How much do you eat and work out?

ReinasWrath

So MFP wants me to be eating 1200 a day but this website http://www.loseweightfit.com/weight-loss-calculator/
says eating 2000 would suffice for weight loss. If 2000 cal diet was already giving me a 500ish deficit wouldn't a 1200 diet pretty much give me a deficit of 1300? I heard somewhere that a daily deficit over 1000 is bad for you. Did you guys follow MFP guidelines exactly and if not how did you decide differently?
If anyone wants to lay this out for me nice and simple here are my stats.
I'm about 5'9"
currently 196.8lbs. hoping to get down to 150lbs. I don't have a time limit other than I'd like to be at or close to goal by next summer.
I am a girl and am 20 years old. I try to work out 5 or 6 times a week and usually burn about 200. I would love to lose 2lbs a week but if the calorie restriction gets too ridiculous then I'm fine with doing 1. I know this is probably a dumb question or if not dumb asked a million times but for some reason it confuses me a lot

dls06

1400 calories no workout.

ReinasWrath

1400 calories no workout.

Is that what you recommend or what you do?

MissFit0101

So MFP wants me to be eating 1200 a day but this website http://www.loseweightfit.com/weight-loss-calculator/
says eating 2000 would suffice for weight loss. If 2000 cal diet was already giving me a 500ish deficit wouldn't a 1200 diet pretty much give me a deficit of 1300? I heard somewhere that a daily deficit over 1000 is bad for you. Did you guys follow MFP guidelines exactly and if not how did you decide differently?
If anyone wants to lay this out for me nice and simple here are my stats.
I'm about 5'9"
currently 196.8lbs. hoping to get down to 150lbs. I don't have a time limit other than I'd like to be at or close to goal by next summer.
I am a girl and am 20 years old. I try to work out 5 or 6 times a week and usually burn about 200. I would love to lose 2lbs a week but if the calorie restriction gets too ridiculous then I'm fine with doing 1. I know this is probably a dumb question or if not dumb asked a million times but for some reason it confuses me a lot

Are you saying that eating 2500 would be to maintain your current weight? If so, then sure, you could start by dropping to a 2000 cal diet... then slowly decreasing as your lose weight.

saphfireangel

Mine all depends on my day and how hungry I am so I'm not really sure what to tell you on that one I'm allowed 1480 a day and sometimes I get to that and sometimes I go over that but I try to burn at least 400 cals a day in exercise. I've just been going by mfp and I've lost 7lbs in about 2 weeks so seems to be working for me.

Scarlett_S

I am 5'10 and 173 presently and want to get to 155, so 18 more pounds. I lowered my calories to 1200 because the last twenty pounds is taking a LONG time to come off. I do seven workouts a week but in five days - double workouts on Monday/Wednesday.

I think you should start with higher calories, because the closer you get to goal, the more you have to drop to get it to come off. I operated on a 1200 calorie a day deficit (according to food logging and my bodybugg) for a long time and was able to lose 2-3 lbs a week pretty easily. Its harder now and I fear I'll have to drop more calories to get to goal!

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

I recommend sticking to 2000 and monitoring your weight for at least 2-3 weeks. Do NOT reduce your calories to 1200. There's no rush and it's better to see if you CAN lose on 2000 with exercise than to immediately eat 1200 calories.

In any case, 1200 would be waaaay too low. MFP might be saying 1200 sedentary but is expecting you to eat all of your exercise calories back. So when you log what you do in a day in the exercise tab you'd eat 1200 + whatever you burned. So you say you burn 200 then you'd eat 1400 a day.

Personally I think this is too low considering you're only 20 years old. At the very minimum reduce your calories to 1800 and give it a few weeks. You will lose as long as you count EVERYTHING that you eat, I promise you!

SergeantSunshine_reused

That calculator factors in your exercise and mfp doesnt.

I eat 1200 net and workout 5 days a week along with my army physical training

dls06

1400 calories no workout.

Is that what you recommend or what you do?

What I do.

CMH24

I started out 216 and in about a year I lost 50. I was eating 1500-1600 and working out about 5ish times a week. You can eat more than the 1200. Honestly, I think it will be easier to maintain the lifestyle if you don't FEEL like you're starving yourself. I say just tell yourself 1600 or something and be more conscious of what and when you're eating. That way, if you're under it is a plus and if you meet it you will still lose the weight.

Scarlett_S

Also - go to a BMR chart and figure out how many calories you are burning daily at your age and weight with no exercise, then go from there. 500 calorie deficit is a pound a week, etc.

inspiration345

Whoa don't eat 2000 or 2500 cals a day without exercise.You can check my diary.I did an average of all food eaten and workout and I eat 1850 cals average a day with 450 cals burn by exercise monitored with a heart rate monitor for 1 pound loss of fat a week. I am 151 lbs 30 yrs old woman,164 cms tall.

