So confused..

JoeyFitness1718

Calorie deficits really confuse me. How many calories are you supposed to have per day? Do you have to do enough exercise to burn more calories than what you are eating? It’s so confusing and it’s stressing me out big time. Making me feel down because I don’t know how to lose weight properly.

AnnPT77

Set up your MFP profile. Tell it you want to lose weight at a sensibly moderate rate. When you set your activity level, consider only your job and routine home life plus non-exercise hobbies and such; don't include intentional exercise. MFP will give you a calorie goal estimate.

Eat close to that number of calories daily (a little over/under is fine). If you exercise, log the exercise separately in MFP, and eat those calories, too. Some people worry about exercise calories being overestimated, so they eat back only a chunk of them (say 50-75%) until they see how their results shake out over time.

That's the basic method that MFP intends you to lose. Your calorie deficit is built into your base calorie goal in MFP. You should lose weight if you eat that many calories. When you exercise, and eat more to fuel that exercise, you're keeping the same calorie deficit you started with, for the same expected weight loss rate.

Because MFP is giving you a calorie estimate, not a crystal-ball-style 100% guaranteed correct answer, you stick to the MFP recommendation for 4-6 weeks, then compare your actual average weekly weight loss to your weight loss rate target. If you're losing more slowly than expected, but could still lose a bit faster without creating major health risk, eat a little less. If you're losing too rapidly, eat a little more.

After that, just keep an eye on ongoing results over multi-week periods, and adjust as needed. That's the basic process.

88olds

No one was born counting calories. They don’t teach it in school. Plus, there’s a significant learning curve.

Copy that post from @AnnPT77 and reread it often. I’ll add- start a food diary and log in everything you eat or drink that has calories. Use a food scale to crunch the numbers for everything except liquids. And again, give yourself a lot of time to learn the system. It all pretty much gets down to trial and error. The basics are well known but we each have to find how to live with it.

Weight loss is mostly about problem solving and persistence. When you encounter problems, try to solve them. The only way to fail is quit.