do i have to workout?

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badtzmaru7979
badtzmaru7979 Posts: 41
in Health and Weight Loss
if i eat 1200 calories a day do i have to work out? also if i eat over 1200 calories can i just burn what i ate over? will i lose weight this way? or do i have to work out even if i only eat 1200? so confused pls help.

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  • badtzmaru7979
    badtzmaru7979 Posts: 41
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    if i eat 1200 calories a day do i have to work out? also if i eat over 1200 calories can i just burn what i ate over? will i lose weight this way? or do i have to work out even if i only eat 1200? so confused pls help.
  • alyfin
    alyfin Posts: 103
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    You will definitely lose weight if you only eat 1200 calories. However, it is much healthier to eat a bit more and exercise 20 - 30 minutes a day.
  • badtzmaru7979
    badtzmaru7979 Posts: 41
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    okay well i do eat more lots of days but then i burn off the extra through exercise. is this what im suppose to be doing? or am i doing it wrong?

    lets say i eat 1200 one day then i will burn 0.
    but the next day i eat 2000 and burn 800?

    is that what im suppose to do to lose weight?
  • alyfin
    alyfin Posts: 103
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    You should lose weight that way. Good luck:smile:
  • alyfin
    alyfin Posts: 103
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    Every 3500 calories you burn, or don't eat is 1 lb. of fat. So figure out what you need in calories to maintain.
    Here is a website to calculate - http://www.caloriecontrol.org/calcalcs.html
    Ex. 2000 calories to maintain weight
    1200 calories eaten
    200 calories burned through exercise
    so you are in a 1000 calories deficit for the day. Three and 1/2 days equals 1 cal burned!
  • catlover
    catlover Posts: 389
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    Every 3500 calories you burn, or don't eat is 1 lb. of fat. So figure out what you need in calories to maintain.
    Here is a website to calculate - http://www.caloriecontrol.org/calcalcs.html
    Ex. 2000 calories to maintain weight
    1200 calories eaten
    200 calories burned through exercise
    so you are in a 1000 calories deficit for the day. Three and 1/2 days equals 1 cal burned!

    I've read this about a hundred times and TODAY it makes sense. So thank you for explaining it to us again. I am currently generating an additional 800 calories in exercise, and I eat about 300 of them each day. If the calculator already sets me at a defecit of 500, and I create a defecit of 500, I should lose 2 pounds a week, which surprisingly enough is what the message on teh home page tells me every morning....:happy:
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    1000 calorie defecite for a non-obese person is a little scarey. Lets look at this logically. 1st I'll put out a few things to keep in mind.

    -The human body doesn't like to gain or loose weight in large amounts, it likes status quo. Which is why working out isn't a "pleasureable" experience in and of itself.

    -1200 calories is a meaningless figure unless you can tell us what your BMR is. You can get that from the tools section. If 1200 is your Base Metebolic Rate, then MAYBE that is where you could be at for loosing weight. But almost all nutritionists agree that your BMR is where your low end of calories should be AFTER all exercise calories. I mean the very low end as in, they don't recommend that low, but it isn't really dangerous as long as you don't stay there every day.

    -2 lbs a week weight loss has many notes that go along with it. It is a highly aggressive strategy and difficult to maintain first, second, the body doesn't like doing that on a regular basis, especially a body that isn't already in peak condition, it means you must be working out pretty hard (600 plus calories a day atleast) or you are eating well under what you normally would. In either case you are putting tremendous stress on your metabolism, and must keep a very close eye on when and what you eat.

    Now, that all being said. I would like to offer some opinions if I may. My biggest one is, don't treat weight loss like some kind of sprint. The reason why most people don't keep off the weight they loose isn't because they don't know how to, usually they do, it's because they have drastically changed their lifestyle either through massive changes in routine, or big eating changes, or both. This is ok if you do it slowly and allow your body to adjust and adapt to it, but if you try to change everything drastically and suddenly loose 20 or 30 lbs in say 6 months (note that this is MUCH less then your plan) your body will change, yes, but unless you keep these changes for the rest of your life, your body will bounce back to where it was, and FAST too. The body has tissue memory, it will return to where it was comfortable, if your drastic changes are fast, the body percieves this as "painful" and will want to leave that state, thus, change slowly, over months, and keep it there for the long term. Make it a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet.

    I can't stress enough about this being a site dedicated (for the most part), about becomming more healthy in general. Personally I don't like seeing people propose massive dieting strategies, because while it works in the short term, its a generally accepted fact in the health care community that long term lifestyle changes are the only way to loose weight and KEEP it off without dangerous surgury or drugs.

    I hope this helped, I'm not trying to be cruel or knock down your strategies, I just want to make sure people are informed. I really hope everything works out for you. I love this site and everyone on it, and I just want sucess for us all!
    Best of luck

    -Steve
  • elliebuell
    elliebuell Posts: 16
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    Excellent response, Steve....
  • melathon
    melathon Posts: 246 Member
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    Yes, yes--I agree with banks1850...and I'd also like to add my short answer:

    Yes, you have to exercise. No exceptions! Everyone can do something. I see you're very young and if you start now, you'll set yourself up for a long, healthy life.

    The health benefits of exercise extend well beyond weight loss. I know that's what we focus on here on MFP but keep the big picture in mind as well: If you don't exercise at all, you're setting yourself up for a very uncomfortable, ailment-ridden, limited old age (and less of it!). Why do that when you can help your mobility, strength, flexibility, cardiovascular system, mental health, and so many other things with just 30 minutes a day of exercise (really - many studies have shown that you do NOT have to be an athlete or a body builder (but you GO, songbyrdsweet! :flowerforyou: ) - you just have to do a modest amount every day - like take the stairs at work, park in far-away parking spaces, etc.--it's definitely a lifestyle issue.

    And that was not a "short" answer, was it? Oops. :blushing:

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