Confusion

gokingsgo0124 · August 2022

What's the point of creating the goals on this app? I put in all my info and that my goal was to lose 24lbs in 5 weeks. The app gives me a 1560 calorie per day limit in order to reach that goal. That made sense to me.
What I dont understand is when I log my daily calories and exercise etc. And I am exactly at 1560 calories it tells me that "if every day is like today you will be 225.5lbs in 5 weeks"
My starting weight was 230. So that's 4.5lbs lost in 5 weeks. Not the 24lbs. Wtf is going on here? I know for a fact that is total BS. My body uses 3500 calories a day plus I do lots of cardio. High protein, moderate-low carbs, lots of water. I'm close to deleting this app. Sucks because I thought it was great at first.
If I didn't already know that the 4.5lbs in 5 weeks was outrageously incorrect. I could be really discouraged about losing weight and feel like it's an impossible task. That's not true. I hope there aren't ppl out there that have given up hope because of the same glitch.

jst1986 · August 2022

Aiming to lose 24lb in 5 weeks is an insane goal - I'm fairly sure MFP won't offer any plans that are greater than 2lb a week loss. The "if every day like today" is only an estimate based on that individual day and the data you've fed it.

Lietchi · August 2022

gokingsgo0124 wrote: »

What's the point of creating the goals on this app? I put in all my info and that my goal was to lose 24lbs in 5 weeks.

MFP doesn't let you choose an end date for your weight loss, it lets you choose a goal weight and a goal weight loss rate. The weight loss rate is limited to 2lbs a week and, on top of that, a minimum calorie intake of 1200 for women and 1500 for men to ensure adequate nutrition. So if a selected weight loss rate would give you a calorie goal below that limit, MFP adjusts the goal to the required minimum, which could explain a projected weight loss rate that doesn't correspond with the selected weight loss rate.

yirara · August 2022

You don't say whether you're male or female, but you say your starting weight was 230 and you were given 1560 calories per day. Assuming you chose 2lbs loss per week, then your current maintenance calories (thus neither gaining nor losing) would be 2560 calories per day. This because in order to lose 2lbs per week you'd need to eat 3500 calories x 2 = 7000 calories less per week, or 1000 per day.

So 2560 maintenance calories for your current weight sound quite realistic. If you wanted to lose 24lbs in 5 weeks... That's about 4.8lbs per week. 1 lbs weightloss equals 3500 calories eaten less. Thus in order to lose 4.8lbs per week you'd need to eat 3500*4.8 = 16800 calories less per week. Or 2400 calories per day.

Now we established above that in order to neither gain nor lose weight you need 2560 calories per day. Substracting 2400 from 2560 leaves you with only 160 calories to eat every single day, for 5 weeks. Now what do you think will happen if you do that?

This has nothing to do with this programme, but with common sense. Nobody can live on such low calories (basically eating nothing). Every programme that tells you this is possible cannot be taken seriously, because it is not possible. Besides, the human body is only able to burn a certain amount of body fat every day.

Courtscan2 · August 2022

Losing 5lbs a week is neither reasonable, nor realistic. Especially over the course of several weeks. Also - weight loss is not linear. Don't use the "if every day was like this" button, as it's nonsense, most of the time anyway. Set a reasonable goal - 1-2lb per week, then eat the calorie goal set for you. Do that for at least 4 weeks, then see how much you have lost, and if it matches your expectation. That will give you a MUCH better picture of how much you are actually eating compared to how much you are outputting.

ninerbuff · August 2022

At 230, regardless if you're male or female, trying to lose 5lbs a week is pretty aggressive and not likely to happen. I deal with high expectations like this regularly when a new client is trying to prep for something (an event, trip, wedding, etc.) and trying to do it in less than a month. 1% of your body weight a week is realistic.

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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Confusion

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