trying to understand...but confused

kittykismet

I really need help figuring this out, too.
I really don't like eating much since I got food poisoning in January, and my stomach is still healing...but I know I need more calories in my diet than I eat.

5 days a week I do carpentry for work and burn around 500-700 calories each day, doing just that. And I only eat around 800-1000. Not out of choice, my stomach just struggles with food. And a lot of times I don't have the ability to eat healthy, so I have a hard time choosing what to eat instead!

I'm 5ft, 137lbs. I want to get down to 120 at least. What should I be doing?

you should be eating at least 2x that. your net is only 100-500 calories. You should be consuming 1700-1900 calories with the amount of activity you're doing. pack nuts, trail mix, dried fruit, protein bars, bananas, peanut butter sandwiches.

Thank you! I will pay more attention to these specific kind of foods.

myfitnessnmhoy

When I lost weight before it was with Nutrisystem. It was a great program and I was able to stick with it well but I just could not afford it anymore. I did well maintaining the portion control for about a year but then it is always the emotional eating that gets the best of me. Life happened and I had to deal with a lot of stress in my world and so I went to comfort food. I don't mind losing weight more slowly this time around but my concern is definitely how to prevent the emotional eating later on. The reason I am trying something new instead of Nutrisystem is $ mostly.

If you lose weight slowly using this plan as recommended, you're eating regular food and learning what works for you and what does not. NurtiSystem is great, but they're doing all the math for you and preparing your portions, and you don't actually learn much about food. Here, you have to actually learn about food to lose weight.

So when you're done, you keep eating the SAME THINGS, but you get to eat a little more of them because your calorie allotment goes up on "maintenance". And if you want, you can stick around and keep using the site forever, for free, because the people who host this site make their money off ad revenue from the ads you see, so they're happy to have you stay.

This is the "diet" you'll never leave. You'll just transition from "weight loss" to "maintenance". And you'll learn a lot along the way about what "maintenance" looks like.

NutriSystem's slogan is, I believe, "give us a week we'll take off the weight". And they're right. But it should continue with "and once we've taken off the weight you'll be stuck with us forever, because we won't teach you how to KEEP it off".

myfitnessnmhoy

Thank you! I will pay more attention to these specific kind of foods.

Turn on tracking of fats, carbs, and proteins, and work on getting your food in balance on those as well. That's the key to being satisfied with calories and making sure your body is in tip-top condition - feeding ALL of the machine.

suzqmf

This post has helped me a bit - I am totally confused as well.
I am 5'8 and 181 pounds. I want to lose 25-30 pounds.

I want to lose 2 pounds per week.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories per day to do that BUT my BMR is 1500...how many calories should I be eating a day?

And if I burn calories by exercising, should I be eating those extra calories every day?

But if 3500 calories = 1 pound...so in order to lose a pound a week, I need to not eat all my calories everyday and have 3500 calories left over?

Can you HELP me understand it all!!

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

This post has helped me a bit - I am totally confused as well.
I am 5'8 and 181 pounds. I want to lose 25-30 pounds.

I want to lose 2 pounds per week.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories per day to do that BUT my BMR is 1500...how many calories should I be eating a day?

And if I burn calories by exercising, should I be eating those extra calories every day?

But if 3500 calories = 1 pound...so in order to lose a pound a week, I need to not eat all my calories everyday and have 3500 calories left over?

Can you HELP me understand it all!!

How much activity do you get weekly? At a minimum you burn 1800 a day just doing nothing. Probably more in actuality. That being the case you'd want to aim for 1 pound per week and NET 1300 calories. So 1300+ calories burned exercising should be your calorie target.

Dozrzz

When I lost weight before it was with Nutrisystem. It was a great program and I was able to stick with it well but I just could not afford it anymore. I did well maintaining the portion control for about a year but then it is always the emotional eating that gets the best of me. Life happened and I had to deal with a lot of stress in my world and so I went to comfort food. I don't mind losing weight more slowly this time around but my concern is definitely how to prevent the emotional eating later on. The reason I am trying something new instead of Nutrisystem is $ mostly.

