Am I doing this right?

caitylynn62

So I started mfp last thursday and I've lost four pounds so far! The site is really helpful. But when i first started, I thought I was doing really well and eating less and excersizing and then I went on vacation and I still did alright but I can't seem to get back to what I was doing before. Then, when I looked at my net calories report, it said i was getting negative net calories before i went on vaca? I know that can't be good but why do I feel like I want to get back to that? I mean I was hungry a lot but I didn't realize I wasn't taking in enough calories! Now I have been eating closer to 1200 (sometimes going over a little) but I'm worried I won't lose weight as fast. Im still working out everyday annd trying to eat right but since I already weigh 146 pounds I feel like its going to take forever for me to lose weight just by eating 1200 calories and excersizing. Is it going to help me or hurt me lose more weight by staying closer to 1200? I want to get back to eating lower cals but after vacation and eating more its hard to go back to being hungry a lot. I feel like I'm doing bad by not getting a low net calories number. feel free to add me and look at my food diaries. I don't know what to do! thanks

sharonmac

Well your body needs a minimum of 1200 calories per day. If you dont get atleast that your body goes into starvation mode and will store fat. I hope this helps. :flowerforyou:

caitylynn62

Yeah thanks! but do I need that much as a net calorie intake or in general? becasue when I went away I had a net of 1200 vs before/ after when I had less net calories because of eating better and excersizing? Im still a bit confused

cacrat

I'm going to have to guess as to your exact question since you are making lots of assumptions and I can't tell where your question is. The 1200 mark everyone talks about is the minimum amount your body needs to stay alive. That means if you woke up, stayed in bed all day, and didn't move your body would still burn 1200 calories. That's a very general, average, number. So if you do ANYTHING else, walk, talk, sit, stand, exercise, or eat (yes, eating burns calories), you are going to burn more than that 1200 amount and your body will need to get that energy from somewhere. So you should be eating those calories to make up for that.

If I'm getting your question wrong, let me know.