Ok I am new to MFP. So far I am impressed with it. One question though. I filled out my profile and it gave me over 15000 calories a day... Did I do something wrong or is the calories something that have to be put in manually? I am used to weight watchers and spark people that calculate that all for you. thanks

To whomever answers this post, I want to piggyback on the question. I have had my RMR (resting metabolic rate) calculated medically and I need to set a lower number of calories. The only way I've found to do that is to "lie" to the application about my height. I'm 5.7 and weigh 250 but I had to put in 5.3" to get 1370 calories.

According to my doctor, I need to be on 20% less than 1550 calories or approx 1250. I will also need to recalculate my calorie rate as I go down, per my doctor, approximately 10% less for each 10 lbs I lose. Is there a way to do this with MFP?

If your doctor told you this # - you can change it in Goals, click change goals than custom and and change your calorie goals to fit what your doctor recommended.


ETA: If this isn't the # your doctor recommended - than check out the link that I posted to find your TDEE and go by that #.

If you want, check out this link by MFPer Heliotsdan - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

It'll give you a detailed walkthrough (with pictures even) on finding your TDEE and calculating what you should be eating. After you figure it out, you can change your calorie goal instead of relying on MFP.

Also, if you are worried about the calorie intake, I also suggest you read this thread that has numerous people who met their goals and are maintaining. Some for years and they also provide their calorie intake and how often they work out.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/816542-let-s-hear-it-for-maintainenance

For more information about fitness and nutrition, I highly suggest checking out and joining this group:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

Read all the stickies. It's great information to know.

When you set your goals choose the custom option - you can then set what you want, both overall calories and macros, rather than having to work with the MFP default settings. Good luck!

Go with MFP, it works. There is NO need to starve yourself to lose weight. Trying to starve myself was what always made me end up quitting. it's not necessary!

Go to HOME > Goals > Change Goals > Use the CUSTOM Option and you can put in whatever goals you need to.

*too

With 15,000 calories as a daily goal it sounds like you might have a typo in a weight value

Go to my home > check in > edit previous entries and look at the recorded weight values there. One (most recent perhaps) should be an obviously wrong number such as 1465 lbs instead of 146.5

Thank you, I now remember that I was able to do this. However, what I cannot change is the calories burned on a daily basis. If my measured RMR is 1550, then the 2300 number isn't accurate that MFP lists I will burn daily before exercise.

Again, I have reset my own calorie goals, but the calories burned on a daily basis cannot be changed and that is what I really want to track. I've ended up creating my own spread sheet with those values and just use MFP for logging my food and exercise. Then, I take the numbers on a daily basis, add them to the spreadsheet, and get my daily/weekly numbers for calories burned (RMR), exercise calories burned, and how many calories I have eaten.

I know there will be a discrepancy since I'm not taking into account calories burned on a daily basis with normal activity but that is ok. It would be nice, however, to track this on MFP by being able to change the calories burned number. By medically verifying I do NOT burn 2300 calories a day, my profile numbers are always off since I cannot change them.