Can anyone help with suggested calories?
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chirpski
Posts: 7 Member
Hi all, new to calories counting, looking for a bit of help please. So i'm 6ft tall, 230lbs, do 1 Spin class, 2 Body Pump classes and 2 Body Combat classes a week. Also do run/walks and light walks and a bit of random weights. MFP has suggested 1550 daily cals for me, is this to low? Use the lbs x 14 calc is get over 3000cals, obvs knocking off a 500 daily deficit will still leave me well over MFPs suggestion. Any advice on how to up it on here? I need to eat to fuel my exercise too
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The MFP calories are without exercise while pretty much all other calculators out there include exercise. Thus if you use MFP you're supposed to log your exercise and eat those calories in addition to what this website gives you. For a 500 calorie deficit you chose 1lbs weightloss goal per week.2
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I was just surprised that it gave me such a low baseline cal intake given my size, it seems awfully low.1
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It sounds like you probably set it to try and lose 2 pounds per week. If you're not trying to lose, the higher calorie number might make sense. If you *are* trying to lose, set it to lose slower... maybe 1 pound per week.2
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It gave you a low number for both the reasons already posted by yirara and sollyn.
1. Add your exercise separately, that's how the calculation is set up: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
2. Set your Goals to "Lose 1 pound per week" - like it suggested. Your current weight is not high enough to support the more aggressive calorie deficit given for any faster weight loss.
Read this, it's really good: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p11 -
Thanks all, I've changed it to 1lb a week.3
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Thanks all, I've changed it to 1lb a week.
Good!
You can manually change your daily calorie Goal in Settings, too.
So, log your food and exercise for a month before you make any big calories changes. All calculators are at best educated guesses. Your own collected data is your best teacher and if you make too many big changes your results/trends are not going to be helpful.
1500 is the lowest the site will give a man. 1200 for a woman. Nearly everyone needs a whole lot more than that unless they're morbidly obese (needing to lose weight quickly to save their lives and under doctor's supervision,) tiny or old (don't need many calories,) or totally inactive.
Stay the course for a month, then reevaluate your success rate. In the meantime, I'd suggest reading as much as you can from the top of each subforum where there are links to "Most helpful posts."1 -
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kshama2001 wrote: »
No, i made sure i didn't include my exercise in my activity level👍1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »
No, i made sure i didn't include my exercise in my activity level👍
So..."Sedentary" is going to give you the absolute lowest number - are you actually sedentary? If you have any kind of job at all or go to school or take care of a house and/or kids - you'll may find that Sedentary setting to be too low.
For example I am retired and live in a tiny condo so not a lot of housework. I do walk every day for 60-90 minutes, BUT I do not use the Sedentary setting - I use "Moderately Active" and then I add an additional 300 calories per day for that walk.
I tried Sedentary because the descriptors seemed to fit. I mean I do sit quite a lot... I found it way too low. Just be advised - again - that it's a starting point but may be way off for you as it is for a lot of people.0 -
cmriverside wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »
No, i made sure i didn't include my exercise in my activity level👍
So..."Sedentary" is going to give you the absolute lowest number - are you actually sedentary? If you have any kind of job at all or go to school or take care of a house and/or kids - you'll may find that Sedentary setting to be too low.
For example I am retired and live in a tiny condo so not a lot of housework. I do walk every day for 60-90 minutes, BUT I do not use the Sedentary setting - I use "Moderately Active" and then I add an additional 300 calories per day for that walk.
I tried Sedentary because the descriptors seemed to fit. I mean I do sit quite a lot... I found it way too low. Just be advised - again - that it's a starting point but may be way off for you as it is for a lot of people.
I'm still working from home and i have a desk job, the only time i really move if not 'exercising' is walking to the loo or kitchen for food/drinks.0 -
It's awesome that you're aware that this doesn't sound right. My first time around I listened to the 1200 number it gave me and stuck to it. I lost a lot of weight quickly, had moments of weakness and major hunger, got left with saggy skin and no muscle. I was lucky I didn't cause more damage, honestly. But I also gained it all back.
So this time around I set it to a more reasonable rate, and am going very slow and steady. Focusing on healthy foods and exercise. It's surprising to realize after much calculation that on most days (as a 5'6'' 160lb female) I burn about 2500 calories a day. So 1800-2200 calories a day is still a good deficit. That's a happy amount of food when you do it right.2 -
3lbs off this week so a good kick start, i'll be happy with 1lb a week0
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Cool😊1
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