little under little over calories

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h86g
h86g Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Depending on how my day goes, if im busy at work or with the kids my calorie intake is never at 1200. It says you will store fat if you are under and im assuming i willl gain more if i am over. Ive been working out for over a year on my own time at home doing videos, weights and stationary bike. I have alot of weight to lose and i havent lost a pound since ive been working out. I do notice my arm muscles and leg muscles are stronger. I dont just want to be skinny I want to be fit and healthy.

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  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I guess I don't understand your question.

    If you set your weight loss goal on MFP it will tell you how many calories to eat. You can set yourself to sedentary and then log your workouts to get a good measure. You will, of course, be under a bit some days and over on others. You want to be under your net goal for the week.

    I would really urge you to get a scale and also to look at those really good visual portion size pictures they have online to help you judge. The biggest reason people don't lose, in my naive opinion, is that they are poor at estimating portion size and they don't log everything.

    Good luck!
  • allshebe
    allshebe Posts: 423 Member
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    I can't see your log, but results tend to be a function of the accuracy of your logging (how much you really ate and how many calories you really burned). You should be netting at least 1200 in order to not lose lean muscle mass - and probably more (I'm losing at 1500 and I'm a fair bit older than you). Usual pitfalls are portion distortion (eating 2 cups of potatoes when you enter it as one) and overestimating how many calories burned in exercise (MFP is said to be "bad" at this - may help to only eat back 1/2 the calories MFP gives you for exercise)
  • froeschli
    froeschli Posts: 1,292 Member
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    As long as you ballpark in the right neighbourhood, you should be losing weight. 1200 imo isn't enough, but it's your decision. If you're set to lose 1 lb a week, you can eat up to 500 calories more a day without gaining. Probably more than that if your goal is 1200.
    Honesty and accuracy are more important than getting worked up about a theoretical figure... Once you log accurately, you can shift your target calories according to weight loss.

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