Do I have to burn 3500 every week?

TheVirgoddess

Okay MFP says to eat 1200 but the fat2fitradio website said I should be eating 1667. Why are the two different?

I'm not familiar with that site, but I think it's because with the number that site gives you, you don't eat any calories back from exercise.

It's math. I'll break it down for you.

You have your BMR - basal metabolic rate. This is what you burn if you were laying in bed all day, not moving. Let's say yours is 1500.

Next, we add your activity level. Let's say you're sedentary, and generally burn about 300 calories a day with your standard walking and talking.

That means you need 1800 calories a day just to meet your body's needs.

Now, you are trying to lose weight, so you're going to be eating a deficit (less than your body needs). So we'll say you eat 1300 calories a day. You have a deficit of 500 calories a day. In a week, you'll lose about a pound (3500 calories burned).

If you workout and say you burn 200 calories a day. If you don't eat them back, your deficit is now 700 calories a day. If you do eat them back, your deficit doesn't change. It's a wash because you burned them and then ate them.

This is all, of course, assuming you're a healthy person with no underlying medical issues.

If you go to your home, and click on goals - what numbers does it give you under Calories Burned "from normal daily activity"?

kezara1229

Okay MFP says to eat 1200 but the fat2fitradio website said I should be eating 1667. Why are the two different?

I'm not familiar with that site, but I think it's because with the number that site gives you, you don't eat any calories back from exercise.

It's math. I'll break it down for you.

You have your BMR - basal metabolic rate. This is what you burn if you were laying in bed all day, not moving. Let's say yours is 1500.

Next, we add your activity level. Let's say you're sedentary, and generally burn about 300 calories a day with your standard walking and talking.

That means you need 1800 calories a day just to meet your body's needs.

Now, you are trying to lose weight, so you're going to be eating a deficit (less than your body needs). So we'll say you eat 1300 calories a day. You have a deficit of 500 calories a day. In a week, you'll lose about a pound (3500 calories burned).

If you workout and say you burn 200 calories a day. If you don't eat them back, your deficit is now 700 calories a day. If you do eat them back, your deficit doesn't change. It's a wash because you burned them and then ate them.

This is all, of course, assuming you're a healthy person with no underlying medical issues.

If you go to your home, and click on goals - what numbers does it give you under Calories Burned "from normal daily activity"?

1740 cals are my cals burned from normal daily activity according to MFP. And it says to eat 1200, so I have a deficit of 540 cals. It says my projected weight loss will be 1.1 lbs per week. Is there any way I can make that 1.5? I've already been told countless times on MFP that it'd be pretty much impossible for me to lose 2 lbs per week, but some have said 1.5 might be doable. But I can't think of any way to do that except to lower my cals even more, which I would think would not give me enough cals to healthily function.

TheVirgoddess

Okay MFP says to eat 1200 but the fat2fitradio website said I should be eating 1667. Why are the two different?

I'm not familiar with that site, but I think it's because with the number that site gives you, you don't eat any calories back from exercise.

It's math. I'll break it down for you.

You have your BMR - basal metabolic rate. This is what you burn if you were laying in bed all day, not moving. Let's say yours is 1500.

Next, we add your activity level. Let's say you're sedentary, and generally burn about 300 calories a day with your standard walking and talking.

That means you need 1800 calories a day just to meet your body's needs.

Now, you are trying to lose weight, so you're going to be eating a deficit (less than your body needs). So we'll say you eat 1300 calories a day. You have a deficit of 500 calories a day. In a week, you'll lose about a pound (3500 calories burned).

If you workout and say you burn 200 calories a day. If you don't eat them back, your deficit is now 700 calories a day. If you do eat them back, your deficit doesn't change. It's a wash because you burned them and then ate them.

This is all, of course, assuming you're a healthy person with no underlying medical issues.

If you go to your home, and click on goals - what numbers does it give you under Calories Burned "from normal daily activity"?

1740 cals are my cals burned from normal daily activity according to MFP. And it says to eat 1200, so I have a deficit of 540 cals. It says my projected weight loss will be 1.1 lbs per week. Is there any way I can make that 1.5? I've already been told countless times on MFP that it'd be pretty much impossible for me to lose 2 lbs per week, but some have said 1.5 might be doable. But I can't think of any way to do that except to lower my cals even more, which I would think would not give me enough cals to healthily function.

It's not at all impossible for you to lose 2 pounds a week - it's just not necessarily a healthy way to lose.

In order to lose 1.5 pounds, your deficit needs to be 5250 - 750 a day and that's cutting about 200 more calories for you a day. That puts in you in 1000 net a week, which I would advise against. I'm no expert, just another girl trying to lose some weight.

My advice is to stick with 1 pound a week. And take care of your body. I'm sure you'll look fabulous for your event!

Brownsbacker4evr

From my experience, you don't have to personally burn 3500 calories to see weight loss. If your TDEE is in line with your total calories consumed to create a big enough deficit, you'll still reach that 3500 or more in a week. You just have to go about calculating those numbers for yourself.

_Terrapin_

OP--if MFP is at 1667 and you enter 'lose a pound a week' you are below 1200. Remember, MFP has a minimum of 1,200. I think you understand this(1667-500=1167). Good luck with your goal and read and learn as you go. Do your math, and use other sites to compare and contrast your numbers so you have a better understanding of this site and the tools.

Muffie22

i'm 5'2 and usually eat between 1400 and 2000 per day (and exercise for about an hour a day) and am not very active apart from my exercise, and i usually end up losing at least 1lb a week... 1200 is likely to be below your BMR (the number of calories you'd need to survive if you were literally in a coma and not moving at all) and will probably end up doing more harm than good as your body isn't getting the right amount of nutrients at that level.

Yes I set it as 2 lbs per week because I have an event in three months that I really want to be slimmed down at least halfway for. I'm 150 and my long term weight loss goal (not the goal for the event) is 120. I'm 19 years old and 5'1", which may be why I don't need to many calories.

evileen99

I'm going to ditto what a pp said--if you want the body in your avatar picture, you need to hit the heavy weights, not the treadmill. Even if you don't lose the amount of weight you want, things will "tighten up" from weight lifting and you'll look smaller.