Help please! Calorie Goal too low?

MementoSomniare
MementoSomniare Posts: 24 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Can anyone shed light on why MFP sets my calorie goal so low!?

I am 5'3'', 140 lbs. Would like to lost 15-20 lbs...

My daily goal according to MFP = 1,200 cals/day. I am totally sedentary most of the day day, but am on week 2 of Insanity
1200 seems too few calories for Shaun T to have me melting into puddles of sweat 6x/week....

Can I get some of your impressions on that. I feel like undereating is helping my case as much as overeating does... but I'm not a fitness pro by any means... :ohwell:

Thanks in advance!!

Replies

  • mayerel
    mayerel Posts: 254 Member
    Are you tracking and eating back your exercise calories? That should help. If you still feel like you're starving eat a little bit more. Have you figure out your BMR or TDEE? Those numbers will help too.
  • MementoSomniare
    MementoSomniare Posts: 24 Member
    No BMR or TDEE. I'll google cause I don't even know what they are. =X

    I am not tracking exercise either. I want to use this strictly as a food diary... it's just too time consuming/arbitrary to start estimating cals burned. Either way, doesn't this exclude calories burned with exercise in their estimates? I'm still confused about the formula it uses I guess
  • thriftycupl
    thriftycupl Posts: 310 Member
    Check out the group here Eat More to Weigh Less. They have lots of great information about BMR and TDEE and calorie amounts when trying to lose weight.
  • lniber22
    lniber22 Posts: 29 Member
    I highly recommend a heart rate monitor to track calories burned. Takes the guess work out on what you are burning!
  • MementoSomniare
    MementoSomniare Posts: 24 Member
    Oohh, thanks!
    Will definitely check the group out. Seems to have some really great info :)
  • girlie100
    girlie100 Posts: 646 Member
    Check out the group here Eat More to Weigh Less. They have lots of great information about BMR and TDEE and calorie amounts when trying to lose weight.

    Yes definitely do this, I'm on week 4 of Insanity and working out your TDEE to include the type of exercise you do means no longer having to track your exercise. MFP calculator does not include exercise if you set it at sedentary.
  • LizJ08
    LizJ08 Posts: 127
    Yep, what thrifty said...look on scoobysworkshop.com and find your TDEE and BMR and don't eat below your BMR. Eat More to Weigh Less is a great group...I just joined. I'm basically at my goal weight but would still like to keep shedding fat and gaining muscle. I started eating my TDEE minus 15% on Monday, and have been steadily losing a fraction of a pound each day so far (I even ate at my TDEE yesterday because I was starving all day for some reason). Also, don't underestimate your activity level like I had been doing (I would put sedentary because I work a desk job, however, I exercise pretty much every day).
  • deadbeatsummer
    deadbeatsummer Posts: 537 Member
    No it doesn't include exercise. Set you lifestyle as sedentary or active etc depending on your job etc.
    Log everytime you do an activity - it's no more long winded than logging food - just find a similar exercise in the database or add your own one with an estimate of how much your burning - even better get a Heart Rate Monitor.
    When you log an exercise it changes your calories for that day.

    i.e.

    Food Goal - 1200
    Exercise - -300
    Net calories therefore are 900 for the day if you eat all of your food goal, so this provides you with 300 extra calories from the workout. i.e. your goal that day would be 1500 for food.
  • Faye_Anderson
    Faye_Anderson Posts: 1,495 Member
    What do you have your weight loss per week set at? Maybe put it to lose 1/2lb per week, you may lose a little more slowly but at least you'll know you're losing it in a healthy way :smile:
  • deadbeatsummer
    deadbeatsummer Posts: 537 Member
    also if you are only looking to lose 15 - 20lbs it would be better to set your goal to lose 1lb a week instead of two. you will keep it off easily and it will be more managable as you can have more calories a day.
  • Liberty_7728
    Liberty_7728 Posts: 51 Member
    I would really encourage you to use the exercise tracker along with the food tracker. It is really simple. Once you find the work outs you are doing regularly, it will be saved in your favorites. It is fast and it will show you the extra calories you should be adding to your food intake. You could be exercising more than half your current intake. Your body may need that extra burned calorie intake. Hope you get enough advice to get it all worked out!
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    No BMR or TDEE. I'll google cause I don't even know what they are. =X

    I am not tracking exercise either. I want to use this strictly as a food diary... it's just too time consuming/arbitrary to start estimating cals burned. Either way, doesn't this exclude calories burned with exercise in their estimates? I'm still confused about the formula it uses I guess

    If you don't want to track exercise on MFP then you will need to go back to your goals and set them up in a different way.
    Choose a realistic weight loss goal (probably 1/2 pound per week) then set your activity level to INCLUDE the exercise you plan to do each week.
    The way MFP is designed is that it gives you a base calorie allowance and assumes you will track your exercise and eat the extra cals burnt when you workout. As you don't want to do this, you need to set it up Ina non- standard way.
  • MementoSomniare
    MementoSomniare Posts: 24 Member
    I just calculated my TDEE and it came out to a whopping 2510 cals!!! WHAT?! :noway:

    Excuse me while I go empty the fridge in my mouth!!
  • adswillis27
    adswillis27 Posts: 76 Member
    Follow the nutrition guide that came with Insanity. Then change your MFP goal to reflect that.
  • durrryea
    durrryea Posts: 14 Member
    I'm the same height and have been wondering the same thing. MFP gives me 1290 calories, but scoobyworkshop says 1450 to lose fat (20% calorie reduction). I'm a newbie and wondering if others have input on how they set their base calories. I don't want to slow down my metabolism... Thanks!
  • hsama99
    hsama99 Posts: 2 Member
    Would love to hear an update. I just wanted to maintain at 130 and it only gave me 1400 calories per day. That seems way low.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    Set your goal to 1/2lb per week. 140 is the top of the healthy weight range for 5'3", so at this point, you're fine-tuning. You don't have a lot to lose and you don't have the fat reserves for a more aggressive deficit. Also, eat back at least some of your exercise calories.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    hsama99 wrote: »
    Would love to hear an update. I just wanted to maintain at 130 and it only gave me 1400 calories per day. That seems way low.

    OP hasn't been on here since October 18 so you resurrected a zombie thread for nothing.

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