How to set a specific calorie deficit or weight loss target

velw79

Cronometer is great - I've found it really useful to start tracking my nutrition and manage my calorie intake. There's just one problem - it doesn't seem possible to set a specific calorie deficit or weight loss target, adjusted automatically to reflect exercise logged, beyond the very limited options listed in the drop-down box under "Settings > Targets > Goal timeline".

If I set that to 0.5kg/wk, that's a daily energy deficit of around 30% - likely to result in muscle loss as well as fat. But at just 15%, 0.2kg/wk is too low. I'd like to aim for a daily deficit of around 20%.

I tried putting in a fixed energy target in the "fixed values" field of the Macronutrients section, but when I do that it doesn't adjust the energy target if I do additional exercise in the day.

The calorie budget feature and interface is really good - I really like it. It just seems unfathomable that you can't use it to specify a calorie budget other than one option that's too low and another one that's too high. There must be a setting I'm missing... is there?

Karen_Cronometer

You are right; there are a few preset options to choose from for weight goals (ranging from 0.2 kg to 0.9 kg per week), or you can set Fixed Targets, which has the drawbacks of not taking into account your exercise, as you mentioned.

We are taking a look at making improvements here. Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback!