Net Calories, Burned Calories, and a lot of confusion. =/

uniquelypaige

Hey there, myfitnesspals =]. I'm new to this site, but not new to the world of online calorie + exercise calculators.

I'll try to make my question as clear as possible!

I set my activity level to sedentary when I signed up. I'm 127 pounds, 5'3, and my fitness goal is 115. My recommended intake is at 1,200 calories (which, I've been eating at for awhile), and I put in a goal of two 30 minute exercises, totaling 280 calories per week. I'm expected to lose .9lbs a week.

I am rather sedentary. The reason being is that when I'm not in classes three days a week, my butt is usually firmly placed on some sort of a surface. I get up, move around the house, mingle with family.. But the majority of time is spent reading and studying, and of course.. Enjoying some Primetime TV. =]

Occasionally, I do move out of sloth mode, and hit my Gazelle, or go for an hour walk, which is why I just basically put in an average of two 30 minute exercises.

Today, it was nice outside, so I did an hour long walk, burning about 218 calories according to this site. But when I logged it and returned to the page, my calorie remaining meter had gone up.

I understand that we need a minimum of 1,200 calories to survive. What I DON'T understand is that while I burn about 1,600 at sedentary, and eat 1,200... that only makes for a 400 calorie deficit.. Which isn't even a pound per week. So to give myself a deficit that would create a -1lb per week, I would have to burn 100 calories.. But according to the net calorie thing.. I would have to eat another 100. Isn't this rather counter-productive..? I don't want to say that it makes my exercise worthless.. But it just seems so backwards that I have to eat the calories that I worked to burn.
Not only that, but how would I even CREATE this 500 calorie per day, 1lb a week loss, if I just have to keep eating my exercise calories? Is it even possible for me?

Panda86

This is a very, very, very, very, commonly asked question. I suggest searching the posts, because there have been hundreds of people asking that question every day, and thus, hundreds of answers. You will probably find what you are looking for.

meggonkgonk

A bunch of people are proly gonna write below me to point out how calories and consuming them work. I just want to point out that for a woman at 5'3" 115 is outside of a healthy weight range. 118 is about as low as you should go.

valmaebel

First of all, you don't have to eat all the calories your allotted. It's just a guideline to help you figure out how much to eat each day. If you want to have a larger deficit then you figure that into the original amount of calories. They have you eat back the calories you burn so as to keep a stable flow of calories going in and out so to speak.

As for the calorie deficit, according to my dietitian 400 is recommended and you don't want to go too much over that or your body actually becomes stressed and starts to produce hormones that hold on to your fat. So instead of losing weight faster it causes it to become harder to lose the fat. This isn't to say that it's awful to do more than that, just not recommended.

So when I run, I end up eating more that day just to try to keep my calories more steady if that makes sense. I run to keep my heart and systems healthy, and to allow me the occasional indulgence. I lift weights to build muscle because the more muscle you have the more fat you burn overall.

I hope this helps!

uniquelypaige

First of all, 115 is not a bad goal for someone at 5'3. That would give me a 20.4 BMI, which would place me within the normal range.
I've read the other threads, really, but the concept still confuses me.

Second of all.. Thanks to valmaebell, this kind of helps.
I guess this is what confused me:

When I signed up for this site, I chose Sedentary, it gave me 1,200 calorie goal, said I burned 1,650 at Sedentary, with a -450 deficit and that I would lose .9lbs per week. When I add in my exercise, it automatically puts in the calories for me to eat... So that I still have a net of 1,200 and -450 deficit.

Yet, playing around.. I changed my settings to Light Activity. This put me at 1,280 calories, said I burned 1,750..80..?, put me at a -500 deficit, and said I would lose 1lb per week. This, like I said, was if I was Lightly Active.

So.. Why the difference? Why shouldn't I have to make up for ALL of the calories I burned being Lightly Active vs. Sedentary? Why can't I work out at Sedentary, work out until my total burn calories is at the Lightly Active calories of 1,750-80ish (I can't remember the number!), without having to eat back all of the 'exercise' calories?