I'm really confused & could use some help understanding.

Ohsilentheart

I'm trying desperately to lose weight in a safe way, as well as focus more on keeping myself healthy as opposed to looking at the numbers.

MFP tells me I should be eating 1,200 calories a day. I work out 4-5 days a week, burning roughly 300-500 calories per workout. First off, should I be eating back my exercise calories?

Second off, I've read all over the forums conflicting advice - to figure out your BMR & eat at that number, to find your TDEE & figure it out from there. I've always figured myself to be pretty intelligent, but this all makes me feel so dumb. I CAN NOT figure it out, for the life of me!

I'm doing SOMETHING wrong because with all the healthy eating & exercise, I'm still not losing weight. Can someone please explain this to me & help me understand?!

STATS:

Height: 65"
Age: 24
CW: 150
GW: 125
Waist: 33"
Hips: 41"

PercivalHackworth

http://interzone.kicks-*kitten*.net/Calculating_calories.xls

AbsoluteNG

Doesn't seem like you found a diet that works for you. Try eating more protein then carbs. That works for me. I try and stay at around 60 to 80 grabs of carbs a day and eat as much protein as i want.

Tami113

I don't completely understand the BMR and TDEE calculations myself, i just go with what MFP says.
But i do know that YES you should be eating back your calories. You should NET 1200 calories per day
Example
Eat 1500 calories
Subtract 300 calories from exercise
Net 1200 calories

akjmart2002

First of all, you should not necessarily only be consuming a NET of 1200. MFP assigns that value based on a number of estimates for your BMR, which may or may not be accurate. You should double-check that against any number of other BMR calculators out there and try to settle on a number to try for a while. Depending on your results, you may need to eat more or less per day to attain the results you are looking for.

Next, do not use exercise as the means to lose weight. Exercise is to make you a healthy, capable individual who looks good in the mirror. If you do not adequately fuel your exercise with food (i.e. eat back your exercise calories), you risk plateauing in your progress and generally feeling like crap.

You should instead set your net calorie goals according to a reasonable estimate of your activity level X your estimated BMR less your desired caloric deficit. If you then incur more of a deficit due to exercise, then eat more to make up for it and get back to your goal net. It is tempting to use a very large deficit to lose weight faster, but this will backfire on you in the long run.

If you are not seeing results now, first check that your estimates for exercise calories and food calories are as accurate as possible. People are notoriously bad at guessing about such things, and online activity calculators aren't much better. Your best bet is to get a quality heart rate monitor (Polar makes good products) with a chest strap and use it religiously. Be very concerted about your food measurements for a while until you get the hang of estimating. It's entirely possible that your slow or non-existent weight loss is completely due to bad estimation at this point.

There is no other secret. Your body will respond according to the laws of physics once you remove the noise from the system. Keep at it and good luck!

SILVANIE

I try not to eat more calories than I burn. It works for me.

autumnk921

Hey there!! I sent you a message to try to help you out with this....It really makes you feel dumb b/c even though we are smart all of these calculations & different sites & numbers becomes overwhelming...I completely understand!! Best of luck!

Toddrific

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

ChristineDiet

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

^^ read this, the guy who wrote it (Helloitsdan) is a genius! It took me a while to get to grips with what he was saying and I guess people adapt things to suit themselves.

Basically what I do, if this is any help. I know I have to eat a minimum of 1200 calories a day, so I make sure I NEVER go under that. My aim is to eat up to my BMR (as close to it as possible) which is 1680. Yes I generally eat my exercise calories back (there are ocassions when I don't - double workout, working out late etc, but if I can and I'm organised throughout the day I will eat them then).

Don't follow your progress with the scale, and the tape measure isn't always 100% right there behind you either. In my experience. BUT I have toned up a lot and my clothes are becoming looser.

Perservere with it. Your body needs fuel, you need to eat to give your body energy, you need to exercise to pump oxygen around your body and generally make you healthier and this will also help your metabolism and be more toned.

Good luck. x

nickyrobinson

Will do the best I can to help... But you might want to go read this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

I've put your numbers into the MFP calculators, and this is what I've found...

Data in:

Current Weight: 150
Goal Weight: 125
Height: 5'5"
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: 1988 (Age 24)
Normal daily activities: Sedentary
Goal: 1 lb/week

Results:
Net calories: 1300 calories/day
Estimated BMR is: 1431 calories/day
Maintenance (TDEE): 1800 calories/day
BMI: 25.0 (very top of healthy)


A couple of conclusions:

1) You selected something greater than 1 lb/week weight loss. Since you are within the healthy BMI range at 25.0, albeit at the top, you probably do not want such a high weight loss rate. You probably want 1.0 lb/week (what I ran) or 0.5 lb/week (1550 calories/day). In other words, closer to your BMR of 1431.

2) I used sedentary for your normal daily activities, assuming you have a desk job. If you have a more active job, then this could go up.

3) You should be eating at least some of your exercise calories per week. Not eating any of them means that you are at a pretty large calorie deficit. If you are using MFP's estimates for exercise calories, you may only want to eat 1/2 to 2/3. But if you have an HRM with more accurate numbers, you can eat virtually all of them.

Best of luck! And feel free to continue to post or message me directly if I confused you. And do go read Banks' post above. He describes things very well.