I don't understand this calorie thing....>.<

SenshiV

I decided to post this hoping someone who already understood it could get a chance to clarify this because I'm totally lost.

I'm very confused, I see people burning more than 1000 calories a day, but not eating them, I'm confused because I've read many times 'eat what you burn', so how does it work if someone have to eat lets say 2100 calories a day, exercise for 1400 calories, and close the day eating 2200 or so calories?

What am missing? I eat what I exercise if possible, even tough I burn around 250 a day only (and that's fine for me I end really tired of runinng a few minutes at 5.2mph), but seeing other people 'burning so much and not eating it' have me very confused.

I think I read something about eating if you burned below 400 or something and after that you don't need to do it, (this might be another mistake but I'm not buying that it's only something there in my mind could be wrong too), I mean eat what you burned, but I'm not sure...the truth is that I feel worried about people when I see that but i don't want to say anything because I don't want worry being misunderstood as jealousy, that's not the point, I'm doing fine!

I insist,. I think I'm malinformed, and I would like to make sure how this work.

Something else, I went and took my TDEE, and change the recomended calories from MFP from 1900 to something close TDEE which is about 2100 or more, does this mean, I must eat that and NOT eat what I burn because is alrready considered in TDEE? or should I stay with the 1900 recommended by MFP and EAT what i burn?

OMG I'm sooo confused.... , hope someone can explain me.

I appreciate your time and attention, thanks guys, and good luck reaching your goals. Add me if you feel like it

~Jerry

ChantalGG

Dont eat under 1500 net imo.

LaurenAOK

Yes you should eat what you burn. Your body needs fuel! Unfortunately, a lot of people fail to understand that. They think the more they burn and don't eat, the fast they'll lose weight. That's why you see people not eating back those big burns Just ignore and do what you know is right for you!

As for the TDEE thing, it depends on what you have your daily activity level set to. You should have set that when you set your goals. For example if you have a desk job and spend most of the day sitting, you should have picked "sedentary." Then your TDEE wouldn't include exercise calories, so you'd still need to eat them back. If you spend most of the day sitting but for some reason picked "very active," then your TDEE is including the calories of an active person already so no, you wouldn't need to eat them back. Hope that makes sense!

ETA: Honestly the most important thing is not to net under your BMR because if you do that consistently it will have to drop, which long story short, means your metabolism slows down. Find your BMR and be sure to net at least that amount every day! Shouldn't be hard if you eat back your exercise cals.

tugers2

i agree with chanta make sure that at the end of the day u have at least 1500 calories after exercise... do what works for you, others just want to burn extra calories doing so the healthy way or not... but just make sure u don't do under 1500

Spanaval

There are two ways to approach the calorie counting. One is to set your BMR as your goal, and eat back your exercise calories. The other is to use a TDEE - 20% approach, and NOT eat back the exercise calories, since that's accounted for in the TDEE anyway.

kdeaux1959

There are different schools of thought on this issue. Some say eat exercise calories... Others say don't eat them. I use the machine total on mine and try to eat some but not all because I don't totally trust the calculations on either the intake or the exercise .. I am losing weight and getting stronger on my weights so I guess it is working.

run2jeepn

There are a million different ways to attack weight lose. The eating back your Calories or not all depends on how you have it set up.

Try this for a few weeks.... Take your BMR. If it's over 2000 a day. Knock off 400 to 500 Caloires and set that up here. Go to the Custom Setting and put in the new Calories setting. Then Do 40% Carbs, 50% Protein and 10% Fat... Then eat back your Calories. If your under 2000 BMR. Just knock off 200-350... Just keep your eye on the Caloires, Protein and Carbs... Don't worry about Fat and the others.

Your Carb and Protein will go up as well. I cycle my Carbs a little. Don't eat back your Carbs.. Just try to cycle them a little like below. You can eat back your Protein if you like. But the main thing on Protein is to just eat your weight or Goal Weight in protein.

Day 1: MFP Setting 150
Day 2: 100
Day 3: 30 or Below
Day 4: 200
Day 5: 100
Day 6: 30 or Below...


I try and cycle through something like this. It doesn't have to be just like that. Just never have two High Carb days in a row. Also try and have 2-3 low carb days a week. On the High Carb Days. get in 30-40g of Fiber. From Ceral or food choices. Not powder.

If you give me some stats.. I can help you set everything up.

Jkmumma

I just make sure I eat somewhere in between my BMR and TDEE.

