**READ THIS** Figuring out your calorie goals
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So I tried to work this through but it actually showed lower calories than what MFP recommends and I was surprised:
Here are my stats Male 32y/o weight 174 hieght 69'' neck 14'' waist 36'' hips 35'' Sedentary with 6-7 days of activity (500cals burned 5 days a week 2K+cals burned on Sundays playing 5 hour of Ult. Frisbee per HRM)
I am curious if those who know this stuff could double check my entry, I think I may be misunderstanding sonmething because I got 1650 calories and that can't be accurate can it (MFP has me at 1970)
Thanks in advance!
hi,
if you do that much activity you arent sedentary. fat2fit includes activity in the calcs so you would be very active.
MFP expects you to log and eat back exercise cals in addition to the allowance it gives you so based on those burns you would eat 2470 weekdays, 3970 weekends.
i ran your numbers again for you.
BMR 1809 - this is what you would burn doing absolutely nothing apart from being alive so never NET below this.
Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 2095
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2401
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2706
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 3012
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 3317
^^these numbers are based on TDEE for your goal weight. to get your current TDEE multiply by 1.2
Your cal level would be probably be very active / 3012 due to the large amount of exercise.
As you burn so many more cals on a weekend, it would be a good idea to use more of your allowance then so that you dont fall below bmr, along the lines of the MFP numbers when exercise cals are added.
hope this helps!0 -
Thanks em!0
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Okay. I am epically confused.
My stats:
BMI 38.7
168 cm tall
103.8 kg atm
goal weight is 55ks
body fat = 56.3%
I put all my stats in and got :
BMR = 1352 (1552 if you add the recommended 200cal over)
TDEE = 2270 (lightly active)
I understand that these are the min and the max of what I should be eating to lose weight. I need to be in the middle somewhere.
What I dont understand is MFP has put me on 1510 daily max. Any exercise I do I should eat back the calories of -according to this site-? Or should I only eat back only enough calories to bring me up to the 1500 ish total?
Basically If I trust this site to know what I should eat, its not going to screw me up, is it?
I've only been here a couple of days and while It's brilliant, its confusing at the same time.
MFP doesnt include exercise cals, you have to log exercise and eat back the extra cals.
F2F they are already included, you just eat the total cals, same every day.
As an example:
MFP is 1500. say you exercise an average of 300 a day. that would put you at 1800 eaten, which is pretty much in the middle of your range.
your stats are pretty similar to mine, apart from your BF is a bit higher therefore BMR is lower. I eat 1950-2000 total (1650 net) and lose 1.5 most weeks, so around 1800/1500net should work for you x
OKay, so the fitness website ASSUMES you excercise while MFP doesnt.
Thats great, cause I like the additional flexibility, esp with a hectic lifestyle
i still dont get what NET means, but i got the excecise bit. Thanks!)
Net is the amount of calories left after exercise has been deducted.
say you eat 1800
exercise 300
1800 - 300 = 1500. This is your NET.0 -
real quick question for you Em. Are these my numbers at maintaince? I want to lose that last stubborn 15lbs..should I knock 200cals off of those weekday and weekend numbers to achieve a .5 a week loss?0
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Good information! Thanks!0
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OMG!!! I am so confused!!!
So I have been losing lbs by sticking to around 1200, not eating back my workout calories, working out on average about 1hr/day, eating healthier, and still having a piece of chocolate once in a while.
My daily workouts consist of 30min walk with the dogs @ around 3mph, and 25 mins of Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 (during which I am drenched in sweat!!)
So I went to the Fat2Fit website and it shows my
body fat at 27.3%
BMR= 1446/1440/2221 (mod active-1hr at least 4 days a week)
According to this, I should then be eating somewhere around 1800cals/day!!! I can't even phantom eating that much.
Is this correct??
Anyone with logical and "dumb down" advice please chime in!
i had a look at your diary, you are netting well below 1000 which is seriously unhealthy, you are pretty much starving yourself. At the very least you should NET your BMR, so based on the amount of exercise have logged, you need to eat around 1900-2000 to get this NET.
The goal MFP gives you doesnt allow for exercise, so you should be eating this PLUS exercise cals, which will actually put you up around the numbers fat2fit gave you.
You will lose WEIGHT by eating so little, but you will lose muscle and end up thin but flabby. Also your heart is a muscle, and by not giving it enough fuel you can seriously damage yourself. The less muscle you have, the less calories you burn, then the less you have to eat to maintain your weight....see where this is going??? you eat less and less and find it very easy to regain weight.
By eating at a sensible level, you will retain muscle, lose fat, lose more inches, burn more calories even when resting and end up looking fit and healthy :-)
If you have trouble with actually eating so many calories, try choosing more calorie dense foods like nuts, nut butters, avocado, olive oil, full fat dressings, whole milk, cheese etc.0 -
Thanks for the information. Saving it for later reference.0
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This is such great information but I remain a bit confused.
According to F2F my BMR is 1441 and sedentary adds only a few calories where lightly active adds a couple hundred. Can I just set my net calorie goal on MFP to 1441 and eat back exercise? Or do I have to add 200 to BMR and eat to that regardless of what I do?
I do not "exercise" per se but do walk 2-4 hours a day at a slow pace while working (trek desk setup) so typically burn about 110-120 calories per hour walking. Since that equates to 200-500 each day, it is more than light and less than moderate and I really would like to lose a pound a week (emotionally I would like 1.5 but am trying to be realistic).
Does it make sense to set MFP to BMR and then eat back what you exercise?
If BMR & sedentary are pretty much the same, then it wont hurt to set as BMR and eat back exercise, however if your exercise is actually general work activity you wont have an exact time / calorie burn etc so it would be much simpler to just set to lightly active cals then you dont have to worry about logging exercise.
Thanks Em. Some days I don't walk at work. I wear a FT7 so I believe I accurately track what I burn when I do use the treadmill. I don't want to double count it so it seems BMR as base might be the best place to be. Seriously thinking of getting one of those Body Bugg things to see what I really use during the day.
Appreciate your response and advice to all.0 -
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real quick question for you Em. Are these my numbers at maintaince? I want to lose that last stubborn 15lbs..should I knock 200cals off of those weekday and weekend numbers to achieve a .5 a week loss?
the numbers are based on the TDEE for your goal weight so already include a 20% deficit (for mod active TDEE is 3614) so this is already 1lb deficit.
info on website (below) says you can reduce further if needed, but with the huge amount of exercise you already have a bigger deficit than you should for the amount you have left to lose. Trying to create too much of a deficit to get the last few lbs off is usually counter-productive and they go nowhere. Try playing with the cals and see what works for you, just be careful you dont go below BMR.
"Based on how much activity you do on an average day, the calories in the right column will be the number of calories that you will be able to eat at your goal weight. If you start eating those calories right now (eating like the thinner you), you will eventually become that thinner person. As you get closer to your goal weight, your weight loss will start to slow down. It is OK to eat a few hundred calories less per day (200-300) to speed up your weight loss at this point"0 -
Thanks Em. Some days I don't walk at work. I wear a FT7 so I believe I accurately track what I burn when I do use the treadmill. I don't want to double count it so it seems BMR as base might be the best place to be. Seriously thinking of getting one of those Body Bugg things to see what I really use during the day.
Appreciate your response and advice to all.
is your BMR from Harris-benedict or Katch Mcardle?
Ive not seen many where BMR / sedentary are pretty much the same, there is usually a few hundred difference - standard multiplier for sedentary is 1.2 so for BMR of 1441 sedentary should be 1729.
Id maybe run the numbers again to double check, and if you havent used KM, find out your body fat% and rerun as that can make a big difference to the numbers.0 -
Thanks Em. Some days I don't walk at work. I wear a FT7 so I believe I accurately track what I burn when I do use the treadmill. I don't want to double count it so it seems BMR as base might be the best place to be. Seriously thinking of getting one of those Body Bugg things to see what I really use during the day.
Appreciate your response and advice to all.
is your BMR from Harris-benedict or Katch Mcardle?
Ive not seen many where BMR / sedentary are pretty much the same, there is usually a few hundred difference - standard multiplier for sedentary is 1.2 so for BMR of 1441 sedentary should be 1729.
Id maybe run the numbers again to double check, and if you havent used KM, find out your body fat% and rerun as that can make a big difference to the numbers.
Ran it directly off F2F. I weigh 171 looking for 130 (I vacilate on how low I can realistically go) and am 5'2 and 51 years old.0 -
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Okay...I'm going to try this, hope I understand it correctly, and *try* not to be nervous as hell as I'm doing it (eek!).
