Please help me understand

AmyNVegas

:frown: Ok I read the post for Newbies and I went back through as if I were trying the site out again and it put me at 2400 calories with no exercise added. Now this is the same as I am at now with telling it I wanted to do 5 workouts a week for 30 min. Ok so If I read it correctly, I should just pay attention to the 2400 calories not the added calories I get when I exercise is this correct? That is if I want to lose weight. Now how important is it to reach that 2400? I haven't made it since Monday when I started following my diet again. Like today I am at 2050. Will that stall my weight or will I be ok there? I guess I am afraid to go as high as 2400. Maybe because I have had low calorie diets drilled into my head all of my life. Thanks for helping if you can!
Amy


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Easy Calorie Counting

AmyNVegas

:frown: Ok I read the post for Newbies and I went back through as if I were trying the site out again and it put me at 2400 calories with no exercise added. Now this is the same as I am at now with telling it I wanted to do 5 workouts a week for 30 min. Ok so If I read it correctly, I should just pay attention to the 2400 calories not the added calories I get when I exercise is this correct? That is if I want to lose weight. Now how important is it to reach that 2400? I haven't made it since Monday when I started following my diet again. Like today I am at 2050. Will that stall my weight or will I be ok there? I guess I am afraid to go as high as 2400. Maybe because I have had low calorie diets drilled into my head all of my life. Thanks for helping if you can!
Amy


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Easy Calorie Counting

mommachag

a lot of us seem to have the same problem. were afraid to eat the calories it tells us to no matter what the number. from what i understand (im pretty new here too) your food log will tell you how many calories to eat . it gives you more calories for excersise. you should eat all or most of those calories it's giving you. 50-100 left over isn't bad but more and you might run into trouble.
that seems to be a problem for me. too few calories but too much fat

ClaudiaRN

Hi, 2400 calories seems to be a whole lot of calories to me. But I'm not real sure how they calculat everything to come up with the number of calories. What I do know is that the less calories you eat the faster you should loose wt. I try to stay under the amout of calories it says I can have and I try not to include the amount of exercise, unless it is a day that I was tempted to have something I shouldn't . Like a piece of birthday cake at work. then I figured how many calories was the cake and then see how many calories I burned during my workout. I still try to keep the amount of calories burned more that the caloried in the cake. I hope this helps.

jenifergotti

Eat your excercise calories!!!! The site automatically deducts your daily calories to lose weight. If you want to lose 1 pound a week, it has already deducted 500 calories off of what you should eat in a day! So, when you exercise and burn 600 calories - you should eat that much extra. If you are on 1200 calories a day and don't eat the extra 600 from working out, your body thinks that you have only eaten 600 calories for the whole day and then goes into starvation mode! I have eaten my excercise calories from day one and have lost 1 to 2 pounds per week since I started. It really works - as long as we do it the healthy way!!

Hopefully this is helpful! 2400 calories a day seems really high! Maybe go back and check out your goals again and make sure it all looks good!

As far as adding your weekly excercise into your goals. It is just that a goal, the site does not take that into account until you add it to your day. It's more for your benefit, to see how you are doing with your goal for the week!

LuckyLeprechaun

please go check out the newbies thread where banks explains why you should eat your exercise calories. if you just try to burn as much as you can, your body WILL NOT release the fat stores, because it sees that you are not replenishing the expended energy with any fuel. so any fuel it does get, it locks down into fat storage right away.

see these:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/777-why-is-starvation-mode-so-bad

Fitness_Chick

:frown: Ok I read the post for Newbies and I went back through as if I were trying the site out again and it put me at 2400 calories with no exercise added. Now this is the same as I am at now with telling it I wanted to do 5 workouts a week for 30 min. Ok so If I read it correctly, I should just pay attention to the 2400 calories not the added calories I get when I exercise is this correct? That is if I want to lose weight. Now how important is it to reach that 2400? I haven't made it since Monday when I started following my diet again. Like today I am at 2050. Will that stall my weight or will I be ok there? I guess I am afraid to go as high as 2400. Maybe because I have had low calorie diets drilled into my head all of my life. Thanks for helping if you can!
Amy


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Easy Calorie Counting

just an fyi from someone that's been there:bigsmile:

...Amy with the amount of weight you're looking to lose, 2400 is not too extreme in cals each day to eat. Yes it may sound like that in comparison to diets but MFP is not like being on a diet.:drinker: :bigsmile: If we keep that in mind it helps us realize that eating less is not necessarily better.

You are looking to lose over 200 lbs. so that calorie amount is about right....if MFP gave you that amount to use each every day I would give it a try and stick with it a bit before throwing in the towel so quickly and worrying if it's to much but that said we are all very different and one person may find they need a bit less if they are trying with the same goal as you. Another may find they are starving at that amount.