If you lose weight slowly using this plan as recommended, you're eating regular food and learning what works for you and what does not. NurtiSystem is great, but they're doing all the math for you and preparing your portions, and you don't actually learn much about food. Here, you have to actually learn about food to lose weight.

So when you're done, you keep eating the SAME THINGS, but you get to eat a little more of them because your calorie allotment goes up on "maintenance". And if you want, you can stick around and keep using the site forever, for free, because the people who host this site make their money off ad revenue from the ads you see, so they're happy to have you stay.

This is the "diet" you'll never leave. You'll just transition from "weight loss" to "maintenance". And you'll learn a lot along the way about what "maintenance" looks like.

NutriSystem's slogan is, I believe, "give us a week we'll take off the weight". And they're right. But it should continue with "and once we've taken off the weight you'll be stuck with us forever, because we won't teach you how to KEEP it off".

Yup, that is pretty much how it went! hahaha and I just cannot afford that forever and wouldn't want to!

jessgarr27

Just count ur calories and don't think about it to much... stay accountable and always remember how bad you want it... if u want it bad enough it will be yours good luck

suzqmf

This post has helped me a bit - I am totally confused as well.
I am 5'8 and 181 pounds. I want to lose 25-30 pounds.

I want to lose 2 pounds per week.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories per day to do that BUT my BMR is 1500...how many calories should I be eating a day?

And if I burn calories by exercising, should I be eating those extra calories every day?

But if 3500 calories = 1 pound...so in order to lose a pound a week, I need to not eat all my calories everyday and have 3500 calories left over?

Can you HELP me understand it all!!

How much activity do you get weekly? At a minimum you burn 1800 a day just doing nothing. Probably more in actuality. That being the case you'd want to aim for 1 pound per week and NET 1300 calories. So 1300+ calories burned exercising should be your calorie target.

I am burning 300 calories a day exercising, five days a week.
Were did you get 1800 for my BMR? I get 1500.
What do mean by net 1300 calories?
If I do no exercise I should eat 1300 a day to lose a pound a week.... (assuming the 1800...but I get 1500 so that number would be 1000 calories per day?)

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

@suzqmf...try to follow me here

BMR= basal metabolic rate. That's what you'd burn comatose. At the very minimum you wake up each day, go to the restroom, etc. That is SEDENTARY and the calculation for that is as follows:

1500 x 1.2 (the activity factor for sedentary) = 1800 (minimum burn)

But, you aren't sedentary, you exercise. So a ROUGH estimate of your total burn is 1800 + the 300 you burn through exercise. So 2100 total calories burned.

To lose 1 pound per week you subtract 500, so you get 2100-500 = 1600.

NET calories = calories eaten - calories expended through exercise. It's what your body has left to use after you subtract out what you "Spent" through exercise.

So if you burn 300 a day...and eat 1600 for example then you net 1300 calories a day. Your body has 1300 calories to do what it needs to do in order to survive (Since you spent 300 of the 1600 you ate on exercise)

psuLemon

This post has helped me a bit - I am totally confused as well.
I am 5'8 and 181 pounds. I want to lose 25-30 pounds.

I want to lose 2 pounds per week.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories per day to do that BUT my BMR is 1500...how many calories should I be eating a day?

And if I burn calories by exercising, should I be eating those extra calories every day?

But if 3500 calories = 1 pound...so in order to lose a pound a week, I need to not eat all my calories everyday and have 3500 calories left over?

Can you HELP me understand it all!!

Just because you want to lose 2 lbs per week doesn't mean your body will allow it. At on 25 lbs to go you will be lucky to lose 1 lb per week. You have to understand that as our body approaches a healthy weight it fights harder to preserve fat. It does this as a defense mechanism as fat stores are the quickest source of energy. So by feeding it more food it realises it is being feed properly and will drop weight. Now one of the best approaches is figuring out tdee ans cutting 20%. On top of that if you exercise, make sure it involves weight training.

Now i said you may not lose weight fast but it doesnt mean you can cut fat fast. And cutting fat is what makes your waistline and the rest of your body tighten up. This is also why you need heavy weight training where you lift enough weight that your muscles fail at 8-12 reps.