...
Oh, and start lifting heavier...because I want mad-sexy-hawt arms.0 -
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a couple of questions regarding this...
1. do you think it matters which BF calculator you use? I have done both the military one and the other one (on the F2F link) and there is a 5% swing between the two for me (non-military being lower).
2. I have been reading these threads for the last week or two and have been increasing my calories kind of gradually. Last night I went to bed hungry. This morning, hunger woke me up. To the point that I felt like I could have eaten my pillow I was so hungry. I have not experienced hunger like this other than when I run more than 7 miles in a day - by dinner time I could eat my shoes. Has anyone else upped your calories and also started feeling hungry - even though you're eating more?
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to spell this out on these threads. You are helping many and specifically me - I great appreciate it!0 -
I do need to eat more cals! LOL. Thanks for the info!0
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Someone please help me with this...
I went to the site mentioned by the OP and used the calculators to figure out my BMR. Based on age 33, weight 210, height 76 in, and body fat 20.9, it says BMR should be 3086 since I work out 5 days a week. (MFP calculates BMR based on standard daily activity, not workout schedule.)
The way I understand the post, it says that I should never eat less than 3086 calories a day, no matter what my workout calories are. Is this correct?
Right now I'm trying to eat about 2500 because recommended MFP calories is 1500 (-2lbs/wk) and I exercise about 1,000 a day.
Which do I follow?
The chart on the site seems to include my exercise at 3,000, but this is contradictory to the post which would call that number TDEE.
Can anyone clear this up in simple language for me?
This is how I think the post says to do it:
BMR = 3000
Exercise = 1000
TDEE = 4000
Lose 2/wk = -1000
Total Calories to eat/day = 3000
This still seems really high to me.
My setting in MFP is sedentary because I sit all day at work, so right now this is how I see MFP calculating:
BMR = 2500
Lose 2/wk = -1000
Daily Allowance = 1500
Exercise = 1000
Total Allowance/day = 2500
Somebody help! I have an open diary if anyone wants to take a look. (Don't judge me for eating Smarties!)
looks like you got your BMR & TDEE confused so you are allowing for exercise twice!
The number you should never eat below is your BMR. Eat between BMR & TDEE and you will lose.
the numbers in the chart are the TDEE for the GOAL weight you entered, not your current weight. You need to muliply the chart number by 1.2 to get your current TDEE.
The chart numbers are what the site recommended you should actually eat - choose the one that matches your activity level.
I just ran your numbers with a goal of 190 and got BMR 2115 Harris-Benedict / 2000 Katch Mcardle and the following activity cals:
Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 2389
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2738
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 3086
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 3434
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 3783
You mentioned 3086, there is no way you are only mod active with 1000 cals/day exercise, Id go with Very active and eat 3434. Dont net below 2000.
BTW - what exercise do you do?? 1000 a day seems a lot, its not necessary to do so much every day, rest days are important too, maybe scaling down to mod active would be good :-)
With the amount you have to lose, you shouldn't be aiming for 2lb loss, change to 0.5-1lbs. Thats partly why the MFP numbers are so low, 1500 net is VERY low for a tall male, I net more than that as a 5'5 female!
Ive got a feeling the rest of the difference between MFP / F2F is becuase you have quite low BF and do huge amounts of exercise, it takes a lot more calories to maintain muscle than it does fat, and MFP doesnt know this as it doesnt ask for BF.
Maybe someone else or Dan would know if this is correct? I'd be interested to know as usually numbers are pretty similar either way.
Thank you for the helpful response, Em.
So for exercise I usually do 45min - 1hr on the elliptical, plus 15-30 min of circuit training that I alternate from day to day. It's about 75 minutes a day. Part of the reason is that MFP only gave me 1500 calories, and I REALLY love food, so the exercise allowed me to eat more throughout the day and still remain below the allotted amount.
I feel like jumping up to 3000 or 3500 calories a day would be a leap of faith, as I've been seeing decent results from what I've done so far. However, I have been eating about 2500 anyway, and if I changed as you say from -2/wk to -1 or -.5, it would probably put me in the same 3000-3500 range anyway.
Thanks for the information. Really appreciate you taking the time to help!
Lincoln0 -
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Thanks Em. Some days I don't walk at work. I wear a FT7 so I believe I accurately track what I burn when I do use the treadmill. I don't want to double count it so it seems BMR as base might be the best place to be. Seriously thinking of getting one of those Body Bugg things to see what I really use during the day.
