2 causes of confusion...need some help!

mdorisi

Ok, so I'm a little confused on a couple of things so any insight would be fantastic!!

1) According to a fat calculator I used, in order to stay at my current weight (which I of course DO NOT want to do) I would need to eat about 4000 cal a day (omg wow...) the thing is though, now I'm only eating about 1800 calories a day and sticking pretty closely to it.(suggested by MFP) Also, I'm working out 4 times a week and usually burning anywhere from 600-1000 calories, but the weight isn't coming off really. I'm confused because with such a high change in caloric intake, don't you think I'd see more coming off the scales!? So I'm confused.

2) What's up with exercise calories!? Some people say eat them, some say don't. The more I research it, the more people I see NOT eating them and their logic makes sense. but then I come on here and see people saying eat half of them or all of them and I just don't get it! I may sound a little dumb but I wanna do this right! SO HELP PLEASE!!

geri1geraldinesuzanne

i try not to eat my exercise calories and stay below 1200kcals, but sometimes i do go over the limit, i just think of my exercise calories as something to fall back on and that its ok as long a you exercise.

:blushing:

Ms_Natalie

Hi there :flowerforyou:
I agree with your first point and I'm also confused about that.....please help guys?

I would try to eat some of your exercise calories...MFP calculates your daily calories required by using your Basal Metabolic rate...this is the amount of calories you would require to continue functioning if you were to stay in bed all day. Therefore, say your allocated calories are 1200 and you burn off 800 by exercising, you are only giving your body 400 calories to function physiologically. This sends your body into potential starvation mode and will therefore cling onto any fat within the body. Your metabolism will slow down because of this and you will fail to lose weight. I would suggest eating some of these calories therefore. However....listen to your body...if you are hungry then you should eat! If you are not hungry then don't force yourself to eat...although if you are surviving on 400 calories a day, I would suggest you find a food that is high in calories and eat a little of it, to ensure you are providing your body with enough fuel for daily activities (both inside and outside the body)

Hope this helps :flowerforyou:

waguchan

I think everyone is different. Personally, I know I won't lose weight if I eat my exercise calories. I lose weight only if I eat no more than 1000 calories per day. If I eat closer to 1200 calories per day, I just maintain. And anything over 1400 calories makes me gain. I've been doing this for a number of years now, so I don't believe in starvation mode. And I exercise at least 1.5 to 2 hours a day of high intensity exercise.

But the total number of calories is not the only thing to consider when trying to lose weight. I have read a few books that sited studies showing that spreading your calories out over more meals a day will help to maintain your glucose levels and help you lose weight. So I eat 6 times a day. And I eat protein at every meal and snack. I don't eat a lot of carbs. When I eat carbs, even if it's just an apple, I always combine it with a little protein, such as Greek yogurt, low fat cheese, nuts, etc.

Michellerw1

I used to do weight watchers, and at first never ate any of my "weekly" or "excercise points". I did alright, but it was not until I ate every last excercise point that I consistantly started losing weight at a steady pace. I notice the same thing when I am counting calories.

hiddensecant

What is your BMR?

balance9

The exercise calculators are a rough estimate, at best. How much you burn depends on so many factors, other than just your body weight (i.e. % of body fat/lean, gender, training level). Tracking every calorie in is challenging enough...trying to track the calories out can get very obsessive, and is often inaccurate. Calories balance out over the days, weeks, and months...not just in a 24-hour period.

1. Eat between 1400-1800 QUALITY calories a day (not junk low-calorie food)
2. Exercise for at least 40 minutes most days of the week. Most people who lose weight and keep it off exercise 5-6 days a week. Instead of 4 days a week, could you do 5 or 6? This really helps with maintaining the habit long-term.
3. Exercise so that you break a sweat, but people around you are not holding cell phones ready to call 911. After you have built a solid aerobic base for a couple of months, you can increase the intensity, but resist the urge to do it too soon. The stress hormones created at high-intensity cardio will undermine your ability to burn fat. Higher intensity is great, and burns fat in people who are trained for it.
4. Clip on a pedometer and be sure to get *at least* 10k steps a day in just moving-around general activity stuff. (Many people work out hard at the gym, and then sit for a majority of the day...the sedentary athlete syndrome). The 10k steps includes your workout.
5. Add some strength training at least twice a week to boost your metabolism.

Steer clear of processed foods and sugar whenever possible. Food talks to your cells...be sure it's telling them to burn fat, not store it. Real food is your best bet.

And lastly, DON'T try to lose more than 2 pounds in a week:-) I know you've heard that before, and it's easy for us to get impatient. But if you lose more than that, you're just trading short-term weight loss for long-term metabolism slowing. Be patient, and be good to yourself.

kmscott1965

My family and I all started on mfp a little more than a month ago. One thing we do is not only do we weigh ourselves but we also measure our various body part areas. There have been weeks where we didn't lose any pounds but we did lose inches. We try not to eat our exercise points except on days where we have a function or dinner to go to. If we are going out to a party or out to dinner, we make sure to get at least an hour or more of exercise in so we have some extra calories to spare. I think for us this is working well and we don't consider ourselves on a temporary diet. We're looking to manage our weight here indefinitely so making allowances once in a while is a necessity for us. The one thing this site has really done for us was made us realize how much we were overeating. So far in a month, we all have lost 7-10 pounds which was basically the goal we set when we started this program. We're totally hooked on this site. Keep up the good work and continue with your exercise. The weight will start coming off you'll see.

Callmefia

I used to do weight watchers, and at first never ate any of my "weekly" or "exercise points". I did alright, but it was not until I ate every last exercise point that I consistently started losing weight at a steady pace. I notice the same thing when I am counting calories.

OK I have to ask about this (sorry to hijack the thread) but I just started WW for the first time ever and I'm doing it online....
Did you eat only your exercise points and NOT the weekly points, or did you eat both?

I haven't been logging my exercise on there for points because I thought I read that it was to be used if you felt you needed it but you would have better progress without... I lost 5 pounds in the last week but I just started and was hanging onto some water weight etc... so I'm not super impressed with that... so I want to make sure I don't start a bad habit! (Oh and my ticker is right, because I started MFP awhile ago and stopped... then gained like 7 pounds, so I'm still not down from my MFP starting weight, just down from my WW starting weight. hopefully I can break through that when I do my weigh in on friday!)

I think I get a lot of daily points though - 27. I feel pretty satisfied most of the time and I'm not gonna lie - I've been eating a LOT of WW ice cream to get the points up on a daily basis plus I love ice cream. :laugh:

Michellerw1

I only started eating both back when I came to a standstill, which also was after I lost weight and reduced my points to about 23 a day. Until then I would dip into the weekly points...mostly for wine. :drinker: If you just started I would go without them for a while and see how you feel.

jacolyncoker

If you don't eat them your body will go into starvation mode, and every thing you eat will be turned into fat, because your body thinks its preparing for starvation. I recommend eating most of them, thats what I do. Trust my fitness pal, they know what they are doing.

KaySaver

I got to tell you that since I have been following my plan and being honest about everything on here, I have been losing the weight pretty easily. I eat all my calories even the ones that I burn.

Just think about the gold medal swimmer who eats like 10,000 calories a day and is a beanpole.

You have to be honest about your daily calorie at rest rate. If your doing nothing then put the lowest calorie setting. If your running around all day then put the highest calorie setting. Don't cheat yourself.

If you are exercising and not eating those calories and you run around at work all day and you have it set to the lowest calorie count for your base, then you are not getting enough fuel to move your body and your body will slow down and hold onto everything.

You need to eat all your calories in a healthy way but eat all your calories.

Did you know that your body will burn calories up to a few hours after you exercise? So if you don't supply your body with the nutrients it needs then it will go into starvation mode and hold onto the fat and eat away at muscle.

Just try it and eat all your calories and don't cheat yourself. Your body will thank you and you will rev up your metabolism and burn all the calories needed to help you lose weight.

gabi_ele

Here are some things that helped me understand about losing weight the healthy way.
Fri 08/29/08 02:18 PMhttp://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions

~~~~~~~~~
Banks two threads "Newbies" and "Newbies 2nd edition"
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/post/new/9614-newbies-please-read-me

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition
~~~~~~~~~
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6832-eating-all-of-your-calories-bmr

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/8977-your-body-s-thoughts-on-calories

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/777-why-is-starvation-mode-so-bad
~~~~~~~~~~
......and if you still can't sleep:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/8199-off-to-a-slow-start-actually-still-at-starting-gate

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6737-true-confessions-from-a-slow-learner

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9007-bmr-ma-because-of-the-answers-to-the-questions


I have lost weight on low fat, low cal diets before, but this should not be a diet, it's a new way of thinking about food. I know everyone is a little different but there is a big misunderstanding today about how to lose weight. If all this low cal eating would work the way it should, why are there people eating under 1000 cal and are still overweight? Our bodies are more complicated than that.
I eat about half on my exercise calories, I eat all my reg. calories and I have just modified my goals to lose 1 pound of fat a week, down from 2. Why would I do such a crazy thing you might ask? Because I have hit a platoe and I was still hungry even after eating all my cal. THe reason I only eat half is because I don't have a HRM and that is the only way to exactly tell how many calories I burn. I eat hardly ever processed food, if I can't understand what is in my food I don't think I should put it in my body either. So it's fresh veggies and real butter(only a lot less) and lean meat and compex carbs( no white bread, mostly brown rice and a lot less pasta) hardly any fast food or restaurants for me. Do I still eat pizza? Yes, but not every week and only when I have enough calories left over for it.
Now you can do whatever you like , This works for me......

mdorisi

ok well now I'm still confused! soooo my BMR is 2313. So I know if I take 500 cal away from that to lose at least one lb a week then that takes me down to the 1800 that MFP is telling me to eat. The thing is, when I do exercise and do cardio, I'm burning about 1000 cal, because my BF and I are working out for at least an hour and I spend a lot of that time on the elliptical or treadmill. I am doing weights twice a week with a small amt of cardio. Also for my job, I'm walking all day long because I'm a job coach. So if I burn off 1000 cal tonight, you're telling me that I'm suppose to come home and eat all of that!? That seems crazy to me!! sorry I'm not fighting you guys I'm just making sure I get it.

reneelee

MFP told me to eat 1550 calories per day and the nutritionis said the same thing she also said on days i lift weigts to up my calories 100/ 200 more that day.

sbilyeu75

ok well now I'm still confused! soooo my BMR is 2313. So I know if I take 500 cal away from that to lose at least one lb a week then that takes me down to the 1800 that MFP is telling me to eat. The thing is, when I do exercise and do cardio, I'm burning about 1000 cal, because my BF and I are working out for at least an hour and I spend a lot of that time on the elliptical or treadmill. I am doing weights twice a week with a small amt of cardio. Also for my job, I'm walking all day long because I'm a job coach. So if I burn off 1000 cal tonight, you're telling me that I'm suppose to come home and eat all of that!? That seems crazy to me!! sorry I'm not fighting you guys I'm just making sure I get it.

Get a heart rate monitor. It's the only way you're going to know. Walmart has a decent one for $50. I found it to be well worth my money. I burn more calories than I thought in strength training and latin dance, but I also burn less than I thought I was on the elliptical.

gabi_ele

ok well now I'm still confused! soooo my BMR is 2313. So I know if I take 500 cal away from that to lose at least one lb a week then that takes me down to the 1800 that MFP is telling me to eat. The thing is, when I do exercise and do cardio, I'm burning about 1000 cal, because my BF and I are working out for at least an hour and I spend a lot of that time on the elliptical or treadmill. I am doing weights twice a week with a small amt of cardio. Also for my job, I'm walking all day long because I'm a job coach. So if I burn off 1000 cal tonight, you're telling me that I'm suppose to come home and eat all of that!? That seems crazy to me!! sorry I'm not fighting you guys I'm just making sure I get it.

Ok so lets see MFP gives you 1800 to lose 1 pound a week and you exercise 1000 cal a day away 1800 -1000= 800 net calories a day to breathe, digest , pump blood, make blood, inhale contract muscles,,, are you getting the idea?Your body holds on to everything it can get. You need to spread out your calories during the day, eat 4 meals and 2 snacks. You should NEVER go under 1200 net calories a day

