Calorie count on My Fitness Pal

sdradd
sdradd Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
If I am eating the number of calories allowed on the plan does that mean I should lose weight or maintain my weight. When I originally signed up my goal was to lose weight so does that mean I have to eat less calories than my plan allows?

Replies

  • sandboxfitness
    sandboxfitness Posts: 69 Member
    Did you put that your goal lose one pound on the app? Cause it should automatically calculate it
  • Courtscan2
    Courtscan2 Posts: 499 Member
    If you've set it to lose weight, and have entered the appropriate activity level (sedentary etc) then you will lose weight if you eat the number of calories it sets you. Best thing to do is give it a few weeks to see what happens - if you are losing at a good rate, perfect. If you aren't losing, make sure your logging and tracking is tight (weighing all your food etc) and make adjustments if required. If you are losing too fast, increase your calories a little. Good luck :smiley:
  • lindzh17
    lindzh17 Posts: 3 Member
    Should I stick to my daily calorie goal of 1650 regardless of how much exercise I do or should I adjust my calories if exercising a lot?
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,740 Member
    MFP does not include deliberate exercise in your calorie allotment. That is entered separately. You are supposed to eat back your exercise calories. Some people find that the calories given for exercise are too high, so only eat back 50-75%. Others do fine with the calories given my MFP. If you do a lot of exercise and don't eat back your calories, you could end up eating too few to be healthy. i.e. if I want to lose 2 lbs. a week and MFP says to eat 1200 calories, but then I do 600 calories worth of exercise (I'm a runner), I would be starving my body if I ate only 1200. If I eat 1800, then I am reaching my goal and would lose in a more healthy way.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    sdradd wrote: »
    If I am eating the number of calories allowed on the plan does that mean I should lose weight or maintain my weight. When I originally signed up my goal was to lose weight so does that mean I have to eat less calories than my plan allows?

    You put all of that information in so that the calculator can calculate a target based on your goals. If I put in that I want to lose 1 Lb per week, the calculator calculates the calorie target necessary to achieve that (without exercise)...it's what the calculator does. If it didn't there would be no need to put in all of that information and establish a rate of loss target.
  • lindzh17
    lindzh17 Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you @spiriteagle99 that makes more sense. I'm a runner also so was slightly concerned that I would be consuming too few calories on run days :)
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,913 Member
    Have you also chosen a realistic weight loss goal, and not automatically the highest? If you've gotten 1200 calories then you've chosen a too high weight loss goal because mfp will never give you less than 1200 as you won't get proper nutrition from less. That also means you won't meet your weightloss goal.

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