MFP Lowballs your calories?
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In the past I've used FitDay and LoseIt! I like MFP much better than those two, that's why I'm here.
I had a really hard time losing weight with LoseIt! It's a lot more rigid than MFP. I love that MFP allows you to change your macro settings, caloric intake, and exercise goals. I also love that it calculates your caloric intake without taking your exercise into account. In the end, LoseIt! had me eating way more than I should.
FitDay is a great program as well. In a lot of ways it is even better than MFP in terms of customization and the ability to track all aspects of your bodily changes. The problem with FitDay is the user interface. It is clunky at best and nearly impossible at worst.
At the end of the day, MFP is the perfect compromise for me, and it has given me the best results. I'm sticking with MFP and my customized goals.0 -
I think, in all honesty, that everyone is going to lose or gain differently......so really, if you find that you do better with higher numbers rather then lower ones, then go with it. I wouldn't worry as much about what MFP says (they are simply a starting point). Tweak things to better suite you and your goals.
I personally found the MFP information very helpful.0 -
Yep - MFP had my calories at 1350/day, and when I did some research, every other website was telling me to be eating around 1800 for weight loss. (I have a desk job, which all the sites factored in.)
I changed my calories to 1700 last week and I'm going to see how that works out.0 -
I dont know. I kinda like MFP.0
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Yep - MFP had my calories at 1350/day, and when I did some research, every other website was telling me to be eating around 1800 for weight loss. (I have a desk job, which all the sites factored in.)
I changed my calories to 1700 last week and I'm going to see how that works out.
MFP had you at 1350 NET cals. NET. That means if you burn 400 thorugh exercise, you have to eat it. Getting you to your 1700.
These threads are killing me. I gotta get off them.0 -
I just noticed that as well.....they dropped me to 1200, saying thats an average of 1.8 lbs a week.....that's insane, I will lose an easy 6 lbs/week.....
I'm a personal trainer just looking to start counting calories instead of all these high protein low carb diets, I'm burnt out on them and my weight isn't moving anymore.....
I'm fine with the 1200, I can do that......but I'm just very surprised with their calculations....they are definitely off a bit. In order to lose, I should be up more so between 1800-2000
Eh?
6lb / week is a deficit of about 21,000 calories, or 3,000 a day.
As you're a personal trainer I suppose it's possible that you're burning 4,800 a day whilst consuming 1,800, but then you really do need to log your exercise. And probably eat more to be honest.0 -
I just noticed that as well.....they dropped me to 1200, saying thats an average of 1.8 lbs a week.....that's insane, I will lose an easy 6 lbs/week.....
I'm a personal trainer just looking to start counting calories instead of all these high protein low carb diets, I'm burnt out on them and my weight isn't moving anymore.....
I'm fine with the 1200, I can do that......but I'm just very surprised with their calculations....they are definitely off a bit. In order to lose, I should be up more so between 1800-2000
that 1200 ignores exercise so if you workout and burn 600 cals, MFP will increase you to 1800 to lose your goal amount of weight.
As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" (doctor, trainer, nutritionist) may tell you to eat 1750 everyday regardless if you workout.
So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas taking the professionals advice will have you eat 12,250 (1750*7) almost the same number of cals for the week. The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.
What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1750/day above.0 -
Yep - MFP had my calories at 1350/day, and when I did some research, every other website was telling me to be eating around 1800 for weight loss. (I have a desk job, which all the sites factored in.)
I changed my calories to 1700 last week and I'm going to see how that works out.
MFP had you at 1350 NET cals. NET. That means if you burn 400 thorugh exercise, you have to eat it. Getting you to your 1700.
These threads are killing me. I gotta get off them.
Lol!0 -
I appreciate all this dialogue - the whole calorie/exercise calculation is confusing the hell out of me!
MFP says I should be eating 1200 calories a day - Im 5'8 and want to lose about 20lbs.... I've been sticking to 1200 (net) or slightly under since the first of January and i have lost 1lb
Im also exercising about 5x a week -
Been pretty frustrated so far with these results...
I have always just accepted the basic math that if you eat less, you'll lose weight - right? but apparently, the more I read, the less that approach seems to hold water... Im so confused. HA0 -
I appreciate all this dialogue - the whole calorie/exercise calculation is confusing the hell out of me!
MFP says I should be eating 1200 calories a day - Im 5'8 and want to lose about 20lbs.... I've been sticking to 1200 (net) or slightly under since the first of January and i have lost 1lb
Im also exercising about 5x a week -
Been pretty frustrated so far with these results...
I have always just accepted the basic math that if you eat less, you'll lose weight - right? but apparently, the more I read, the less that approach seems to hold water... Im so confused. HA
Health issues/concerns aside, to lose weight you have to be in a caloric deficit. That is pretty much the only hard and fast rule. Once you get beyond that you get into a lot of grey area. There are starting points and general rules of thumb where people should start, but at the end of the day what works for some may not work for you.
The first thing you should do is make sure you are logging, honestly and correctly, both exercise and diet.
Next, calculate your TDEE. MFP does that for you, there are zillions of site out there that will too. Pick one and go with it.
This is where things start to vary.
Option 1 - Set your daily caloric intake at a deficit
This is what most people do, and is how MFP is designed to work. You figure out your daily caloric need (TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your TDEE is 1800, you might set your daily calorie goal to 1400. That puts you in a caloric deficit and you will start to lose weight. When you exercise you burn additional calories. These burned calories are not accounted for in your TDEE or the calorie goal you set based on your TDEE. So exercising increases that caloric deficit. The thing to watch here is how big that deficit gets. Every body responds differently, but the larger the deficit the worse it is for your body (the assumption is that the larger the deficit gets the harder it is to properly fuel your body). And this is why people recommend eating back exercise calories.
