Calorie target

snapem
snapem Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Is anyone selecting their own calorie target to have it as a happy medium between the automatically calculated options? And if so, how do you change it?

For 0.5kg per week weight loss my calories allowed is 1230 daily. For 0.2kg weight loss per week my calories allowed is 1510.

That feels like quite a jump with a fairly big gap between. I’m pretty hungry at 1230 and I’m wondering if I pick a number in the middle (eg 1400) so that I’m aiming for a wee bit more weight loss than 0.2kg per week but not quite so quickly as the 0.5kg/week.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,393 Member
    When I was losing, 1200 was way too low.

    1500 is a lot easier and worked a lot better for me. How much weight do you need to lose to be in a healthy BMI range? That makes a lot of difference.

    You can go to MY HOME > Goals and edit your calories to any number you want.

    I would say go with the 1500 for a couple months at least to see how you do at that number. If you keep jumping around too frequently it's hard to get your numbers dialed in. Once you know your numbers, you can just eat anywhere between a deficit goal and your maintenance calories but it does take a good month to six weeks of careful logging.

    Also, are you adding in "exercise" and eating more on those days? That's how this site is set up.


    Explanation:
    https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
  • hartjohnson23
    hartjohnson23 Posts: 2 Member
    I altered mine, too. The previous poster got the how. I chose 1600 but am following with a keto twist. My metabolism goes into panic mode fast and the super low calorie versions stop working (I am post menopausal and significantly overweight). I like to say I am of hearty peasant stock, with genetics used to getting through periods of low food. I need to eat enough, and of the right sort of nutrients, to keep that from happening.
  • snapem
    snapem Posts: 24 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    When I was losing, 1200 was way too low.

    1500 is a lot easier and worked a lot better for me. How much weight do you need to lose to be in a healthy BMI range? That makes a lot of difference.

    You can go to MY HOME > Goals and edit your calories to any number you want.

    I would say go with the 1500 for a couple months at least to see how you do at that number. If you keep jumping around too frequently it's hard to get your numbers dialed in. Once you know your numbers, you can just eat anywhere between a deficit goal and your maintenance calories but it does take a good month to six weeks of careful logging.

    Also, are you adding in "exercise" and eating more on those days? That's how this site is set up.


    Explanation:
    https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

    Thanks
    Yes I add exercise calories on top - sorry my description was a bit lazy , but the 1230 or 1510 is the net calories (not counting exercise).

    I feel like I could cope with about 1400 (net calories) but 1230 has left me Eg hungry and dreaming about food all night!! 😂 I’ve been getting up at 4am because I’m too hungry to stay in bed; so I’m feeling this is not ideal

    I joined MFP about 6 weeks ago and initially was being really strict to stick with what it told me. I don’t / didn’t have huge amounts to lose. My BMI has now come down into “healthy”(just) but I’d like to lose a bit more but I’m feeling like the 0.5kg/wk target is too strict and too low
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 913 Member
    edited February 2022
    I will always advocate for eating more (having a smaller calorie deficit). It makes it so much more likely that you will be consistent with it and end up understanding your body's hunger cues more deeply than if you are significantly under-eating.

    I have also found that the 'estimates' for how many calories I might need in a day are also just that -- estimates.

    MFP tells me 1520. A TDEE calculator says 1580. I happen to know that I need a little more than that...more like 16/1700. I found this out bc I slowly continued to lose weight when I set it to 'maintain' my weight. So I upped it and now my weight has stayed consistent and I weigh myself maybe once/month.

  • snapem
    snapem Posts: 24 Member
    @westrich20940
    Thanks

    And I think combining that im worried if I’m under replacing for runs (the other thread you just saw) plus a pretty low net target , I think to get a sustainable combination, I’ll have to aim a bit higher snd then monitor what happens

    Thanks for comments! (On both threads!)

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