Eat more than you burn or burn more than you eat?

Soul_Sista1

Hello All,

New to the site and wanting to shed "ALL" these extra pounds off. In starting, I came across 2 statements and became confused. Eat more than you burn or burn more than you eat, which is it? I started my exercise regime, entered my calculations and food intake. If it's burn more than you eat, then I definitely need to turn it around because I'm reading all the wrong things. Please help.

Desperately seeking the slimmer me

chilly1470

Hi Sista, to shed that weight, you need to "Burn more than you eat", or as we like to say, Less in, more out. To break it down, if you burn 3500 calories in a day, and only eat 2500 that day, in a week you will lose 2 pounds. Less to eat, more burned. Add me as a friend if you like, as I am supportive and active on here. I still have 140 more pounds to burn off, haha.

sofaking6

If you take in fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight. I think it can be confusing if you're new because you DO burn calories just being alive. When you see "BMR" and "TDEE", those are ways to calculate how many calories you burn just being alive. If I burn 1200 calories a day just being alive, and I eat 1200 calories a day, my weight will stay the same. If I burn 1200 calories a day but only eat 1000, then I will lose weight. At 3500 cals/pound, at a 200 cal per day deficit it would take me roughly 18 days to lose one pound. Conversely, if I burn 1200 calories a day and eat 1400, then in those same 18 days I would gain a pound.

If I burn 1200 calories per day just being alive AND I want to lose weight AND I want to eat more than 1200 calories per day, I can increase my daily burn by doing exercise. If I burn 1200 calories per day just being alive and I burn 250 calories per day exercising, then I could eat up to 1400 calories per day and still lose weight.

So, burn more than you eat

shadow2soul

To lose weight you need to : Burn more than you eat

Now that being said, you have to keep in mind that you burn calories just being alive. Everybody has a TDEE calorie amount (total daily energy expenditure) and it will vary based on body composition, age, weight, gender, and activity level. The best way to figure this out is by trial and error. Your TDEE = BMR + Daily Activity + Exercise. If you eat lower than your TDEE, you will lose weight.

MFP is set up to give you a calorie goal based on BMR + Daily Activity. This way you can lose weight without exercise. When you exercise you should log it and (depending on where you get the calorie burn from) eat only 50-75% back. MFP and Exercise machines tend to overestimate calorie burns, so only eating a portion back gives room for error.

The alternative method that people like to use often referred to as the TDEE method. With this you generally get your TDEE from another site (I'll list a few at the end) or average from multiple sites and then take anywhere from 5-20% off of that number. They will then manually set their goals here with that number (TDEE - %) and adjust it every 5-10lbs or so. With this method, exercise is either not logged or logged with a manual input of 1 calorie burn.

Both methods, tend to have you averaging about the same amount of calories per day.

Links:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161603-so-you-want-a-nice-stomach
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

TDEE calculators:
http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/
***with the fat2fit calculator to get your current TDEE put your current weight as the goal weight***

bwogilvie

As shadow2soul says, you have to burn more than you eat.

But people use "burn" in two senses: (1) calories burned during exercise ("nice burn!") and (2) total calories burned just living your life.

#2 consists of several parts: your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the energy you would burn if you were in a coma; the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), the energy it takes to digest food and make its calories available to your body; Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), the energy you burn by getting out of bed in the morning, brushing your teeth, preparing meals, walking around at work, and generally living your life; and Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT), the energy you burn exercising.

Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the sum of those four: BMR + TEF + NEAT + EAT. That TOTAL should be less than what you eat.

But MFP is based on only the first three: BMR + TEF + NEAT. If you say, I want to lose 1 lb. per week, it will give you a calorie goal that is 500 calories a day (=3500 calories a week) under that total. If you then exercise and burn 500 calories, you will have a daily deficit of 1000 calories - twice your goal - unless you eat them back. In that case, you risk not giving your body sufficient fuel to maintain your daily activities and keep your body healthy. If you're really overweight, a 1000 calorie daily deficit isn't a problem, but as you approach your goal, your deficit should get smaller, because it's harder to lose fat when you don't have much of it.

So if someone says, eat more than you burn, they probably mean, "Don't starve yourself by not eating exercise calories, because MFP has already given you a deficit before exercise." If not, they are daft and you should ignore them. :-)

Soul_Sista1

Thanks all because I was reading this calorie tracker and it was telling me that I'm not eating enough.

kimny72

Thanks all because I was reading this calorie tracker and it was telling me that I'm not eating enough.

Well, you have to eat less than you burn, but you also have to eat enough to fuel your body properly! So if MFP set your calorie goal at 1800, and you only ate 1000 calories, then yes it is going to tell you that you aren't eating enough. If you eat TOO low, your body will burn muscle in addition to fat and could cause all sorts of other health issues. You have to find the balance :drinker: