Read everything and still confused about calorie intake?

bethto5k

Hi everyone. I'm new to MFP and I'm new to anything fitness related, really.

I'm female, I'm 5ft 4in, I currently weigh 10st 2lbs and I'm 20 years old. I do three thirty minute runs a week, sometimes more, but on average it's 90 minutes of cardio a week.

In my day to day life, I'm not very active (I'm a student, I sit in lectures/seminars, then when I'm off I sit and do work).

I've entered all of this into MFP and set it to lose 1lbs a week and it's telling me my net calorie intake should be 1250. This seems kinda low to me, but I don't wanna eat over incase I put weight on (something which happened lately and it was super annoying - it really knocked my confidence and now I'm terrified about doing it again).

I just don't understand this whole how many calories I should eat thing, it seems like it should be straightforward but I'm still confused. I've read all the posts about BMR and net calories but I really need someone to just take me through it as though they are coaching a small, confused child or something.

I know that people are probably sick to death of us newbies making posts like this but I just want to know if I'm using the site properly?

Thanks!

editorgrrl

Your ticker says you want to lose 133 lbs. That can't be right, can it? You can fix it here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker/home

Log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. Weigh your food.

It will take trial & error to find what works for you. Log your exercise. For two weeks, eat back your exercise calories. If you don't lose, try eating back half your exercise calories for another two weeks.

Take "before" photos & measurements, and read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants