new with questions

armmh
armmh Posts: 25
edited February 10 in Getting Started
Hello! New to the boards, did WW many years ago. Can someone help me with what I should be shooting for when it comes to daily net loss of calories? And also can I average that over a week or does it need to be daily?
I am 45, in menopause, 5'5', 153 pounds. Trying to lose as much as I can before a vacation in April. I had always been 145 with no work until I hit menopause and *BAM* 10 pounds!! :(

My daily goal is 1200 and I am using a heart rate monitor to track my calories burned during exercise. Right now a workout can burn a lot of calories since I am pretty out of shape. My hour circuit training yesterday burned 895!! I am not always eating back my burned calories. For 9 days I was at 1000 until all the stuff I read about being too low so I increased it to 1200.

On WW you can "bank" points to use later in the week so can I still do that with calories?

Thanks for you input into this!!

Rhonda:flowerforyou:

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Yes, you can look at your nutrition for the past 7 days, not just for today.

    With such a small amount of weight to lose, your goal should be set to lose .5 lbs. per week. I use the protein & fiber goals as minimums & ignore the rest. But if you ask 100 MFPers, you'll get 100 different answers. Learn to log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. When you scan barcodes, verify the information against the label. (There's a lot of junk data in the database.) When typing stuff in, look for USDA data whenever possible.

    The calorie counts & burns are estimates. Some people correct for error by only eating back 50% of their exercise calories. It will take trial & error to find what works for you.

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • armmh
    armmh Posts: 25
    Thanks! Based on your ticker it looks like I am starting where you started and hope to be where you are soon :bigsmile:
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    It took me an entire year to lose 20 lbs. (I have thyroid disease.) It took a lot of trial & error, but I never gave up. The Sexypants link sums up so much of what I learned the hard way. I wish it had been around when I started. (And I really wish I'd taken before photos.)

    Welcome. You can do this!
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