Newbie question about calories per day...

xLyric

When MFP gives you 1320 cals a day, and you want to lose 2lbs a week, do you actually lose 2 pounds for eating that or do you have to exercise? I mean, I know we need to exercise, and I do, I'm just asking, hypothetically, if I ate 1320 and did nothing else, would I lose weight?

I'm basically just still figuring out how the site works.

sweetn3ss

You should be able to lose the weight. As long as you are not going over your calories, and you do have your profile set to 2lbs per week. Just keep in mind some weeks you may lose more or less then 2 lbs

jrich1

the 1320 already has the deficit built into it, of course exercise helps

xLyric

Okay, thanks everyone.

karmostx

You would only maintain if you ate 1320 cal a day. 3500 net calorie loss is equal to 1lb of weight loss a week. That is about 500 calories a day. Hypothetically if you only ate 1200 calories a day (minimum before you begin to get into starvation mode) and you exercised and burned 380 calories then you would have a net calorie loss of 500 calories a day. 1320 (cal needed to live) - 1200 (cal consumed) - 380 (cal burned in exercise) = 500 net calorie loss ( You get 120 calories from your food and 380 from your exercise = 500) This makes it kinda hard to loose 2 lbs a week . Hope this helps!