MissFit0101

Whoa don't eat 2000 or 2500 cals a day without exercise.You can check my diary.I did an average of all food eaten and workout and I eat 1850 cals average a day with 450 cals burn by exercise monitored with a heart rate monitor for 1 pound loss of fat a week. I am 151 lbs 30 yrs old woman,164 cms tall.

you weigh nearly 50 pounds less than OP, so it takes a considerably lower amount of calories to maintain your weight than it does for hers, so please don't tell her to never eat 2000 calories...

Rae6503

What weekly goal did you tell MFP? Probably 2lbs a week which equals 1000 calories a day, then yeah, it doesn't count weight loss.

Tell it a pound a week or less.

I am 5'9" and 150, when I was losing I never went below 1750 NET, so ate between 1750 and 2500 calories a day (with some "cheat" days up into the 4000s).

Elizabeth_C34

I'm at 1300 calories and workout 6 days per week (3 days strength, 3 days cardio).

ReinasWrath

So MFP wants me to be eating 1200 a day but this website http://www.loseweightfit.com/weight-loss-calculator/
says eating 2000 would suffice for weight loss. If 2000 cal diet was already giving me a 500ish deficit wouldn't a 1200 diet pretty much give me a deficit of 1300? I heard somewhere that a daily deficit over 1000 is bad for you. Did you guys follow MFP guidelines exactly and if not how did you decide differently?
If anyone wants to lay this out for me nice and simple here are my stats.
I'm about 5'9"
currently 196.8lbs. hoping to get down to 150lbs. I don't have a time limit other than I'd like to be at or close to goal by next summer.
I am a girl and am 20 years old. I try to work out 5 or 6 times a week and usually burn about 200. I would love to lose 2lbs a week but if the calorie restriction gets too ridiculous then I'm fine with doing 1. I know this is probably a dumb question or if not dumb asked a million times but for some reason it confuses me a lot

Are you saying that eating 2500 would be to maintain your current weight? If so, then sure, you could start by dropping to a 2000 cal diet... then slowly decreasing as your lose weight.

yep from what I have read 2500 would be to maintain (which seems like a lot now that i look back lol)

ReinasWrath

I am 5'10 and 173 presently and want to get to 155, so 18 more pounds. I lowered my calories to 1200 because the last twenty pounds is taking a LONG time to come off. I do seven workouts a week but in five days - double workouts on Monday/Wednesday.

I think you should start with higher calories, because the closer you get to goal, the more you have to drop to get it to come off. I operated on a 1200 calorie a day deficit (according to food logging and my bodybugg) for a long time and was able to lose 2-3 lbs a week pretty easily. Its harder now and I fear I'll have to drop more calories to get to goal!

Thanks I think that's a good method to slowly decrease or else I won't have any other way to lose when I'm so close like you are And wow double workouts!> That's impressive!!

ReinasWrath

I started out 216 and in about a year I lost 50. I was eating 1500-1600 and working out about 5ish times a week. You can eat more than the 1200. Honestly, I think it will be easier to maintain the lifestyle if you don't FEEL like you're starving yourself. I say just tell yourself 1600 or something and be more conscious of what and when you're eating. That way, if you're under it is a plus and if you meet it you will still lose the weight.

Yeah I think your right, thank you. I think I'll go for maybe 1600. How much did you try to burn each workout?

foremant86

I eat around 1500-1700 and workout for 25 minutes a night.

MFP had me at 1200 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week and i did that for the first 2 months but i was finding i was too hungry so i changed my stats to 1.5lbs/wk and lightly active and now it has me around 1600 and i'm losing more weight than i was before lol.

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

At 5'9, 20, and 199 your BMR is 1750...that's not taking into account your sedentary burn.

So BARE MINIMUM you are burning 1750 x 1.2 = 2100 calories

you're working out so you burn even more than that.

I say stick to 1800 calories a day...you'll have a minimum deficit of 300 if you did absolutely nothing. I assume you run errands and walk to/from your car or even to/from school/work. So you will likely have a minimum deficit of 500.

When you factor in exercise you WILL CERTAINLY lose weight. Don't be so eager that you set yourself up to binge eat or severely slow your metabolism from muscle loss.

You can and should lose weight on a higher amount!

Xaspar

You're going to get a myriad different answers on this one, I sent you an email ... feel free to friend me if you like. If not, that's fine too ... it's all good!

BrittaneyHG

mfp is saying eat 1200 IF you are not working out.
Say you burn 200 then you CAN eat 200 and still loose weight.

3500 make one pound so 200x5 is 1000 burnt.
that means you have to cut 2500 from your week to loose just one pound!!!

My advise is push yourself to burn 400 a day!!!!

Rainbow011

All this calorie talk is confusing. I just try to stick to 1200 when I don't workout. If I do exercise then I'll eat more, but try to stay close to 1200. That works for me. I couldn't imagine eating 2500 cals even if I wasn't trying to lose weight.

Amber82479

I try to net to 1200 calories and workout 5-6 days a week. Sometimes I just can't eat back my calories, sometimes I can