustainable months and years, because losing a substantial amount of weight takes a long time. Ideally, we want those months and years to be a healthy ones, which requires nutrition, which requires some minimum number of calories to achieve. Moreover, if we want to retain as much muscle as possible while losing mostly fat, and maybe even want to be improving fitness as well, we need to fuel the movement we do in daily life, and any exercise we may add on top of that.

You're doing a wonderful thing for yourself, OP, and when it pays off, you're going to be super glad you did it. (I am, and I didn't have nearly as much to lose - only about 1/3 of my body weight. But I feel so. much. better.) But it's going to take a while.

You're looking for a level of eating where you're not hungry day by day, for sure. But you're also looking for a level of eating where cravings don't sneak up on you from over-restriction over time, where you stay strong and energetic over time, where you get good nutrition. You don't want to burn out fast.

I'm not saying that will for sure happen if you stay at 2200. I don't know. I do know this: I'm a li'l ol' lady, 5'5", 134 pounds this morning, and I can maintain that weight eating around 2000 calories plus exercise calories. I admit I'm an unusually good calorie burner for my demographic, but you're 23 years younger, 13" taller, and currently 266 pounds heavier.

I think 2200 might be a little low for sustainability, strength and nutrition, for you.

There's a lot of nonsense in our culture about super-fast weight lost (Biggest Loser and other reality TV, tabloids, blogs, other nonsense). It's misleading.

I want to see you succeed, long term. Think it over.

cesse47 · August 2018

Doing a very rough calculation, I believe a daily calorie target in the range of 2500 - 2800 is needed for a 2 lb / week loss. Based on that, I think you may have entered something in the MFP setup incorrectly. You might want to go back to settings and reinput your data.

Best way to find daily calorie goal?

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