Calculator fact or fiction??

maggiemaysumha wrote: »

Respectfully. Can you clarify please. Do I have to have a paid membership to gain access to the calcutor?if so your platform states free calorie calculator? is this a miss representation of the truth? I'm new to this and old and scared. I have 2 weeks to start putting weight on or it hospital and tube feeding. I know how many calories I need each day , my dietitian says 3000 P day. am I wrong in presuming that a cal calc is a tool that you punch in the food type and serving size to receive in return a calorie total for that meal? if you indeed have not misrepresented your self and indeed such a wondrous calculator dous exist??? then where may I find it please?? Have a lovely evening dear Maggie

Hi, Maggie.

Welcome to MFP. Don’t feel old and scared. I was 56 when I started here six years ago. I totally get it. It’s overwhelming. What to eat? How much to eat? What’s good versus “bad”? How do I start? Am I doing it right?

That’s not at all what a calorie calculator is, although it sounds reasonable to think that!

MFP’s (MyFitnessPal) calculator asks for your age height sex and weight, as well as asks you what you think your activity level is. (I started sedentary, and worked my way to highly active. The more active you are, the more calories you “earn” to eat.)

It crunches these numbers and tells you how many calories you can eat to stay your current weight.

You can also select how many calories it suggest to lose (or even gain) weight, at the rate you want to select.

For example (remembering I’m highly active, so I get more calories than the average bear), it suggests 2560 for me to maintain, and 2340 to lose half a pound a week. That’s before exercise. If I walk, do yoga, go for a swim, I earn extra calories to eat.

Now, to calculate what you’re eating, you’ll need to go to the “diary section”, and then weigh and add your foods.

The app will tally what you’ve entered and tell you if you’re over, under, or at the goal you set for yourself n

Don’t worry if it’s not accurate at first. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t have a weight problem, right? Focus on learning to use the app. It’s actually really easy after the first two or three weeks.

Plus, logging food will also make you more aware of what you’re eating and cause you to question choices and find new ones.

And pleeeeeeeease. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t meet your goal sometimes. If your kid skint their knee, you’d encourage them to try the bike again, right? Counting calories is the same way. Sometimes you backslide, sometimes you may have an epic fail, but the diary doesn’t judge. It’s just waiting for you to try again the next hour, the next day.

I also want to hug you for trying. It’s never too late. I don’t know your age or situation, but my mom was morbidly obese and sedentary. She was getting 2-300 steps a day at most. She refused to even try to better her situation. She gave up and ended up bedridden and spoon fed, with the TV on 24/7 repeating the saaaaaame shows.


frankly, that sucks. I’m not going down like that, and don’t want that for you, either. One of the reasons I turned my own life around was watching Mom decline so awfully. I was headed on the exact same path.

We’ve got some awesome users here you should follow. I’m assuming you’ve got some pretty serious health issues, with the threat of tube feeding and hospitalization frightening you. We’ve got some fantastic users who have had their own severe health issues.

You’ll find posts from @ladymagenta over in the “success stories” board. @takinitalloff is another great user to look for. And there’s a thread “anyone else here have heart failure” by @kiteflyer105 Also look for posts by @MargaretYakoda

All are inspirational, and tell it like it is.

By putting the “@“sign in front of their user names, I’m hoping they’ll also pop in here to give you some support. Sounds like you could use some.

Many hugs, honey!!!!!

maggiemaysumha wrote: »

Respectfully. Can you clarify please. Do I have to have a paid membership to gain access to the calcutor?if so your platform states free calorie calculator? is this a miss representation of the truth? I'm new to this and old and scared. I have 2 weeks to start putting weight on or it hospital and tube feeding. I know how many calories I need each day , my dietitian says 3000 P day. am I wrong in presuming that a cal calc is a tool that you punch in the food type and serving size to receive in return a calorie total for that meal? if you indeed have not misrepresented your self and indeed such a wondrous calculator dous exist??? then where may I find it please?? Have a lovely evening dear Maggie

Yes, MFP is a free calorie calculator. This is how you use it-

First, input goals so it can set up the calculation.

It will ask you:

-your starting weight
-current weight
-goal weight
-your weekly goal (in your case to gain weight)
-your activity level.

It will then give you a calorie goal. You can also choose to ignore that and create your own calorie goal (in your case 3000).

Now go to your food diary where you’ll see the calculation. This is also where you’ll log your food. You’ll see your calorie goal at the top, and the goal is to add all your meals for the day to reach 0. If you set up your calculator to include exercise calories it’s going to give you more calories to eat to offset that additional burn that wasn’t accounted for originally.

All you have to do is log your food daily and see the calculator reducing the daily calories from your goal. It’s easy and will certainly help you reach your goals if you’re consistent.