Adjustment to calories

mickey_b88
mickey_b88 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi quick question on calorie counting, if i lose weight do i now have to adjust my calories further into a deficit or stay on my current calories that MyFitnessPal has worked out for me for my future weight goal?

Thanks

Replies

  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    As you lose weight your calorie needs decrease (less of you to keep alive and move around), so to maintain the same rate of loss, you would need to decrease calories. Depending how much you have to lose, some of this offsets itself, because the less you have to lose, the smaller your deficit should be. For most people, their maintenance calories at the end will be higher than what they're eating to lose (exceptions would be short, sedentary, and/or older people).
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,107 Member
    Less calories as you lose weight, yes.

    I would recommend confirming your weight loss settings in MFP (activity level, desired weight loss rate,...) every 5lbs you lose. This will update your calorie goal to your new weight.
    I only realised after several months that my calorie goal didn't update spontaneously, so when I finally updated/confirmed my weight loss settings, my calorie goal went down around 100 kcal a day!
  • mickey_b88
    mickey_b88 Posts: 4 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Less calories as you lose weight, yes.

    I would recommend confirming your weight loss settings in MFP (activity level, desired weight loss rate,...) every 5lbs you lose. This will update your calorie goal to your new weight.
    I only realised after several months that my calorie goal didn't update spontaneously, so when I finally updated/confirmed my weight loss settings, my calorie goal went down around 100 kcal a day!

    Great, i have been updating my weight weekly and have lost 5.6lbs but my calories haven't changed?
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,107 Member
    Yeah, updating your weight isn't enough.

    In the app, you can go to your profile and then tap on "update goals": confirm your activity level and desired weight loss goal and after that you should have a different calorie goal.
    Or update on the website: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided
  • mickey_b88
    mickey_b88 Posts: 4 Member
    Ok yeah i am aware of that, i was 14 stone and have dropped 5lbs. Ive already set my goal to 12.5 stone and how active etc i am so do i not need to touch any of that until i reach 12.5 stone? Thats the bit that confusing me.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,940 Member
    edited February 2020
    mickey_b88 wrote: »
    Ok yeah i am aware of that, i was 14 stone and have dropped 5lbs. Ive already set my goal to 12.5 stone and how active etc i am so do i not need to touch any of that until i reach 12.5 stone? Thats the bit that confusing me.

    Your calories will change at 10-pound loss increments, you won't see a change at five pounds lost (or at least when I was losing weight that was how it worked on this site.) The calorie changes are tiny, usually less than 10 calories.

    So yeah, just go to Goals, make sure your current weight is correct and click "save." The save part is when the change in calories will be calculated and will show.

    It isn't enough to just enter your new weight in "Check in" though, you have to go to "Goals" and re-save your Current Weight if you want your calories to keep up with your current weight.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,107 Member
    mickey_b88 wrote: »
    Ok yeah i am aware of that, i was 14 stone and have dropped 5lbs. Ive already set my goal to 12.5 stone and how active etc i am so do i not need to touch any of that until i reach 12.5 stone? Thats the bit that confusing me.

    You don't need to change these settings, just confirm the existing ones. That's how I do it anyway, and in my case it doesn't need to be in 10lb increments to adjust my calorie goal. I update more regularly since I'm only going for slow weight loss (small deficit) so I like to keep my calorie goal as correct as possible.

    If Cmriverside's method works too, all the better. I might try that next time.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    mickey_b88 wrote: »
    Hi quick question on calorie counting, if i lose weight do i now have to adjust my calories further into a deficit or stay on my current calories that MyFitnessPal has worked out for me for my future weight goal?

    Thanks

    Your calorie target isn't based on your future weight goal, it is based on your current stats. You have to adjust as you lose weight because you expend less energy the smaller you get. I always took it in 10 Lb increments and the adjustments weren't particularly significant but that would be different depending on how much weight you have to lose.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,940 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    mickey_b88 wrote: »
    Ok yeah i am aware of that, i was 14 stone and have dropped 5lbs. Ive already set my goal to 12.5 stone and how active etc i am so do i not need to touch any of that until i reach 12.5 stone? Thats the bit that confusing me.

    You don't need to change these settings, just confirm the existing ones. That's how I do it anyway, and in my case it doesn't need to be in 10lb increments to adjust my calorie goal. I update more regularly since I'm only going for slow weight loss (small deficit) so I like to keep my calorie goal as correct as possible.

    If Cmriverside's method works too, all the better. I might try that next time.

    No, I'm saying the same thing, I just used a lot more words.


    They may well have changed the 10 pound increment thing...I lost my weight 12 years ago.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,940 Member
    ...and I set my own calorie goals, so I don't even use that tool any more. :)
  • mickey_b88
    mickey_b88 Posts: 4 Member
    Thanks all for your reply’s 👍

Categories