Still confused

littleEj

Ok so my question is should I make my "food" number on my homepage match my "goal" number
for example, my "goal" is 1200 and I've eaten 1089 so far....

Let's just leave out exercise for now to make it simple for me....

jdg1mfp

Net should be less than or equal to goal

mamareese

The last number on net should match what your 'goal' is so 1200 should be what you 'net' at the end of the day.

Renea_Kay

Just thought I would add that your body needs a minimum of 1200 calories a day ...otherwise you are starving yourself.

littleEj

Ok so my net says 811 currently. so I should get that to match my 1200 goal?

littleEj

sorry for being dense here guys.... !

Atlantique

Ok so my net says 811 currently. so I should get that to match my 1200 goal?

Yes.

RBXChas

Ok so my net says 811 currently. so I should get that to match my 1200 goal?

Right, so you still have to eat 389 calories today. You should not be eating less than 1200. If you go a little over, it's ok. I put my daily goal at 1400 and find that it's easier to end up around 1200 than if I put my goal at 1200 (which just seems painful). Most days I get between 1200 and 1300, and that's fine. I've been losing consistently.

Atlantique

sorry for being dense here guys.... !

You're not being dense, honest!

This confuses lots of people, because it's different from how most other sites do things.

MFP has calculated how many calories your body uses to get through your daily activities and recommends that you eat slightly LESS than what your body is using so that you will lose weight.

If you go to your goals page, you can see exactly how MFP calculated your daily calorie goal. The daily calorie deficit is factored into your goal--you do not need to create one yourself.

Basically, when you signed up for MFP, you gave your height, weight, age and sex, which MFP used to calculate your BMR. Your BMR is the number of calories needed to keep you alive and healthy if you just lay in bed all day.

Then you chose an Activity Level. On MFP, your Activity Level is meant to represent calories burned at your job (not intentional exercise).

Then you chose how many pounds you hoped to lose per week. Let's just say you chose "1lb per week" for the following....

So the formula looks like this:

(BMR calories + Activity Level Calories) - 500 calories = Your Daily Calorie Goal

If you exercise, it looks like this:

(BMR calories + Activity Level Calories + Excercise Calories) - 500 calories = Your Daily Calorie Goal

MFP aims to keep your calorie deficit consistent, whether you exercise or not.

littleEj

thank you all so much! clearly, counting calories is something I have never ever done! Any of your helpful folks want to friend me?!

Spayrroe

Okay, I don't mean to in any way sound condescending or anything, but I'm going to give a detailed response so hopefully the point you need clarification on is listed. I'm going to use myself for examples.

MFP gets your demographics, activity level, and the amount of weight you wish to lose every week. It takes this info and gives you a daily estimate of how many calories you can consume to meet all of that information. In my case, I set my activity level to sedentary and said I wanted to lose 2lbs per week. My daily goal is 1660 cals.

What that 1660 cals represents is how many calories I can eat per day while doing no 'extra activity' (like if you list yourself as lightly active because of your job, you can't count cals burned at your job as exercise at that point because it's already factored in, but you can claim cals burned while doing extra exercise). So if I don't get to the gym and don't do anything active at home, I can still eat 1660 calories per day and expect to lose 2lbs per week.

Because it calculates in this manner, when I do go to the gym (like today I went and burned 660 cals on the Eliptical), I add that under exercise and MFP adds those calories to my daily allowance (making the total amount of calories I can consume today 2320, and still be able to expect to lose 2lbs this week). (think of it like knowing you can only spend $20 per day for the week, because of your budget. Then you someone gives you an extra $5 one day. That day you now have $25 dollars to spend and still stay in your budget).

I hope this helps.

lajuana27

Nice explanation!

littleEj

everyone's responses have been so helpful. thank you so much. I guess I am just expecting to feel like I can't eat to lose.... but i can.... (shocking!)

CPresley03

I'm probably gonna irritate some people and if I do I'm sooo sorry!!! I too have been very confused by this. I understand what you're saying and it kinda makes sense but like today for example I added my morning aerobics which for 70 minutes said I burned a lil over 800 calories. For me to lose 2 lbs per week with light activity I'm supposed to eat around 1530 calories a day. But with exercise it goes over 2000...Some days over 3000 calories. With that said, I would have to eat around 3000 calories a day with exercise in order to continue to lose 2 lbs per week?!?! There is no way I can do that. AGAIN, I'm so very sorry if I annoy anyone. I just really want to lose this weight and another site I was using before this did not add the calories burned the way this site does so it kinda throws me off.

ladyhawk00

I'm probably gonna irritate some people and if I do I'm sooo sorry!!! I too have been very confused by this. I understand what you're saying and it kinda makes sense but like today for example I added my morning aerobics which for 70 minutes said I burned a lil over 800 calories. For me to lose 2 lbs per week with light activity I'm supposed to eat around 1530 calories a day. But with exercise it goes over 2000...Some days over 3000 calories. With that said, I would have to eat around 3000 calories a day with exercise in order to continue to lose 2 lbs per week?!?! There is no way I can do that. AGAIN, I'm so very sorry if I annoy anyone. I just really want to lose this weight and another site I was using before this did not add the calories burned the way this site does so it kinda throws me off.