tkrall

So, I'm at 1200 calories a day. I exercise 5-6 sometimes 7 days a week. Each day I burn about 300 calories. So, with that I should be eating around 1500 calories a day correct? Because you should never go under 1200 calories? I usually eat some of them back. So, according to the above I'm pretty much on the right track? Right? So, why am I stuck?

mdorisi

OK I GET IT NOW!! :drinker: THANK YOU A BILLION TIMES OVER!! sorry I seemed like the dumb one in the back of the class but I hope it helped some more people clear up some stuff too! Thanks again to everyone that helped. Now let's see if I can REALLY get back on track and lose more. Also I need to redo my measurements. I had them saved in a notebook and stupidly threw it away last weekend. GRRRRR.....lol
THANK YOU!!!

balance9

So, I'm at 1200 calories a day. I exercise 5-6 sometimes 7 days a week. Each day I burn about 300 calories. So, with that I should be eating around 1500 calories a day correct? Because you should never go under 1200 calories? I usually eat some of them back. So, according to the above I'm pretty much on the right track? Right? So, why am I stuck?

You're in the 'last 10 pounds' range...toughest part. Are you strength training (weight lifting, power yoga, plyometrics...anything along these lines?) Your goal has to be to put on muscle in order to reduce more body fat. You have to make your body more metabolically active. In addition, you might be able to start incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT) since it sounds like you have been doing moderate cardio for awhile. If you can do 30-40 minutes of cardio in the upper end of your aerobic range, generally achieved by jogging for most people, you can start add the higher intensity HIIT 1-3 days week (with a full day off in between, during which you can strength train).

hiddensecant

ok well now I'm still confused! soooo my BMR is 2313. So I know if I take 500 cal away from that to lose at least one lb a week then that takes me down to the 1800 that MFP is telling me to eat. The thing is, when I do exercise and do cardio, I'm burning about 1000 cal, because my BF and I are working out for at least an hour and I spend a lot of that time on the elliptical or treadmill. I am doing weights twice a week with a small amt of cardio. Also for my job, I'm walking all day long because I'm a job coach. So if I burn off 1000 cal tonight, you're telling me that I'm suppose to come home and eat all of that!? That seems crazy to me!! sorry I'm not fighting you guys I'm just making sure I get it.

I'm thinking that on rest days, go for 1800 and on workout days, eat your BMR (2300). Because you are over 100 lbs overweight, the math of eating all your exercise calories wont necessarily apply to you. So eat half for a week and see what happens. NOTE: I'm only suggesting this because you are over 100 lbs overweight; those of you with a healthy or overweight BMI should eat more.

The important thing is to plan ahead of time. If you know you're going to work out, don't wait to work out before adding your calories. Plan to eat 2300 that day and make pretty darn sure you get in your workout. Spread it out over your 5-6 meals and recovery drink.

robnbrwn

...
3. Exercise so that you break a sweat, but people around you are not holding cell phones ready to call 911. After you have built a solid aerobic base for a couple of months, you can increase the intensity, but resist the urge to do it too soon. The stress hormones created at high-intensity cardio will undermine your ability to burn fat. Higher intensity is great, and burns fat in people who are trained for it.

I worry about those stress hormones. I am extremely stressed at work right now, and it will only get worse over the next 6-10 weeks. After that my stress will mostly disappear, but I am starting my weight loss program now. Am I setting myself up for failure with the stress? I do what I can to manage it, but that's not much.

Robn

tkrall

So, I'm at 1200 calories a day. I exercise 5-6 sometimes 7 days a week. Each day I burn about 300 calories. So, with that I should be eating around 1500 calories a day correct? Because you should never go under 1200 calories? I usually eat some of them back. So, according to the above I'm pretty much on the right track? Right? So, why am I stuck?

You're in the 'last 10 pounds' range...toughest part. Are you strength training (weight lifting, power yoga, plyometrics...anything along these lines?) Your goal has to be to put on muscle in order to reduce more body fat. You have to make your body more metabolically active. In addition, you might be able to start incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT) since it sounds like you have been doing moderate cardio for awhile. If you can do 30-40 minutes of cardio in the upper end of your aerobic range, generally achieved by jogging for most people, you can start add the higher intensity HIIT 1-3 days week (with a full day off in between, during which you can strength train).

Normally I do my cardio in the morning then at night do my strength training routine at night. So normally I'm doing both everynight or everytime I work out. Is this wrong? My cardio include Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and the Elliptical or Treadmill and the strength training is basically general. Nothing over the top?