Sorry for being thick

marie111

Hi there iv been on here for a while and have been viewing some of the questions and i have got more and more confused with the net calorie thing can anyone help im on 1200 cals per day excercising 800 cals per day for 5/6 times a week iv been eating 1200+some or all of my excercise cals and my weight loss as come to a stand still for the past few weeks, can anyone explain in plain english and in simple terms would be much appreciated. ill say thanks now

smuehlbauer

I would highly sugguest you go to

Message Boards » General Diet and Weight Loss Help

and read the first four post - they are all for new people.
This should help you.
stephanie

WomanofWorth

Hi there iv been on here for a while and have been viewing some of the questions and i have got more and more confused with the net calorie thing can anyone help im on 1200 cals per day excercising 800 cals per day for 5/6 times a week iv been eating 1200+some or all of my excercise cals and my weight loss as come to a stand still for the past few weeks, can anyone explain in plain english and in simple terms would be much appreciated. ill say thanks now

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/188509-my-take-on-exercise-calories-please-read-if-you-are-new

Best explanation of the net calorie issue I've seen yet

sandram82

Try eaing more of your exercise calories.. if not all of them.. your body needs the fuel and if it doesnt get enough it will start storing fat because it thinks your starving yourself!

SunShine62274

Sounds like you've come to a plateau. Change your work out. Sounds silly sometimes, but it seems your body is used to it's routine.

Hope this helps. Keep up the good work.

erickirb

eating 1200 and burning 800 is the same as eating 400 and not exercising (1200-800) If your goal is 1200 you need to eat your exercise caloires to get there 2000-800 =1200.

A few questions to ask yourself: Are you measuring your food properly, and recording all of it (kitchen scale for solids, measuring cups for liquids)?
Are you calculating calories burned correctly (Using a HRM, and backing out cals you burn at rest from the total)?

If yes, try to change up your workout routine (this should be done every 4-6 weeks) and maybe change your weekly goal to lose 1lb/week. Sometimes you have to eat more to lose.

MSDRIZZ

Well I can only offer some advice. Are you weighing and measuring everything accurately? Are you eating too many carbs? Are you logging every bite, lick and taste? Sometimes people hit a plateu. The good news is that after you get over the hump your weight loss speeds up a tiny bit usually.

AHealthierRhonda

Personally I stick to teh 1200-1300 cals a day with or without exercise. I never eat my exercise cals unless I am hungry enough to. It seems to me you sholdn't eat just to eat. ALso if you eat enough of the right things, you should feel full enough and not ahve to eat a lot of the exercise calories. I listen to my body adn eat when I am hungry. There are days MFP tells me I am not eating enough but I don't do it a lot, Maybe once a week, but then I sometimes don't exercise and eat more on the next day.
To me it doesn't make sense to eat the cals you burned because then you will just continue to maintain, but I am far from an expert on this subject!!

wingchunrick

You're not eating enough compared with what you're burning so your body will have gone into starvation mode.

"Thanks to thousands of years of evolution, our bodies have adapted to become fat storage machines. You may want 6-pack abs or a tight belly, but all your ancestors wanted was to not starve to death.

Over the course of generations, it became “beneficial” and “genetically desirable” to store fat. Those genes have been passed on, and are now hanging out quite comfortably around your waist.

Whenever you try to lose fat, your body tries to hold onto it by slowing your metabolism. The more fat you’ve lost, the more this happens.

Essentially, the harder you fight to lose those last few pounds your ancestors considered necessary for survival, the harder your body fights to keep them."

marie111

I have eat all my excercise calories 800 cals and the 1200 cals 1200+800=2000 and i religiously weight all my food and drink anyway this week iv tried to stick to my 1200+ 1or 200 from my excercise cals making 1400 cals and changed my workout and iv tried to have more carbs than i would normally eat and less protein, i do feel as if this week i may have lost weight i get weighed tomorrow so im crossing my fingers.

erickirb

Personally I stick to teh 1200-1300 cals a day with or without exercise. I never eat my exercise cals unless I am hungry enough to. It seems to me you sholdn't eat just to eat. ALso if you eat enough of the right things, you should feel full enough and not ahve to eat a lot of the exercise calories. I listen to my body adn eat when I am hungry. There are days MFP tells me I am not eating enough but I don't do it a lot, Maybe once a week, but then I sometimes don't exercise and eat more on the next day.
To me it doesn't make sense to eat the cals you burned because then you will just continue to maintain, but I am far from an expert on this subject!!

This will not cuase you to maintain, it will cause you to lose your goal amount of weight. The goal MFP gives you is to lose your goal amount of weight per week, if you exercise you increase your caloric deficit, in order to get your deficit back to your goal amount you must eat your exercise calories, otherwise your deficit may be too large and can cause negative side effects to you health and/or weight loss. Just follow MFP it does all the calculations for you all you have to do is enter your food and exercise and eat what it tells you, simple.

therobinator

Hi there iv been on here for a while and have been viewing some of the questions and i have got more and more confused with the net calorie thing can anyone help im on 1200 cals per day excercising 800 cals per day for 5/6 times a week iv been eating 1200+some or all of my excercise cals and my weight loss as come to a stand still for the past few weeks, can anyone explain in plain english and in simple terms would be much appreciated. ill say thanks now

In plain English......always eat your base 1,200 per day....and if you exercise 800 calories, eat 800 more calories on top of the 1,200...if you exercise 500 calories, eat 500 more calories on top of the base 1,200. Hope that helps.

jojoworks

Hi Marie,

I took a peak at your food diary. I just looked at this week. It looks like you're NOT eating back your exercise calories. Each day shows that you have lots of calories left to be eaten to get back to your NET goal.

Look at it this way: MFP's goal of 1200 cals/day for you already INCLUDES a built-in weight-loss deficit. That means you'd lose whether you exercised or not. If you exercise and burn hundreds more calories you're building a deeper, potentially too low deficit. So 1,200 calories allowed/eaten MINUS 800 calories burned = 400 calorie NET. You need to eat 800 more calories to get back to a 1,200 calorie NET.

You may also want to track sodium instead of sat fat (you're not eating sat fat anyway). Sodium counts always surprise people especially if you buy alot of processed or packaged foods. It also can be a factor in not seeing results on the scale. MFP sets the sodium "goal" at 2,500 mg, but really that is the OUTER LIMIT, you should really aim for 1,500 mgs of sodium/day.

good luck!!!

marie111

thanks everyone for ur help much appreciated.