Caloric Intake Calculator Accurate?

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shockbishop
shockbishop Posts: 38 Member
in Getting Started
I figured I'd start my first day eating like I always do to see how bad I was off. I was stuffed trying to keep my caloric intake at the 1lb/week (normal) setting and inactive. I snacked, ate regular meals, etc.. and was still under that 2000 cal mark for me.

Has anyone experience issues with the calculator? I don't feel I'll lose weight like this. I feel like I should be a little hungry at least, definitely not stuffed.

I've been through quite a few diets in my 20 years, at my fittest I had normal body fat, normal weight, worked out and hunger was there quite a bit through the day. I surely looked forward to eating lol.

Replies

  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 889 Member
    edited May 2022
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    Are you saying that you used the guided set up in MFP and put in your stats, said you wanted to lose weight and it gave you 2,000 cals/day to eat?

    MFP will set your daily calorie goal at a deficit if you choose to lose weight so it should definitely be a correct. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't. You can use a TDEE calculator as well (and use sedentary as your activity level) to cross-check if you like. It will give you your maintenance and if the MFP goal is below that and above your BMR you're good to go.

    Unless I'm missing something you're asking? I know that you think you should feel hungry or something but that's simply not true. You do not need to go to bed hungry in order to be in a calorie deficit.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,284 Member
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    Did you weigh your food?

    Are you sure you used accurate database entries? The database is crowdsourced so it's easy to use wrong entries and underestimate your intake.
  • shockbishop
    shockbishop Posts: 38 Member
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    westrich20940 wrote: »
    Are you saying that you used the guided set up in MFP and put in your stats, said you wanted to lose weight and it gave you 2,000 cals/day to eat?

    MFP will set your daily calorie goal at a deficit if you choose to lose weight so it should definitely be a correct. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't. You can use a TDEE calculator as well (and use sedentary as your activity level) to cross-check if you like. It will give you your maintenance and if the MFP goal is below that and above your BMR you're good to go.

    Unless I'm missing something you're asking? I know that you think you should feel hungry or something but that's simply not true. You do not need to go to bed hungry in order to be in a calorie deficit.

    Yeah, I weighed, gender, gave my age, height, sedintary inactive, chose the "standard" 1lb/week weight loss, it's just above 2000 cal. I even checked a few calculator across the web, similar, maybe 100 calories less.
  • shockbishop
    shockbishop Posts: 38 Member
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    Lietchi wrote: »
    Did you weigh your food?

    Are you sure you used accurate database entries? The database is crowdsourced so it's easy to use wrong entries and underestimate your intake.

    Yeah, that's a scary possibility. Although I did check most of it yesterday and the restaurant had the calories posted that matched the database.
  • HaleCry
    HaleCry Posts: 387 Member
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    Calorie counting doesn’t go hand in hand with being hungry. Your body may be used to a certain quantity of food and in the beginning it adjusts to a ‘normal’ amount of food it needs to consume in order to live. I’d say if the amount cross matches with other TDEE calculators you have tried then it is accurate. Try it for a few weeks and check your weight is going down by what MFP says it should be doing down, then you’ll know for sure. Also, I never know how much to trust restaurant estimations on calories.. they may be slightly underestimating😄
    But again, just because you’re not hungry definitely doesn’t mean something is wrong.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 889 Member
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    shockbishop wrote: »
    westrich20940 wrote: »
    Are you saying that you used the guided set up in MFP and put in your stats, said you wanted to lose weight and it gave you 2,000 cals/day to eat?

    MFP will set your daily calorie goal at a deficit if you choose to lose weight so it should definitely be a correct. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't. You can use a TDEE calculator as well (and use sedentary as your activity level) to cross-check if you like. It will give you your maintenance and if the MFP goal is below that and above your BMR you're good to go.

    Unless I'm missing something you're asking? I know that you think you should feel hungry or something but that's simply not true. You do not need to go to bed hungry in order to be in a calorie deficit.

    Yeah, I weighed, gender, gave my age, height, sedintary inactive, chose the "standard" 1lb/week weight loss, it's just above 2000 cal. I even checked a few calculator across the web, similar, maybe 100 calories less.

    Then you need to go by what the daily calorie goal is and do that for ~1month and then see what your results look like, then make any necessary adjustments based on that. Sounds like you've got a more/less accurate idea of your daily caloric need while in a deficit. As far as being worried about your log being inaccurate...that's obviously a worry and I always think it's a good idea to weigh/measure things at the start so that you get a good idea of how to eyeball things...but after the first few months I wasn't really weighing much (maybe my protein/potatoes here and there to just keep myself in check) but I definitely was doing decent 'guestimates' and they were close enough bc I lost weight at my expected/intended rate. So you don't have to be too obsessive over weighing/measuring as long as you are more/less accurate over time.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    You're a male I presume...you will lose weight on 2000 calories per day if that's what you're actually taking in. Pretty much any male will. I lose about 1 Lb per week on around 2300 average.

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