Setting calorie goal in MFP

Set up your profile as accurately as you can, and in the profile pick a weight loss rate you want to accomplish. (Pound/half kg a week, or whatever.) It will give you a calorie estimate to eat, to lose at that rate.

What it's doing is giving you an average estimate that will work for "people like you". So, follow the MFP calorie goal for 4-6 weeks, then see what your average loss per week is. If necessary, you can then adjust your goal calories based on your personal experience (because not everyone's exactly average, right?).

If you're female, adult, not yet in menopause, go long enough that you can compare body weight at the same relative point in two different menstrual cycles. (Some women have dramatic hormone-related water weight swings that can distort things, if the comparison is done differently from that.)

It's common to find that the first couple of weeks on a new routine will cause some ultra-fast changes in bodyweight, then things settle down. (Could be fast loss at first, could be no loss at first, or anything in between.) If that happens to you, I'd suggest continuing on long enough to get 4-6 weeks of data that don't include that weird period.

A couple of tips, from experience:

* MFP expects you to set your "activity level" in your profile based on what you do in daily life, not including intentional exercise. When you do intentional exercise, it expects you to log that exercise (or synch an activity tracker) and eat those calories, too (or at least a fair chunk of them) to keep the same weight loss rate you asked for in your profile set-up.

* A reasonable rate of weight loss, unless you're very severely obese, is 0.5%-1% of your current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that range. Losing any meaningful amount of weight is a long game, even if losing pretty fast: Weeks to months, for some with lots to lose, maybe even multiple years. We see people here a lot trying to do it fast, then burning out, taking breaks, maybe even giving up altogether. Going fast can actually be slower because of that, vs. picking a moderate but more doable weight loss rate one can stick to, while maintaining a happy, energetic, well-balanced normal life alongside.

It's also find, if you wish, to set yourself up to eat at maintenance at first, and figure out how to stay full and happy with foods you enjoy, then use your food diary to identify things it'll be easiest for you to reduce or eliminate to get to lower calories happily. Some people even just set goal to maintenance, eat a bit under that (up to a few hundred calories, maybe) when not as hungry, eat maintenance on other days, stay on that route until they reach goal weight. That can be a viable strategy, especially if not so overweight that the weight itself creates major health risks.

IMO, there are various strategies that can potentially work, and the one that is personalized to work for us (given our individual preferences, strengths, limitations) is going to be the right route. Sometimes it takes a little experimenting to find. As long as you keep working at it, you'll get there.

Best wishes for success!

kiwipandanz wrote: »

Hi, I'm new to MFP and calorie counting. In setting my daily calories I want to know do I set my calorie goal as the cutting calories value? Or is my daily goal my maintenance calorie value and then work towards the cutting calories value by calorie deficit from exercise?

My maintenance calories is 1642 and cuttings calories is 1142. Which one of these values do I set as my daily goal to achieve weight loss. Should I set it at 1642 and achieve 500 calorie deficit from exercise?

I hope this makes sense!

If you state that your goal is to lose X Lbs per week, that is what the calculator is calculating...a calorie goal to lose X Lbs per week. The calculator does all of the calculating.