Question on daily calorie goal

pinkupooh
pinkupooh Posts: 155
in Health and Weight Loss
hi! My BMR was calculated to be around 1500, I set to lose 2 lb each week, MFP gave me my dail intake should be 1200 calories, isn't it too less if my BMR is 1500? I do work full time and do light house work during day. I just want to know as I don't want to eat too less and not lose at all. Please help me out with these calculations...:)

Replies

  • kimy701
    kimy701 Posts: 3
    Hi, I am having the same problem. I got a calorie count also of 1200 per day. It has been very hard to follow and I have been doing it for a few weeks now. And I am a stay at home mom, moderately active at home, I try to work out at least 3-4 times a week. I never know if these tools to measure BMR are right or not.
  • pinkupooh
    pinkupooh Posts: 155
    Thanks for your response Kimy701, hopefully, someonoe who has been on MFP will help us out.
    I did lose 2.6 lb my first week, but I am just scared that my body will go into starving mode and stop loosing, I just need to see myself losing about 1.5-2.0 lb each week for first few weeks to keep going.
  • Gwoman2012
    Gwoman2012 Posts: 163 Member
    You are going to have to change your goal to 1 lb/week to up the calories. MFP can go under your BMR in this situation (not much to lose and 2 lb a week goal).

    I have 20 lbs to lose and set my goal to .5/week.
  • gemiwing
    gemiwing Posts: 1,525 Member
    MFP is a computer program- sometimes they're wrong. You are right to eat AT LEAST your BMR.

    BMR is the amount you would be fed through a tube if you were in a coma. You want to eat more than that if you get up and walk about at all- and it sounds like you're quite busy.
  • broox80
    broox80 Posts: 1,195 Member
    I am really glad that someone posted this and there were real concrete answers to the question!!! I wondered this myself. I am currently not trying to lose, bun in oven :), but when I first joined my daily goal was set at 1200. I too thought this was too low. My BMR said 1600. I am on 1800 now and thought, I will starve if I have to go from 1800 to 1200 after I have the baby!!!!!!! I do exercise a lot, but try to save my exercise cals for something special so I dont cry in my spicy garlic wings at BWW :). Thanks everyone for the information!!!!!
  • shortysinsane
    shortysinsane Posts: 7
    If you enter in your daily exercise, even gardening, housekeeping or whatever, the system gives you credit on your calories, so you can eat more. I think its pretty accurate. I also agree that you need to look more at a range of loss and not a firm 2lbs. Although, that would be nice. If your goal is more like .5 lbs, it's more realistic and less disappointing and healthy!!! I just remind myself that in order to lose a pound, you have to have a 3500 calorie deficit.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    I agree that you need to change your weight loss goal. Not sure where this came from but it's a great great guideline for setting weekly weight loss goals:

    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

    1200 is the minimum # of calories for women to make sure they are getting proper nutrition.

    BMR is an estimate of the # of calories you'd burn if you were in a coma (what your body needs just to function - breathing, circulation, healing, etc). Therefore, usually if you eat somewhere between 1200 and your BMR, you're you're still likely to lose. Of course it does depend on your size - a slender petite sedentary woman doesn't need as many calories as a woman who's 5'7", slightly overweight but very active - so try playing around with your calories a bit, make sure your activity level is correct and give every change 3 to 4 weeks to show it's effects. Patience is needed in this process!
    Good luck!
  • carly_pear
    carly_pear Posts: 65 Member
    Very good information!!! Thank you!:bigsmile:
  • pinkupooh
    pinkupooh Posts: 155
    thank you all so much for really good and helpful info. I really appreciate and I am certainly glad that I posted my question here.
    Would it be ok to maintain 1200 cals for a couple of weeks to see some results to motivate me and then set it back to 1lb a week?
    Would that do any harm to my body and path to losing weight?
  • Sparklie23
    Sparklie23 Posts: 14
    Eating less is not necessarily better for everyone. For myself I barely lost anything when I first started MFP (1200cal). I ended up changing my goal to 1lb/week and the weight started going down :) I would absolutely lose as much as I can in as little time as I want too, but unfortunately it's just not working for me...I hate logic! haha :D!
  • JustLiftJess
    JustLiftJess Posts: 30 Member
    also make sure you have your activity level set correctly on MFP :) huge difference!

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