I won't lie, I hate the numbers game

Go_Lise

Although I'm not new to exercising and trying to lose weight, I'm VERY new to the site and I'm new to this whole numbers thing.

I decided that I need to know the numbers (I've been hitting a wall for years) but I'm SO confused about the whole thing! I'm not sure if I'm doing any of this right and I'm finding this whole calorie counting to be so overwhelming. I'm paranoid that it's all inaccurate. Is a close estimation close enough? For example, I made a chicken stir-fry with veggies and rice today for dinner. I got all confused and skeptical that I entered all the ingredients separately. Then I over shot my allowance by 70 calories.

My numbers today are looking like this. And I'm only slightly sure about what this means...
Goal Food Exercise = Net
1480 1548 - 925 623

I'm very overwhelmed.

deninevi

Hi! You are doing great! When you started MFP you entered your weight and your goal weight, so MFP gave you 1480 cal. goal a day for you to reach your goal weight. So, you should eat 1480 cals. a day and if you don't work out you will get to the goal weight. When you work out MFP gives you back cals.-according to MFP you should eat your work out cals. So, 1480 cals. a day, you eat 1548, but you burned 925.That gives you 925 extra cals. for that day to eat. I hope this helps!

tritta01

you only have a net calorie of 623 your allowed is 1480. you never want to let you net go under 1200 consistently mine has been under a few times, but stick with it and u will do great!

Go_Lise

Thank you so much for the support, encouragement and information you guys! I love you so much right now for making me feel more at ease!!

Just one more question though...does that mean I should be eating (a little) more?

rlysrh

At first I was pretty confused about logging the calories in home made meals too, but I found that a lot of people have already added most meals that are out there. So normally I'll look to see if anyone else has logged the meal I'm looking for and I use that. Then I usually add extra calories over what I think I've eaten, I'd rather be logging more than I'm actually eating than logging less than I've eaten and not lose much weight as a result.
But yeah its a bit confusing at first but you'll get used to it all and then you'll find its really easy to keep track of the calories you've eaten which makes it MUCH easier to lose weight (:

loushep

Your goal (1480) is the amount of cals you're allowed each day.
You ate 1548 cals
You exercised off 925 cal . 1548 - 925 = 623 net Your body has had 623 calories IN to work with today so to reach your recommended goal of 1480calories you need to eat another 857 calories today.
Your net cals should equal the same as or close to your goal cals each day

theresalizotte

First it is important to make sure your measuring your food so you know that your calorie intake is correct. then you have a net number that number is for when you excercise it deducts the amount of calories you burned from your food . That is what net means. So if you don't excercise you don't burn calories. So it is important to excercise. Take it day by day work on today and dont' worry about tomorrow until you wake up in the morning.... I wish you the best of luck

jenbusick

Although I'm not new to exercising and trying to lose weight, I'm VERY new to the site and I'm new to this whole numbers thing.

I decided that I need to know the numbers (I've been hitting a wall for years) but I'm SO confused about the whole thing! I'm not sure if I'm doing any of this right and I'm finding this whole calorie counting to be so overwhelming. I'm paranoid that it's all inaccurate. Is a close estimation close enough?

For food, I have found that a close estimation is pretty easy, and usually close enough. For example, yesterday I ate a serving of KFC cornbread dressing and gravy, but that's not in the database, so I found another restaurant's cornbread dressing and gravy that I think are similar and put that in. I do that a lot, and I'm losing weight steadily, so I think it must be OK.

For exercise, since weight and intensity affect it so much, I have found that MFP's figures can be wildly inaccurate and WAY overestimated. I have heard similar complaints about the calorie counts given by some exercise machines (that they're way high). If you estimated too high on calories burned and then ate back all those calories (which you didn't really burn!) you'll gain weight for sure.

I try to estimate workout calories based on a source I have found to be reliable (my Wii Fit Plus program gives me a pretty good estimate of calories burned that accounts for my weight); a lot of folks hereabout use heart rate monitors to estimate calories burned, too.

Your calories eaten minus your workout calories should come out approximately at your goal. I try to get within 50 calories +/- my calorie goal each day, and like I said, it seems to be working.

Go_Lise

I'm loving all of you guys so much right now. Everything is getting clearer!

loushep

I will send you a friend request. I love the support and encouragement i get from my MFP friends. :happy: