Okay I just need some clarification please.

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NH_1970
NH_1970 Posts: 544 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I read the info on the page. Can someone help me understand Calorie intake? I'm reading the info on here and I want to see if I understand it right. My BMR is 1,839 a day (right now) I generally burn 300-500 calories a day when I exercise sometimes more. So Do I want to be eating 1,839+exercise calories a day in order to lose? Or should I be doing something else? That sounds like excessive amounts of calories. Even though I am obese I'm not sure how I would eat all that, I gained weight through eating crap food and NOT exercising. Now I'm eating healthier and exercising.

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  • lutzsher
    lutzsher Posts: 1,153 Member
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    Your BMR is the calories you would consume to stay the same weight. To lose weight you want a 500 calorie per day deficit from your BMR. Ideally you want to deduct 250 from food and 250 from exercise for the healthiest loss.
  • sassiebritches
    sassiebritches Posts: 1,861 Member
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    This is an ongoing subject since I have been here I personally do not eat them per nutritionist/doctor advice.
  • happily
    happily Posts: 72 Member
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    No, no, no. BMR is the # of cals you would burn if you were to stay in bed all day. Don't even look at it when thinking about your intake.

    Your Daily Calorie Expenditure is the number of calories you actually burn in a day based on the activity level you selected.

    Eat the number of calories MFP tells you to eat. Let the computer do the math for you.
  • NH_1970
    NH_1970 Posts: 544 Member
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    Alright Thank you! I was so confused my calories are 1480 according to the MFP guided settings, but I had messed around with it and changed my carbs to be a lil bit lower and protein a lil bit higher. So just defaulted back to the original thing.
    So that's a 359 deficit that MFP does, just on foods. So if I go by that on just foods or a lil under I'll be okay? I've been averaging 1400-1300 I think.

    I think I need to go read again about exercise calories because somewhere I remember seeing that we're supposed to be eating them, but I don't know if that's what it said or if I'm remembering wrong.

    and I'm not sure that I understand the 250/250 food/exercise explanation. But I'd like to if you could explain it further. If you see this again.
  • alantin
    alantin Posts: 621 Member
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    Basically what you should be doing is calculating your Daily Caloric Expenditure in here for example:
    http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-burned.php

    Subtract 500 Cal and you have the amount you need to eat in a day to lose about 1 pound a week. When you're closer to your goal weight, that 500 should be more like 300..

    I think that the 250/250 means that you keep a 250 Cal deficit normally and 500 Cal on an exercise day.

    About the exercise calories, yes, you should eat them. Please, read a detailed explanation here:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

    Cheers!
  • NH_1970
    NH_1970 Posts: 544 Member
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    Thank you! I think I have it now. It can really confusing at first, but it's good to learn, that link is really good too.

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