How many calories should I be burning??

sachasalviax

So I'm really confused on how many calories I should be burning per day to lose weight?! I know I've posted about this before but I still don't get it!

DaniettaF

If you look at it that 3500 calories as a lb of body weight (according to others, I have no source). Then a run, for example, burns 500 calories, you would need to go for a run about 7 times to lose that pound.

The same happens if you restrict your calories.

How many calories you want to burn depends on how much you'd like to lose and in what time frame. MFP can figure that out when you put your goals in. If you put your goals in and it says you have 1300 calories, then that includes food. If you want to eat 1500 you'll have to do 200 calories worth of exercise for it to balance out.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but this is my understanding.

What are your goals?

Quaters

well put DanlettaF....Thankyou

sachasalviax

That makes me understand if a bit better so thanks!! But I'm logging my food as u found calorie counting is too much for me!! And just to lose 1-1.5 ibs a week

TeaBea

DaniettaF wrote: »

If you look at it that 3500 calories as a lb of body weight (according to others, I have no source). Then a run, for example, burns 500 calories, you would need to go for a run about 7 times to lose that pound.

The same happens if you restrict your calories.

How many calories you want to burn depends on how much you'd like to lose and in what time frame. MFP can figure that out when you put your goals in. If you put your goals in and it says you have 1300 calories, then that includes food. If you want to eat 1500 you'll have to do 200 calories worth of exercise for it to balance out.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but this is my understanding.

What are your goals?

This^

Your body is using calories 24/7, even without exercise (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc). So technically you don't have to burn any additional calories. You just need to eat less than before.

Exercise can help you lose a little faster, or it can help you eat a little more. Either way, exercise is great for your health. A combination of eating less and moving more is ideal. If you choose zero exercise then you have to be really diligent with your logging.

DaniettaF

sachasalviax wrote: »

That makes me understand if a bit better so thanks!! But I'm logging my food as u found calorie counting is too much for me!! And just to lose 1-1.5 ibs a week

I think I understand what you mean. You're not looking at the calories as such, just making sure you're finding the foods on the system and logging them? It's technically still calorie counting but without the maths

Also, if this is the case, just make sure you're weighing food and choosing accurate items on the food database. If you have the phone app you can scan barcodes.

1lb a week in that case just means you need to be consuming 3500 less calories than you usually do in a week or burning that many calories through exercise, or as @TeaBea says, do a mixture of both. This is a deficit of 500 calories a day from your maintenance calories. And as everyone is different, everyone's maintenance is different. I think mine is about 1600 if I don't do any exercise, so if I eat 1200 I would lose a lb that week. In theory.

There's also a bunch of fluctuations and variations so some weeks you might not lose anything or gain, others you might lose more than a lb.

From what most people say, unless you have health conditions, following the MFP guidelines usually works for losing weight

sachasalviax

Thanks guys!!

DaniettaF

sachasalviax wrote: »

Thanks guys!!

no problem!