UGH I'm not sure I get this....

iKristine

So I am 223lbs at 5'8 (31yrs) and have been exercising for 2 weeks now roughly 3-5 times week.

I was at 239-245 (depending on scale) at my highest over summer. But I am getting confused by this whole calorie defeceit thing.

I set my goals to roughly 1.5 lbs/week at 1500 calories since that falls perfectly in the middle with what I have heard of 1400-1600 calories a day to lose weight. I set it to a 40/30/30 and am confused on the calories eating back when you exercise.

So I got this app on my android called tracks. I use it to monitor with GPS my time and distance and avg miles per hour walking. Which has been rather good to use. I walk to my college gym which is roughly 1.5 miles away in the morning, work out with weights and then walk home. I average 3mph. So I then know I have burned ~300 calories in walking alone.

So if I add that to the journal it tells me to eat 1800 calories! which okay. But isn't the concept of working out to have a calorie defecit? It says on my goals I would have a 720 defecit weekly and lose 1.4 lbs standing still. So if I don't eat back those calories isn't it actually over a 1000 cal defecit!? Which isn't that nearing starvation mode?

Does anyone know more realistically what that number is to sway off starvation mode so that I can have a piece of mind. I have ambitious goals. I want to lose the 65 lbs by next summer which will put me at a more ideal weight of 160. Which I figure 65 / 9mo (or 9 * 30 for days) = ~1.7lbs week to get there. But I am being very strict on my workouts with a journal and everything to know "exactly" what i've done and need to do to stay on track. I figure the difference should be made up in just having leaner mass.

Thoughts?

thankyou4thevenom

Read this
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

Everything you've asked can be answered by reading the threads in that topic.

drbaska

A good rule of thumb is to not drop below 1200 calories per day. When you are doing intense workouts, like P90X or Insanity or training for a marathon, your body does need more calories to fuel itself. However, when you are doing more moderate exercise like walking, jogging shorter distances, or even most gym workouts, you don't have to "eat" those extra calories to fuel your body.

You do need to make sure you are putting good fuel into your body regardless - lean proteins, fiber, nutrients, etc.

I like that you are so committed to getting healthy! Are you doing any other exercises besides the walking? I've got some great at-home workouts I can recommend. I know they've kicked my bootay into shape!

iKristine

ThankYou guys. Those links were exactly what I wanted to know.