If you are obese or morbidly obese, you MAY not need to eat all of the cals from exercise. However, if you want to fuel those workouts properly, you need to eat.

You can either increase intake, or cut back on the burns. But if don't do one of these, you will have some risks.

Might help to read these threads where I discussed these issues:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/222019-60-lbs-in-60-days?hl=60+lbs

AngelsKisses75

Ok so my net says 811 currently. so I should get that to match my 1200 goal?

Do what works best for you. You will find that opinions differ on what is 'right'. Each of us is built a little differently. You will notice that some people will say eat every calorie back, and yet others that will advise against it. This is not as easy to understand as some try to make it sound, so you are right on track!

Simplified .... do what is right for you. :flowerforyou:

Take everything else as a matter of opinion, unless they have done your blood work, seen your charts, undertsnad your family history, and have a certificate that says they graduated from med school. :bigsmile:

ladyhawk00

Ok so my net says 811 currently. so I should get that to match my 1200 goal?

Do what works best for you. You will find that opinions differ on what is 'right'. Each of us is built a little differently. You will notice that some people will say eat every calorie back, and yet others that will advise against it. This is not as easy to understand as some try to make it sound, so you are right on track!

Simplified .... do what is right for you. :flowerforyou:

Take everything else as a matter of opinion, unless they have done your blood work, seen your charts, undertsnad your family history, and have a certificate that says they graduated from med school. :bigsmile:

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the gist of this...

Most medical doctors receive less than 6 hours of education in nutrition (and that is almost entirely focused on being able to diagnose/treat vitamin deficiencies. Very few are qualified to discuss or advise on matters of nutrition, exercise and healthy weight loss.

Certainly, there are individual factors that influence weight loss. But it comes down to math. None of the equations are exact, because all of the numbers we use are estimates (intake, burns, BMR, etc) - but the formula is pretty simple. You take the estimate of ALL calories burned each day (BMR + activity level + purposeful exercise) and keep intake below that. Some medical issues can effect the estimates of each of these factors - but the formula is still the same.

It's great to say "do what is right for you"...except that most of the people starting out here don't have any idea what "right" is. Yes, much of it IS opinion. But there are a whole lot of people here that, despite not having MD behind their name, have EDUCATED opinions. That's not to say you shouldn't listen to your doctor - but he/she doesn't know everything... and just because someone isn't a doctor doesn't mean they know nothing. :flowerforyou:

Atlantique

Ok so my net says 811 currently. so I should get that to match my 1200 goal?

Do what works best for you. You will find that opinions differ on what is 'right'. Each of us is built a little differently. You will notice that some people will say eat every calorie back, and yet others that will advise against it. This is not as easy to understand as some try to make it sound, so you are right on track!

Simplified .... do what is right for you. :flowerforyou:

Take everything else as a matter of opinion, unless they have done your blood work, seen your charts, undertsnad your family history, and have a certificate that says they graduated from med school. :bigsmile:

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the gist of this...

Most medical doctors receive less than 6 hours of education in nutrition (and that is almost entirely focused on being able to diagnose/treat vitamin deficiencies. Very few are qualified to discuss or advise on matters of nutrition, exercise and healthy weight loss.

Certainly, there are individual factors that influence weight loss. But it comes down to math. None of the equations are exact, because all of the numbers we use are estimates (intake, burns, BMR, etc) - but the formula is pretty simple. You take the estimate of ALL calories burned each day (BMR + activity level + purposeful exercise) and keep intake below that. Some medical issues can effect the estimates of each of these factors - but the formula is still the same.

It's great to say "do what is right for you"...except that most of the people starting out here don't have any idea what "right" is. Yes, much of it IS opinion. But there are a whole lot of people here that, despite not having MD behind their name, have EDUCATED opinions. That's not to say you shouldn't listen to your doctor - but he/she doesn't know everything... and just because someone isn't a doctor doesn't mean they know nothing. :flowerforyou:

Applause!