Fitness noob with a question.

lauraannnelson1

I have been being active lately, today I walked 8 miles, and biked 6 miles but I consumed 1,700 calories, it was all healthy fruits and veggies, some lentils. But is that a normal amount to consume for my activity level!? If I want to lose. MFP says I still have excess calories, by over 400 and I logged everything but I wanted advice from live people. I am 5"6 158lbs

I was only eating about 1,200 but being uber lazy so I decided to start burning but my appetite was crazy today with all the activity.

grimendale

I'm doing Insanity, which burns about 600 or 700 calories a session, which puts my calorie intake at 2200 or so a day for a 6'-1" male at 195. Do you have a heart rate monitor? That would be the best way to figure out how much you're actually burning on your exercises. 500 calories of exercise sounds a little low to me for 8 miles on foot and 6 miles on bike (the 900 number seems more reasonable). I would expect to burn about 100 calories/mile on foot as a rule of thumb; even assuming you only burn 75 calories/mile, over eight miles, that's 600 calories for walking alone. Are you hungry? If so, you might be undereating. You can try adding calorie dense foods such as nuts, nut butter, protein powder or similar if you want to get the extra calories without feeling weighed down by a large volume of food. Make sure you get enough protein. You don't want to burn muscle tissue instead of fat tissue (a 40/40/20 or 40/30/30 breakdown in calorie percentage between protein, carbs and fat would keep you in a healthy place).