Metabolism and calorie intake

odohertw

Im trying to lose weight that Ive put on since stopping smoking, 3/4 stone initially I want to lose, and then add some ) Ive started to do zumba every day, using the wii - I dont have time or resources to go to a class in the community. I am following a 1200 calorie diet, including everything protein, meat veg etc.

My real question is about increasing my calorie intake - as Im doing zumba...
Today I seemed to have eaten all day and im stuffed, but still about 200 calories under the 'limit'.
I did 1 hour of zumba this morning, it said I burned about 700 calories. As im not sure how accurate this is, I left it at 600.
I have read everywhere on the internet that a calorie diet below 1200 is not good, for your metabolism etc. So If im eating 1200 calories a day, but burning on average 400 or something, does this mean I should eat the extra 400 and Ill still lose weight? or what does it mean? I dont want my metabolism to be messed up, Id like to do this the right way... Im getting more confused the more I think about it. Help please ) and thanks x

yarwell

Let's assume your BMR is 1500 (there's a calculator here in the tools section) and you have a sedentary job / life apart from exercise that you log. So you'll burn 1.2 * 1500 = 1800 on a lazy day. Eating 1200 is a 600 deficit to that and will give you a weight loss.

If you go and exercise on top then your deficit is bigger, for example burning 400 on top takes you to 2200 and you can then eat 1600 for the same deficit.

No point in overeating, but when you exercise you can eat more - or you can just set a constant daily intake of say 1500 and see how it goes for a month. You can nudge it 100 or 200 calories either way to fine tune it.

sarahcuddle

I agree with the person above but I don't always eat all my exercise calories back. I have only been doing this a short time but have found I lose 1 or 2lbs a week if I do this. Also if you go slightly over your allowance on one day it seems to be ok. Eat healthy and drink water. Good luck

wordpainter09

What are you using to count exercise calories? MFP is usually inflated.
But I would eat them back. I don't like to eat below my BMR whenever possible. My theory is, I'd like to eat the most food possible and still lose weight.
So if you're burning a lot of calories on top of what you burn from daily activity, there's no need to subsist on 1000-1200 calories, because you're actually burning many more than that, probably at least 2000 per day. Why bother? If you do it long enough, you may or may not mess up your metabolism, but eventually your body will become accustomed to the lower cals and the 1200 calorie diet won't work for you to lose anymore.
It didn't for me.
I would start with a higher number (around 1800) and see if that works before going lower.