I'm not doing exact math, some days I'm a bit above my TDEE, I never go under my BMR...

It's working for me, I have more energy, I'm stronger, and i'm loosing weight.

Pebble321

You're overthinking this!

MFP will run all the numbers for you - just put in your stats, choose a realistic weight loss goal (ie. don't pick "lose 2 pounds a week" if you don't have muich weight to lose) and set your activity level to reflect what you do on a daily basic (home, work etc but not specific workouts).
Eat what MFP suggests, plus the extra calories you burn exercising.

It really is that simple!

I suspect you might be getting confused because you may not be accounting for the fact that your body burns most of its calorie just keeping you alive (heart beating, blood pumping, digesting, brain working etc). That is your BMR number and when you multiply that to account for your regular activity (like walking around, going to work etc) you come up with your TDEE.

In my case it takes about 1800 calories just to keep my weight steady (that keeps me alive, walking around and going to work). If I go for a 40 minute run then I need to add about another 400 cals just to keep my weight the same, so that would be 2200 cals.
If I eat any less than this, I will lose weight.

SenshiV

Thank you all for your responses. Let me explain a little about my current status.

I started MFP at about 237 pounds, I'm about 5'5 tall, 33 years old.

I currently weight about 229 pounds, my work is sedentary as I work all day seated in an office. Since i joined MPF, that's about 3 weeks or so, I have come up to exercising on a treadmill (no inclination I didn't even know I could adjust that). The first days I walked and ran, at intervals of 2:30 mins...then I ran a little more, at the moment, I walk 2, run 8-10 mins, then alternate between walking 2 mins and running..not for more than 30 mins (I tire so much)...at the moment of course.

Sometimes I do more, for example, small weights, 1-2 hours i the yard, and I don;t add those because I don't even know how, anything I add is walking and running.

My BMR according to MFP is 1960, which I customized (surely wrong) at 2100 trying to go something close to my TDEE I set as 'Light workout' because I do the threadmill no less than 4 days a week, usually 5, except if I spend a couple of hours working in my yard digging holes and stuff. I got about 2340 calories on TDEE for weight loss. This calculation from: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

My deficit is very variable sometimes about 500C, others much less, super rare that I go over the 2100 I set for reasons: Not knowing what I'm doing.

I'll open my profile if you want to check it out. (in fact I think it's open but just in case I change the setting again)

I understand I am over thinking this but it's a little desperate to want to do things right or 'safe' and not having a clue about what I'm supposed to do, I appreciate very much all your comments and your time giving advice, I'll print this thread and read again carefully and try to get somewhere more 'real'. Thanks for the advice run2jeepn.

Good luck! I'll come back and tell you what I came up with

run2jeepn

I checked the last few days.

Your Calories are a little high, Carbs are High and the lack of Protein is way off...

By your weight, height and age... You should start off with these settings..Don't eat your Calories back. Unless you have burned over 500 in one Day during exercise...A couple of days a week. Knock your Carbs down around 30g. But keep your Protein and Calories within there normal range.

1850................ Calories
115g................ Carbs 25%
145g............... Protein 40%
71g................. Fat 35%

Pebble321

Huh, I got different figures... Here is how I would set you up-

BMR 2097
TDEE (sedentary): 2516
To lose 1 pound a week - eat 2016 cals a day
When you exercise, add (and eat) those cals.
I don't think you have to cut carbs as low as 30g - that is an extremely low amount and if there's no medical reason to think that you don't tolerate carbs, you're going to be making things really hard when it's just not necessary. Personally I would stick to MFP recommendations for the first month and see how you respond.

I guess it just proves that there are one million different ways to approach this.
As long as you aren't undereating or overeating then just about anything will work if you stick to it.
Don't stress about it too much, just pick one system, stick to it for a month and see how your weight loss progresses. That's the ony real way to know what is right for your body.

SenshiV

Thanks this is what I'll do. I'll take notes o everything, and try to get into something I can work with considering ... your opinions and my personal goal. Every comment will help, so thank you very much again

(I know I eat uhm, to much 'bread' even if is wheat, that's something I need to somehow change for some alternative)

SenshiV

Thanks this is what I'll do. I'll take notes o everything, and try to get into something I can work with considering ... your opinions and my personal goal. Every comment will help, so thank you very much again

(I know I eat uhm, to much 'bread' even if is wheat, that's something I need to somehow change for some alternative)

Okay this is what I came up with (after some post 'reading/study'):

*Something i never tough about is how few to eat, thanks for the advice: Lauren and Spana

*My questions about going through BMR or TDEE where cleared up to finally, thanks all, and Chantal, tugers, I'll totally stay with BMR, it makes me feel I am more in control somehow.