Eating healthy foods is much different than eating crappy simple carbs that are high in cals...eating a bag of chips will take you way past 2400 cals a day. So think on how much you used to eat in cals compared to the now 2400 you're allotted. I imagine it was more than 2400 a day?

If you see others that are eating 1200 cals that MFP gives them, there is most likely a reason, just click on their profile and they may be shooting for 17 lbs. or be shorter than you or a different age.

Please don't feel 2400 is way too much simply because someone else is given much lower amounts. Some on here are given much higher amounts it's all very individual on MFP, that's what makes this site so great.:flowerforyou:

Just keep this in mind as you lose weight you are allowed less cals..so today you may feel like WOW, too many or gee I shouldn't eat my allotted cals...I began a set amount over what yours are when I began, now I eat around 1400-1500 per day (I've now lost over 200 lbs doing it, so apparently it's working quite well for me , yes I need to update my ticker:laugh: ). I normally eat back 50% or so of my excercise cals (some eat 100% some 50-75%..it's important to make sure you are eating some back as you are burning even more being larger than a lighter person would but everyone should each back some, it's very important!) but I normally burn between 2300-2500 cals each time I hit the gym (5-6 days a week) and the days in between (rest day) I do a video on stretching, yoga everyday, that sort of thing.

I feel we all worry FAR TO MUCH about how much we're eating ....it's pretty simple really MFP has given us a great tool to work with (many in fact) to give us an idea how much to eat in a given day. If we trust the process starting out, it sure beats what we all used to do before finding MFP. :blushing: :laugh:

So don't worry if your number feels to big at the moment, you're a larger person, and you need to nourish your body in a different way than someone that weighs 120 lbs and is looking to lose 5 lb. See what I mean?:flowerforyou:

Society has drilled it into our heads that if a person is bigger they should never eat...it's deep in our minds that only small folks should eat. But going the healthy route you'll find your body is much happier being fueled in the amount it needs. Every vehicle needs good fuel, if the vehicle is smaller it won't hold as much fuel as a larger vehicle, a larger vehicle needs more fuel but a good/healthy fuel.

Ok, so hope something here gets into all of our brains because each day someone is worrying way to much if they are eating to much. :noway:

Hey people?!! We ate too much BEFORE MFP!! If we're following what we need to here...it's not too likely you're eating too much. Tweaking it is fine, but starving yourself might take lbs off quickly at first but your metabolism is gonna be totally messed up and take you much longer to get healthy and you'll even lose fat if you do it the right way vs. the fast fad diet way.:drinker: :bigsmile:

Great night to all,
FC

Nonibug

:frown: Ok I read the post for Newbies and I went back through as if I were trying the site out again and it put me at 2400 calories with no exercise added. Now this is the same as I am at now with telling it I wanted to do 5 workouts a week for 30 min. Ok so If I read it correctly, I should just pay attention to the 2400 calories not the added calories I get when I exercise is this correct? That is if I want to lose weight. Now how important is it to reach that 2400? I haven't made it since Monday when I started following my diet again. Like today I am at 2050. Will that stall my weight or will I be ok there? I guess I am afraid to go as high as 2400. Maybe because I have had low calorie diets drilled into my head all of my life. Thanks for helping if you can!
Amy


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Easy Calorie Counting

just an fyi from someone that's been there:bigsmile:

...Amy with the amount of weight you're looking to lose, 2400 is not too extreme in cals each day to eat. Yes it may sound like that in comparison to diets but MFP is not like being on a diet.:drinker: :bigsmile: If we keep that in mind it helps us realize that eating less is not necessarily better.

You are looking to lose over 200 lbs. so that calorie amount is about right....if MFP gave you that amount to use each every day I would give it a try and stick with it a bit before throwing in the towel so quickly and worrying if it's to much but that said we are all very different and one person may find they need a bit less if they are trying with the same goal as you. Another may find they are starving at that amount.

Eating healthy foods is much different than eating crappy simple carbs that are high in cals...eating a bag of chips will take you way past 2400 cals a day. So think on how much you used to eat in cals compared to the now 2400 you're allotted. I imagine it was more than 2400 a day?

If you see others that are eating 1200 cals that MFP gives them, there is most likely a reason, just click on their profile and they may be shooting for 17 lbs. or be shorter than you or a different age.

Please don't feel 2400 is way too much simply because someone else is given much lower amounts. Some on here are given much higher amounts it's all very individual on MFP, that's what makes this site so great.:flowerforyou:

Just keep this in mind as you lose weight you are allowed less cals..so today you may feel like WOW, too many or gee I shouldn't eat my allotted cals...I began a set amount over what yours are when I began, now I eat around 1400-1500 per day (I've now lost over 200 lbs doing it, so apparently it's working quite well for me , yes I need to update my ticker:laugh: ). I normally eat back 50% or so of my excercise cals (some eat 100% some 50-75%..it's important to make sure you are eating some back as you are burning even more being larger than a lighter person would but everyone should each back some, it's very important!) but I normally burn between 2300-2500 cals each time I hit the gym (5-6 days a week) and the days in between (rest day) I do a video on stretching, yoga everyday, that sort of thing.