Option 2 - Use exercise to create the deficit
With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your TDEE. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your TDEE, and thus you end up in a deficit. The size of that deficit is dependent on your workouts. You burn 75cals walking the dog and your deficit is 75 cals. You burn 500 cals running and the deficit is 500.
Now it's about tweaking things to find your sweet spot... to find out what your body responds to best. Some people can eat 2 or 3 big meals and lose weight, some people have to eat smaller meals more often. Some people can lose weight eating almost anything as long as they stick to their caloric goal, some people have to micromanage the types of cals they are consuming. And it just keeps going.
This is far from an exact science. It takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and a lot of patience to see healthy results.0 -
I appreciate all this dialogue - the whole calorie/exercise calculation is confusing the hell out of me!
MFP says I should be eating 1200 calories a day - Im 5'8 and want to lose about 20lbs.... I've been sticking to 1200 (net) or slightly under since the first of January and i have lost 1lb
Im also exercising about 5x a week -
Been pretty frustrated so far with these results...
I have always just accepted the basic math that if you eat less, you'll lose weight - right? but apparently, the more I read, the less that approach seems to hold water... Im so confused. HA
I would suggest with only 20lbs to lose that you goal be no more than losing 1lb/week. MFP may give you more than 1200 if you change your goal to that, and on top of that you should be eating back what you burn, so at the very least if you burn 400 cals from exercise, eat 1600 (1200+400).
Having too large of a deficit may cause your body to burn a large % of lean muscle instead of the fat you are looking at losing.0 -
I see it as the opposite.. I am pregnant 34 weeks tomorrow and I can't put that in the calculator, so for weight maintenance MFP lets me have 2210 calories per day. Most calories I use tell me 1900 is my goal for maintenance when basing it just on my weight of course and not that I am pregnant. I used a pregnancy calculator for the third trimester and it says somewhere between 2066 and 2384 is my daily goal for calories. So, I would say MFP actually gives me a higher goal than normal. I actually eat an average of around 1800-1900 calories per day now. I was eating a little less a couple weeks past, but as the baby grows so does my intake. :]0
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I guarantee you will not go into starvation mode on 2100 calories a day.I've been to a couple of other calculators online and am getting some completely different "daily recommended" intake of calories. Not by just a couple hundred, but generally they're off by about a thousand! MPF puts me at approx 2100 cal/day to lose weight to my desired goal but other research says I should be closer to 2800 cal/day to reach my goal. Has anyone else run across similar findings? Any tips on which to go with? I've been hitting MFP goals with relative ease but still eating healthy and going to bed satisfied but if my body is in starvation mode it's gonna slow down the burn.
Help!0 -
MFP does not take exercise into consideration until you actually record it in your tracker. So if you set up your goals and said you're going to exercise 5 days per week for an hour per day, MFP ignores that when setting up your calorie target. Only when you actually do the exercise and add it to your tracker does it count toward your calorie goal, increasing it for that day.
Yep. And THIS is why we say to eat your exercise calories!0 -
Yes, and these do not have you eating back your exercise calories.I've been to a couple of other calculators online and am getting some completely different "daily recommended" intake of calories. Not by just a couple hundred, but generally they're off by about a thousand! MPF puts me at approx 2100 cal/day to lose weight to my desired goal but other research says I should be closer to 2800 cal/day to reach my goal. Has anyone else run across similar findings? Any tips on which to go with? I've been hitting MFP goals with relative ease but still eating healthy and going to bed satisfied but if my body is in starvation mode it's gonna slow down the burn.
Help!
MFP does.0 -
I appreciate all this dialogue - the whole calorie/exercise calculation is confusing the hell out of me!
MFP says I should be eating 1200 calories a day - Im 5'8 and want to lose about 20lbs.... I've been sticking to 1200 (net) or slightly under since the first of January and i have lost 1lb
Im also exercising about 5x a week -
Been pretty frustrated so far with these results...
I have always just accepted the basic math that if you eat less, you'll lose weight - right? but apparently, the more I read, the less that approach seems to hold water... Im so confused. HA
Eat back your exercise calories for a week or two and see how it turns out.
It truely is that easy.0 -
MFP does not take exercise into consideration until you actually record it in your tracker. So if you set up your goals and said you're going to exercise 5 days per week for an hour per day, MFP ignores that when setting up your calorie target. Only when you actually do the exercise and add it to your tracker does it count toward your calorie goal, increasing it for that day.
wow i coudnt have put it any better0 -
I dont know. I kinda like MFP.
yes and i like that its lower calories, when i feel like giving my self an excuse to eat a donut I will go to another web site, but for now this is the best support, cal calculator, therapist, friend network, where I can get true and not so true information from fellow fitness pals!
also at least once a day i read a funny *kitten* post that makes me laugh out loud
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Since women 23-50 should only get between 1700-2200 I really don't think 2100 is going to put you in "starvation" mode. Also, "starvation" mode is a joke. Your body does not stop burning calories...ever.0
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I love that MFP calculates and adds back your exercise calories. Before, when I was strictly counting calories and not really taking into account how much exercising I do, I was seriously undereating. No wonder I was always exhausted and starving! I was only taking in 1350 or whatever but burning hundreds through exercise, leaving me at a crazy deficit. MFP helps me see the "balance" and adjust day to day accordingly. (Not that I have lost any weight, but at least I'm not gaining, and I feel better overall.)0
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