Appreciate your response and advice to all.
is your BMR from Harris-benedict or Katch Mcardle?
Ive not seen many where BMR / sedentary are pretty much the same, there is usually a few hundred difference - standard multiplier for sedentary is 1.2 so for BMR of 1441 sedentary should be 1729.
Id maybe run the numbers again to double check, and if you havent used KM, find out your body fat% and rerun as that can make a big difference to the numbers.
Ran it directly off F2F. I weigh 171 looking for 130 (I vacilate on how low I can realistically go) and am 5'2 and 51 years old.
130 sounds a good goal for your height!
ive just had a play with your numbers. without body fat it only gives HB BMR.
Adding body fat % also brings up KM BMR's
20% 1725
30% 1558
40% 1391
BF affects BMR quite a lot, so if you can get your BF checked for the most accurate cal level x0 -
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bump0
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a couple of questions regarding this...
1. do you think it matters which BF calculator you use? I have done both the military one and the other one (on the F2F link) and there is a 5% swing between the two for me (non-military being lower).
2. I have been reading these threads for the last week or two and have been increasing my calories kind of gradually. Last night I went to bed hungry. This morning, hunger woke me up. To the point that I felt like I could have eaten my pillow I was so hungry. I have not experienced hunger like this other than when I run more than 7 miles in a day - by dinner time I could eat my shoes. Has anyone else upped your calories and also started feeling hungry - even though you're eating more?
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to spell this out on these threads. You are helping many and specifically me - I great appreciate it!
Im not sure which calculator is most accurate. Do you have some physical way of checking your BF, like the electirical scanners they have in gyms or some calipers?0 -
Thank you for the helpful response, Em.
So for exercise I usually do 45min - 1hr on the elliptical, plus 15-30 min of circuit training that I alternate from day to day. It's about 75 minutes a day. Part of the reason is that MFP only gave me 1500 calories, and I REALLY love food, so the exercise allowed me to eat more throughout the day and still remain below the allotted amount.
I feel like jumping up to 3000 or 3500 calories a day would be a leap of faith, as I've been seeing decent results from what I've done so far. However, I have been eating about 2500 anyway, and if I changed as you say from -2/wk to -1 or -.5, it would probably put me in the same 3000-3500 range anyway.
Thanks for the information. Really appreciate you taking the time to help!
Lincoln
hi lincoln,
If you are eating around 2500 anyway, try gradually putting cals up, say 100 a week until your loss levels out at 0.5-1.
When I increased my cals, I went from 1650 total / around 1200 net to 1650 net, so an increase of 450 per day and gained 0.8 the following week. It was only temporary though and Ive lost consistently good numbers since then!
If you add some heavy weight training on alternate days rather than an hours cardio every day, you will increase muscle mass which burns more cals 24/7 so you get to eat more :-)0 -
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Thanks Em. Some days I don't walk at work. I wear a FT7 so I believe I accurately track what I burn when I do use the treadmill. I don't want to double count it so it seems BMR as base might be the best place to be. Seriously thinking of getting one of those Body Bugg things to see what I really use during the day.
Appreciate your response and advice to all.
is your BMR from Harris-benedict or Katch Mcardle?
Ive not seen many where BMR / sedentary are pretty much the same, there is usually a few hundred difference - standard multiplier for sedentary is 1.2 so for BMR of 1441 sedentary should be 1729.
Id maybe run the numbers again to double check, and if you havent used KM, find out your body fat% and rerun as that can make a big difference to the numbers.
Ran it directly off F2F. I weigh 171 looking for 130 (I vacilate on how low I can realistically go) and am 5'2 and 51 years old.
130 sounds a good goal for your height!
ive just had a play with your numbers. without body fat it only gives HB BMR.
Adding body fat % also brings up KM BMR's
20% 1725
30% 1558
40% 1391
BF affects BMR quite a lot, so if you can get your BF checked for the most accurate cal level x
Sorry to be daft, but is the BF related to BMI? If so, it is 31% right now (dang!!!!). I haven't really looked at BF yet. I am doing a comparison test on my HRM as to how many calories I burn not walking and just working compared to how many I do in the same period walking. Will be interesting to see the difference, because if it isn't much, that pretty much answers some of my questions as to how to count this.0 -
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