*I will adjust my numbers better, but I'll read even more about the carbs, prot and fat I should eat, since I don't have very clear how to approach those specific numbers. I thought protein was for muscle building exercises like weights and such, which I'm not doing, but that something else I am not very well informed about. I practically started this but taking both calculations, another one i saw i another post, and my further investigations, I will revise my percentages, thanks run2j and Ruby for the opinions, I'm not sure about how low or high should i set my carbs but to get real, as I said before, i Do eat too many IMO, can;t live at the moment without bread, or corn tortillas but I'll see what I can do to at least eat fewer of those carbs.

*kdeax, Jknomm and Rybu do more or less what i was doing when I started, i just read more, didn't understood well the new info, and made a mess of my head.

What I wanted to say is that I just didn't asked and did whatever after you gave your opinions, I considered them all and came up to something clear in mi mind, thanks all, and see ya around! Nice to meet you

run2jeepn

Thanks this is what I'll do. I'll take notes o everything, and try to get into something I can work with considering ... your opinions and my personal goal. Every comment will help, so thank you very much again

(I know I eat uhm, to much 'bread' even if is wheat, that's something I need to somehow change for some alternative)

Okay this is what I came up with (after some post 'reading/study'):

*Something i never tough about is how few to eat, thanks for the advice: Lauren and Spana

*My questions about going through BMR or TDEE where cleared up to finally, thanks all, and Chantal, tugers, I'll totally stay with BMR, it makes me feel I am more in control somehow.

*I will adjust my numbers better, but I'll read even more about the carbs, prot and fat I should eat, since I don't have very clear how to approach those specific numbers. I thought protein was for muscle building exercises like weights and such, which I'm not doing, but that something else I am not very well informed about. I practically started this but taking both calculations, another one i saw i another post, and my further investigations, I will revise my percentages, thanks run2j and Ruby for the opinions, I'm not sure about how low or high should i set my carbs but to get real, as I said before, i Do eat too many IMO, can;t live at the moment without bread, or corn tortillas but I'll see what I can do to at least eat fewer of those carbs.

*kdeax, Jknomm and Rybu do more or less what i was doing when I started, i just read more, didn't understood well the new info, and made a mess of my head.

What I wanted to say is that I just didn't asked and did whatever after you gave your opinions, I considered them all and came up to something clear in mi mind, thanks all, and see ya around! Nice to meet you

Glad I could help. Protein isn't just for Weight training. You need it to at least maintain what Muscle you do have. Muscle helps burn Fat off.

Read this.

http://www.wellnessresources.com/tips/articles/how_protein_helps_weight_loss/

Try Mama Lupe Low Carb tortillas. Only 7 carbs and even has 4g of Fiber. Which is hard to find on a Low Carb diet. I eat a bowl of FiberOne on my med and high Carb days. And make Chicken Quesadilla's and Breakfast Burritos with the Mama Lupe on my low carb days.

obeserat

I think it varies from person to person. I weigh just over 300lb , I went to an obesity consultant at the hospital yesterday he has told me to cut my calories down to 1200 and not to eat back exercise calories. That was advice for me personally though and I think I will struggle

run2jeepn

I think it varies from person to person. I weigh just over 300lb , I went to an obesity consultant at the hospital yesterday he has told me to cut my calories down to 1200 and not to eat back exercise calories. That was advice for me personally though and I think I will struggle

You'll drop weight fast like this but not for long. You'll hit a wall and will need to change it up. The reason for this is b/c you'll be dieting and eating like a 13yr old Girl. I'd do it just to jump start your fat lost, but I wouldn't recommed it for a long term diet.

obeserat

yeah he said they would adjust it if need be as I progress , I see a dietician in 6 weeks time.

shorty35565

Maybe this is why I'm not losing well anymore. I typical net mayb 1000 cals. Depends on how much I burn. I been wondering if I was eating enough. MFP says my BMR is 1381. Am I hurting myself badly?
By losing well, I mean weight. I go between the same nnumber a lot, but I've been losing inches every month.

reyopo

Only 10% fat? I would die..