How many calories should I burn a day?

krk526
krk526 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Im 18 years old, 5'5 and came to college weighing 125. I have put on the freshman 15 and now weigh 138!!! :( I have been going to the gym for 30 mins a day and burning 300 calories every time. Should I try burning more calories if I want to lose this 15 pounds fast, and how many calories should I be burning off a day? I am on a 1200 calorie diet by the way.

Replies

  • Ainar
    Ainar Posts: 858 Member
    You can burn as much as you like as far as you do not push your body so hard that you can not recover from workouts. More you burn more you will also have to ate to not be in too huge deficit. If you wanna ate 2400 worth of calories a day for example then you can burn 1200 calories from exercise. If you don't feel like eating that much food then stick with your 300. Personally I burn somewhere between 300 and 1000 a day depending what workout I am doing. That being said, burning more won't make you lose weight faster because you still have to ate them back hence outcome still will be the same.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    From an exercise standpoint, you can burn however many you want, just don't overdo it and cause yourself injury.

    From a diet standpoint, with your stats (age, weight, height), 1200 calories is not appropriate for you, at all. 1200 calories is more for petite and older women, and even then it gets kind of iffy. My suggestion is to find the 'right' caloric intake for a person your size. Don't go with MFP's blanket 1200 calories, because you're going to end up miserable and giving up before you ever even reach your goal. Try setting MFP to lose .5 lbs/week since you don't have much to lose. After you've found your calorie intake, invest in a food scale and weigh your food for the most accurate estimation and log it consistently.

    And lastly, 15 lbs isn't going to be lost 'fast'. Weight loss takes time and patience. Go slow and steady and you'll be able to keep it off much longer. Remember, there's no quick fixes.... just hard work and logging.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    aim for 9,001 a day. that way you can say "It's over nine thousand!!"

    their might be a slight generational gap in that joke.
  • asciident
    asciident Posts: 166 Member
    Weight loss is primarily about calorie deficit. You are trying to lose too aggressively with your stats if you're eating 1200 calories. Healthy, sustainable loss for losing only 13-15 lbs is 0.5lb/week. At your height and age you could be eating more than 1600 calories a day and still lose at a healthy rate. More if you're not actually sedentary (you probably aren't).

    Cardio is good for heart and lung health and does add calories you could eat back to the day if it's above your stated activity level, but it's not strictly necessary to lose weight.

    I strongly encourage you to read through this:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

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