New and a bit confused......

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rubberducky88
rubberducky88 Posts: 35 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,
Just need a bit of advice....

I'm 22yrs old, female, I'm 5'4" and weigh 11st6. I have 20lbs to lose.

I am a bit confused over how many calories I should be consuming in a day. MFP has set my goal for the day as 1200- today I have tracked that i'll be eating 970 calories at the moment, not accounting any snacks I end up eating. My planned exercise for the day will burn 487 calories which is leaving my NET amount as 483. Is this too low?
Is my NET amount supposed to be 1200 to enable me to lost 1-2lbs per week?

Any help is greatly appreciated....

Replies

  • g_warne
    g_warne Posts: 28
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    Yes, your net is supposed to be 1200. I was very confused about that at first as well! You'll just need to eat more! If your net amount is too low your body will start to think its starving and hold on to all the weight. You want to lose it not keep it and be eating very little! The idea is to try and get enough calories to get your net to 1200. That's still at least 500 calories less than what you'd need to maintain your current weight so you should be losing at the net 1200. Hope that helps at least a bit!
  • xMissy6x
    xMissy6x Posts: 347 Member
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    hey, yes thats way too low. You need to net 1200, meaning you need to eat your exercise calories back. When you add you exercise cals into MFP it automatically adjusts your cal goal intake. Eat to 1200 and you will be fine :)
  • rubberducky88
    rubberducky88 Posts: 35 Member
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    Wow thanks guys, i'll have to try and eat a bit more!! Not sure how though.... lol
  • morganadk2_deleted
    morganadk2_deleted Posts: 1,696 Member
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    Are you eating to enough?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit


    This is just a part of it! please read the link above


    Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
    With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
    With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
    With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
    and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)


    Also this might be helpful http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/00trayn/view/how-to-bust-a-3-month-plateau-87677



    Good luck on your journey
  • rubberducky88
    rubberducky88 Posts: 35 Member
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    That was very helpful morganadk2 - I think I definitely need to eat more! Who knew diets weren't about eating very little...!

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