Myfitnesspal vs OTHERS (Serious Question)
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Okay I have been using the myfitnesspal program for about 2 months and have had great success (30 lbs lost). Tonight while surfing the web I found myself on a popular website similar to MFP that had a calorie calculator. For the sake of not inadvertently promoting another website I will just called this the "YELLOW" website. Well I put in my current weight of 192 and my height (5'8) on the YELLOW website and put that I was sedentary and wanted to lose 2 lbs per week. The Yellow website said that I needed to set a calorie goal of 3350 per day to lose 2 lbs per week. My current calorie goal for losing two pounds per week on my fitness pal is 1300 calories. I have no problem staying below 1300 calories currently, but why the huge difference in opinion? Is the other website just broken or am I missing something?
Livestrong? To be fair, I used livestrong about 5 years ago and was very successful. It did give me more calories to eat and I lost. I quit logging, eating like my teenage daughter and gained, so I started again. MFP gives me very low calories, but I tend to go over anyways to try and do what I was doing before.
Although I mentioned another website, I have to admit that MFP is easier to use and I love that you can scan food labels with my android phone. Makes logging so much easier. Even to create a recipe.
Just wish that MFP would allow you to save exercises like you save a meal. Also wish that you could share recipes like the other website.
I thought u could save exercises.0 -
I would gain BIG TIME if I ate over 3000 calories even with exercise.0
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Well, now that *that's* settled, why is a 25 year old guy only eating 1300 calories and that's not even including any exercise calories?0
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I'm guessing he's eating 1300 calories because he's trying to burn off the fat calories he has in excess.
Livestrong gives me 886.0 -
Well, now that *that's* settled, why is a 25 year old guy only eating 1300 calories and that's not even including any exercise calories?
No idea, as the minimum recommended for a male is 1800.
At least MFP has a stop point. One site I went on told me to eat -calories.
I messed about and said I wanted to lose x lbs in 20 weeks and got 1600 cals, then I said I wanted to lose it in 3 weeks and it gave me -534 or something. Many websites are just calculators, they all need a bit of common sense from the user.
Unfortunately if you put unrealistic goals in, you get unrealistic numbers out.0 -
That sounds high....BUT your a 20 something year old MALE? 1300???? That is way too flipping low. MFP!! Sometimes these numbers. Honestly. go to fat2fitradio.com or http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/. They are quite accurate. You do not need to eat 1300 to lose weight. Especially being a young guy. :flowerforyou:0
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Okay I figured it out. For some reason I kept reentering it and it finally said 1350. Apparently 3350 was for gain 2 lbs even though I was putting lose 2 lbs (I'm sure it wasn't operators error.. maybe something with my browser perhaps?) Either way 1350 is more inline with what MFP says and I'm happy with the small difference.
LOL...I just did the SAME THING! Took me a minute to realize it. They should really change that so that it sorts the other direction and lose 2 lbs. sorts to the top LOL.0 -
I have my MFP set at lightly active because my job is not at all a desk job and i spend most of my day on my feet/walking around. MFP gives me 1420 to lose a pound a week. When I checked on the other site it gave me 1468 at sedentary and 1755 at lightly active.0
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Well, now that *that's* settled, why is a 25 year old guy only eating 1300 calories and that's not even including any exercise calories?
No idea, as the minimum recommended for a male is 1800.
At least MFP has a stop point. One site I went on told me to eat -calories.
I messed about and said I wanted to lose x lbs in 20 weeks and got 1600 cals, then I said I wanted to lose it in 3 weeks and it gave me -534 or something. Many websites are just calculators, they all need a bit of common sense from the user.
Unfortunately if you put unrealistic goals in, you get unrealistic numbers out.
I believe that 1300 is a bit low also but it's not something that I'm interested in adjusting at the moment. My weight loss is going great thus far and I'm losing over 2 lbs per week. Also there hasn't been one day that I've had hunger cravings indicating that it wasn't enough for my body. If or when I plateau I may consider upping the calorie count but until then... I'll continue enjoying my 2+ lbs per week.0 -
I thought u could save exercises.
You can. I have a bunch saved. What you can't do at the moment is delete saved exercises.0 -
I believe that 1300 is a bit low also but it's not something that I'm interested in adjusting at the moment. My weight loss is going great thus far and I'm losing over 2 lbs per week. Also there hasn't been one day that I've had hunger cravings indicating that it wasn't enough for my body. If or when I plateau I may consider upping the calorie count but until then... I'll continue enjoying my 2+ lbs per week.
How much do you weigh now? I'm not sure you ever said.
Here's my concern and, of course, take my non-scientificy mind for what it's worth....
First, if you eat lower calories long enough, your body gets used to them and you can't really trust it to tell you that you're hungry because it's going to think, "well, he/she's not feeding me anyway. Why waste the energy asking for something he/she's not gonna give me". Also, it's not that healthy to try to lose more than 1% of your weight so 2 lbs would be good if you're 200 lbs.
All I can say is I'm female, almost twice your age, 150 lbs and lose weight just fine on 2000-2500 calories (that's consumed AND with eating all my exercise calories back) a day depending on the day.
I will just never see the need to eat less when you could still lose while eating more.0 -
It depends on what formula the site is using.
Here's an example on Myfitness pal I NET 1400 calories a day. I have it set to moderate activity and then log my exercise....I early roughly 1800 calories a day this way...and I do eat that many.
OTOH If I tell MFP that I exercise everyday it tells me to eat 1800 calories and there's no reason for me to log my exercise. In fact just about every formula on the web gives me between 1800-2000 calories/day if I include my exercise activity.
Denise0 -
No expert here but for a male person of sedentary lifestyle it seems 1300 would be too low and 3300 would be too high. If I were loosing weight too quickly I would be concerned about muscle mass loss and on this web site it cues me that at 1200 cals or less my body may kick into starvation mode. So far, the best thing I have done was to get in touch with a professional team who recommended this web site and help me set goals that fit my needs and whims. Just for comparison sake my goals are higher than yours and I am a sedentary, 50 yo female. Good for you on your awareness level and good luck on your journey. T.0
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Well, now that *that's* settled, why is a 25 year old guy only eating 1300 calories and that's not even including any exercise calories?
No idea, as the minimum recommended for a male is 1800.
At least MFP has a stop point. One site I went on told me to eat -calories.
I messed about and said I wanted to lose x lbs in 20 weeks and got 1600 cals, then I said I wanted to lose it in 3 weeks and it gave me -534 or something. Many websites are just calculators, they all need a bit of common sense from the user.
Unfortunately if you put unrealistic goals in, you get unrealistic numbers out.
I believe that 1300 is a bit low also but it's not something that I'm interested in adjusting at the moment. My weight loss is going great thus far and I'm losing over 2 lbs per week. Also there hasn't been one day that I've had hunger cravings indicating that it wasn't enough for my body. If or when I plateau I may consider upping the calorie count but until then... I'll continue enjoying my 2+ lbs per week.
That's your preference and I would not try to change your mind.
All I would say is, keep an eye on your lean mass v fat loss.
Go to fat2fitradio and do the military fat calculation. Do it every month, and check your progress.
The problem with having such a large deficit is that you may lose a lot of lean mass, and I'm sure you don't want to end up a smaller squishy version of your current self.
The fat % calc may not be 100% accurate, but as long as you keep using the same calculator you will be able to plot the trend.0 -
I believe that 1300 is a bit low also but it's not something that I'm interested in adjusting at the moment. My weight loss is going great thus far and I'm losing over 2 lbs per week. Also there hasn't been one day that I've had hunger cravings indicating that it wasn't enough for my body. If or when I plateau I may consider upping the calorie count but until then... I'll continue enjoying my 2+ lbs per week.
How much do you weigh now? I'm not sure you ever said.
Here's my concern and, of course, take my non-scientificy mind for what it's worth.... First, if you eat lower calories long enough, your body gets used to them and you can't really trust it to tell you that you're hungry because it's going to think, "well, he/she's not feeding me anyway. Why waste the energy asking for something he/she's not gonna give me". Also, it's not that healthy to try to lose more than 1% of your weight so 2 lbs would be good if you're 200 lbs.
All I can say is I'm female, almost twice your age, 150 lbs and lose weight just fine on 2000-2500 calories (that's consumed AND with eating all my exercise calories back) a day depending on the day.
I will just never see the need to eat less when you could still lose while eating more.
I've never seen the rec to only aim for 1% of your weight per week. I see 'aim for .5-2 lbs/week' everywhere.
That's great you can lose on that range. I'm your age and slightly heavier and my average burn based on Fitbit data is 1990, and that's with making sure I hit 10,000 steps a day. So I would gain on anything over 2000.0 -
I've never seen the rec to only aim for 1% of your weight per week. I see 'aim for .5-2 lbs/week' everywhere.
That's great you can lose on that range. I'm your age and slightly heavier and my average burn based on Fitbit data is 1990, and that's with making sure I hit 10,000 steps a day. So I would gain on anything over 2000.
LOL that's what I brought over from that "yellow banner" site when I used to track my calories and read the forums over there. I've seen the .5-2 lb losses being healthy on here but I think the 1% makes sense since it probably keeps you above your bmr that way. (I know you don't believe in that. Not counting calories on weight watchers and then gaining 30 lbs back after eating what I should have been eating in the first place made a believer out of me.). Truthfully I haven't done the math to see which is better but people will still want the lbs to come off fast no matter how much they have to lose so you have people with only 15 lbs or so wanting to still lose 2 lbs a week and IF that work, it won't be in any healthy way.
I have a fitbit too and go by those numbers but do A LOT of exercise to be able to eat that much since I just plain like to eat. 0 -
Livestrong is crap, I can't believe I paid for it when MFP was here all along!0
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3500 cals= 1lb of fat. If ur sedentary there is NO WAY you should be eating that much imo.
Ok, I see you did it wrong. I was thinking, wth lol
3500 cals does NOT equal 1 lb of fat. It equals 1 lb and that's very general. I can easily eat 3500 calories or more in a day if I am hiking. You gain/lose by eating more or less than you need. If you eat 3500 calories more than you need, you will gain one pound (generally). If you eat 3500 calories less than you need, you will lose one pound (generally).0 -
Sounds wrong to me. Livestrong is notorious for being very wrong about stuff. I wouldn't trust it.0
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Okay I have been using the myfitnesspal program for about 2 months and have had great success (30 lbs lost). Tonight while surfing the web I found myself on a popular website similar to MFP that had a calorie calculator. For the sake of not inadvertently promoting another website I will just called this the "YELLOW" website. Well I put in my current weight of 192 and my height (5'8) on the YELLOW website and put that I was sedentary and wanted to lose 2 lbs per week. The Yellow website said that I needed to set a calorie goal of 3350 per day to lose 2 lbs per week. My current calorie goal for losing two pounds per week on my fitness pal is 1300 calories. I have no problem staying below 1300 calories currently, but why the huge difference in opinion? Is the other website just broken or am I missing something?
was the other site in KGs and you entered your weight in lbs, that would make the site think you are 2.2 times heavier than you are. or did you enter gain 2lbs, as that would be 2000 cals higher than to lose 2 lbs.0
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