How Many Calories Should I Be Eating?

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ezzamaybee
ezzamaybee Posts: 8
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I'm Erin, I'm 18 years old, 5'3" and 139lbs, I want to lose weight but I'm confused with my calories. Firstly, I don't know how many calories I should be eating really, I've seen a range from 1200-1800 to lose weight effectively and safely. I live a pretty sedentary lifestyle.

Furthermore, when counting calories, which number do you pay attention to? The intake number or the NET number. On days when I exercise tons my net can be really low, which seems unhealthy, and my intake is around the 1500-1600 mark, and I don't know if I should eat more, because my body will store fat because my NET is so low, or if that will make me gain weight because I've already consumed 1500 calories?

I'm really confused, so any help would be great, and if you have any good tips that would be really helpful too.

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  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
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    If you put your age, height, weight, gender, job activity, and lose .5 to 1 lb. a week into MFP it will give you a number of calories to eat BEFORE you do any exercise. It shows up under "Your Daily Goal". If you eat that amount you should lose weight. On days you work out you'll notice Your Daily Goal goes up. Now you need to eat that amount, or fairly close to it, to net your goal. MFP already has your weight loss deficit built in so you need to eat back the exercise calories to actually have the proper deficit.
  • ezzamaybee
    ezzamaybee Posts: 8
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    Thank you that helped, I've sorted it now :)

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