I feel we all worry FAR TO MUCH about how much we're eating ....it's pretty simple really MFP has given us a great tool to work with (many in fact) to give us an idea how much to eat in a given day. If we trust the process starting out, it sure beats what we all used to do before finding MFP. :blushing: :laugh:

So don't worry if your number feels to big at the moment, you're a larger person, and you need to nourish your body in a different way than someone that weighs 120 lbs and is looking to lose 5 lb. See what I mean?:flowerforyou:

Society has drilled it into our heads that if a person is bigger they should never eat...it's deep in our minds that only small folks should eat. But going the healthy route you'll find your body is much happier being fueled in the amount it needs. Every vehicle needs good fuel, if the vehicle is smaller it won't hold as much fuel as a larger vehicle, a larger vehicle needs more fuel but a good/healthy fuel.

Ok, so hope something here gets into all of our brains because each day someone is worrying way to much if they are eating to much. :noway:

Hey people?!! We ate too much BEFORE MFP!! If we're following what we need to here...it's not too likely you're eating too much. Tweaking it is fine, but starving yourself might take lbs off quickly at first but your metabolism is gonna be totally messed up and take you much longer to get healthy and you'll even lose fat if you do it the right way vs. the fast fad diet way.:drinker: :bigsmile:

Great night to all,
FC

Very well said FC:flowerforyou: And I cant wait til you update your ticker! I love seeing your ticker move!!:happy: Hmmmm, Im now wondering if Im obsessed with FC's ticker...??:blushing: :laugh:
~Roni

arewethereyet

1200 calories is the BARE MINIMUM! I think there is a misconception about that number. 1200 is the number of calories you can eat without putting your body into an unhealthy state.

If you are 141 pounds and need to lose 10-20 pounds, 1200 may be your number. OF course if you exercise away 300 cals, you are leaving your body in an unhealthy state. SO eat those 300 cals.

Other websites assume you will DO that exercise...and give you 1500 to begin with. I eat 1200 when I get no exercise and every one of my exercise calories! Sometimes I will jog for butter!!! :laugh:

2400 calories may be the healthy number for YOUR body to lose a good amount of weight. 2 pounds a week is what the medical professionals recommend. Why? Because you didnt GAIN 10 pounds in 1 week....you gained it over a years and years.

I commend you for taking control of your life and your health.

God Bless You!:flowerforyou:

KatWood

What I do know is that the less calories you eat the faster you should loose wt.

This is not necessarily true.
If your body is not getting the energy it needs, your metabolism will slow down and your weightloss will slow down or stop entirely. I have had this happen to me.

arewethereyet

there is a MFP member who had her BMR tested after not losign for awhile. she was told to eat 2400 cals a day. She started LOSING weight once she did.

Again, each person is different.

Someone who goes to the gym each day or lifts heavy weights is going to have a fast metabolism and likely a higher caloric need.

AmyNVegas

Thanks so much for all your comments. I am going to work on getting the 2400 in and see if it works. I tried this with Curves last year and lost 22 lbs at first because I got all of the calories in and worked out. Then I continued to work out but my calories kept falling because it takes a lot of extra planning and money to keep up good healthy snacks and meals at 2400 calories. So I will have to budget well and eat a lot of good foods and keep it up. I was trying to do the 3 hour diet with this but I think I will keep the concepts, eating every 3 hours and not 3 hours b4 bedtime but I will up the calories at meal times to reflect the extra 350 calories on here. I have read the other posts for help on boosting calories but they contain a lot of fat and I am already going over fat by adding walnuts and other healthy fats so I need to boost calories w/o boosting fat calories. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Amy :flowerforyou:

Fitness_Chick

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

ChubbyBunny

Thanks so much for all your comments. I am going to work on getting the 2400 in and see if it works. I tried this with Curves last year and lost 22 lbs at first because I got all of the calories in and worked out. Then I continued to work out but my calories kept falling because it takes a lot of extra planning and money to keep up good healthy snacks and meals at 2400 calories. So I will have to budget well and eat a lot of good foods and keep it up. I was trying to do the 3 hour diet with this but I think I will keep the concepts, eating every 3 hours and not 3 hours b4 bedtime but I will up the calories at meal times to reflect the extra 350 calories on here. I have read the other posts for help on boosting calories but they contain a lot of fat and I am already going over fat by adding walnuts and other healthy fats so I need to boost calories w/o boosting fat calories. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Amy :flowerforyou:

Hi! Just a thought.... invest in healthy nutrient dense foods. Which are foods with considerable calories for a small quantity. Like nuts, trail mixes, "Grainy" breads, etc. Be careful on fat content (even though it's healthy fat in nuts...it's still fat so don't go nuts with it).