Why did MyFitnessPal raise my daily calorie limit?

gracegettingittogether
gracegettingittogether Posts: 176 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So today MyFitnessPal changed my calorie limit from 1290 to 1500. I haven’t changed my weight, activity level, or goal weekly weight loss. I do get exercise calories every day, since I put my activity at not very active, as it motivates me to move more to gain more calories. I’m a little nervous about eating them all back, so I’ve had around 500 leftover calories most days, though not every. I’ve been eating around 1400 calories and getting around 14,000 steps.
I did eat more today, which helped me because I was kind of getting lethargic and out of it. Am I getting more calories allotted since I’m leaving a fairly large deficit, and being at a higher activity level than stated?
By the way, I was leaving so many calories because I read in here that some people say not to eat all of the exercise calories back, but I’m going to start eating more of them, since I’ve lost 3 lbs per week for the last two weeks and my goal is only 1 1/2 lbs per week. Plus I’m somewhat fuzzy minded.

Thanks!

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    Quite strange that MFP would change your calorie goal like that. I would open those goal settings again and just confirm them (or perhaps modify *), and make sure that doesn't change back your goal.

    But it does sound like eating more is a good idea, if you're losing too fast and feeling bad.

    * From your post, it's not clear whether you are just active in it life and/or actually exercising. Do you have a fitness tracker or a step tracker linked? Are you entering your exercise manually or via a fitness tracker?
    If you have a tracker, it's fine to choose sedentary/not very active, since you will automatically get more calories from your tracker by being more active. But if you don't have a tracker linked AND your 14000 steps are (mostly) not from exercise being logged separately, you really need to choose a higher activity level. Sedentary is the equivalent of around 3500 steps I think.

    I've always eaten back all of my exercise/activity calories and I've lost weight fine. The thing is: you simply need to make a choice of what you'll do and then stick to it for at least a month (except if you have issues like lethargy!) and monitor your weight evolution over that time. If you're losing weight faster than intended, eat more, and vice versa.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    gracegettingittogether wrote: »
    I was leaving so many calories because I read in here that some people say not to eat all of the exercise calories back, but I’m going to start eating more of them, since I’ve lost 3 lbs per week for the last two weeks and my goal is only 1 1/2 lbs per week. Plus I’m somewhat fuzzy minded.
    Thanks!

    "Some people" say all sorts of things!
    (In another thread you have clearly taken notice of bad advice about Fitbit activity levels for example, probably given with good intentions but still wrong.)

    Some people simply estimate very badly and blame the tool rather than themselves. Some people use good tools badly. Some people use bad tools. Some people have all sorts of weird beliefs picked up from the current diet guru. Some people just parrot things they have read without validating the advice......


    But your body is telling you that you are currently doing things wrong and clearly not eating enough. Assuming your 1.5lbs/week goal is reasonable for you adjust your eating until your weight trend matches the rate you selected.
  • gracegettingittogether
    gracegettingittogether Posts: 176 Member
    edited September 2020
    Thank you for your responses! I do have a Fitbit inspire HR. I am sedentary by nature, so have it set on the lowest activity level, but strive for at least 10,000 steps daily. So if I don’t give up and move, I don’t earn those extra calories. I have never had much energy, so prefer getting steps and being active to hard workouts, since I am always left with no energy and end up sitting around the rest of the day.
    I have 75 lbs to lose, but the above was true even when I was 125 lbs in my youth.

    I am sorry to have given bad advice. I think in my case, the exercise calories given back are correct, since i had leftover surplus of around 500, which should have slowed my weight loss by a pound, and I lost half a lb more than that.

    But I will leave all advice for those more experienced! I am still excited about my Fitbit HR, though. There are days, like yesterday, that I’ve eaten 1800-1900 calories without slowing my weight loss, which is still even too fast. This, I can make a lifestyle! So I can be full every day, which I will start doing without fear of sabotaging myself. No more fear of exercise calories for me!
  • Iwantahealthierme30
    Iwantahealthierme30 Posts: 293 Member
    Do you have your fitbit set up to automatically update in MFP, don't ask me how or even if you can do that, don't have a clue, but maybe that's what's happening.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,281 Member
    Iwantahealthierme30 wrote: »
    Do you have your fitbit set up to automatically update in MFP, don't ask me how or even if you can do that, don't have a clue, but maybe that's what's happening.

    that's a good point - maybe the fitbit is automatically increasing your calories as you excercise????

    (no idea if that happens as I do not have a fit bit - but sounds plausible)

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