How many calories should you burn a day?

JennytheWicked
JennytheWicked Posts: 67 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was changing my goals in MFP and it gave me some astronomical number and told me I should be burning 5,000+ calories a day.

I don't know about the rest of you but I ain't burning some 5,000 calories a day. lol

So what do you have as your daily calorie goal? I just changed it to 640 a day so I'm burning 3,200 calories a week.

Replies

  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    Where did it tell you how much you should be burning? Are you talking about what your daily intake should be?
  • JennytheWicked
    JennytheWicked Posts: 67 Member
    I'm looking under the exercise diary but changed it in the goals section.
  • DPernet
    DPernet Posts: 481 Member
    Sorry, but your question doesn't make any sense. MFP does not tell you how many calories to burn. You can set an exercise goal, but this number has no impact on how many calories you can eat until you actually do some exercise.
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
    Slightly more than you eat.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    I'm a little confused.

    Are you saying you set your goal for your net calorie intake as 640 per day, or your deficit as 640. If it's the former, this should be an interesting thread. If it's the latter, that might be ok, depending on how much you have to lose.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    I'm looking under the exercise diary but changed it in the goals section.
    Can you tell me exactly what page you are on or give me a link? I'm pretty familiar with the site but I am not aware of anywhere it tells you how much to burn.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    Slightly more than you eat.
    But yeah, this.
  • JennytheWicked
    JennytheWicked Posts: 67 Member
    If you look at:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/

    It will show you the daily and weekly calorie goals. This is what I use to see if I've reached the amount of calories I wanted to burn for the week.

    Now, if you go into:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals

    you can change your goals using your personal calculations or the MFP guide (their suggested goals).

    I changed my settings (using their suggested goals) and it showed came up with the 5000+ number. I've since changed it back to something a bit more attainable using my own numbers.
  • JennytheWicked
    JennytheWicked Posts: 67 Member
    Sorry if I made this more confusing than it needed to be!
  • EmilyOfTheSun
    EmilyOfTheSun Posts: 1,548 Member
    Sorry if I made this more confusing than it needed to be!

    Don't be sorry Jenny. People on these forums can be so damn mean and condescending it's ridiculous! Don't even bother posting on the forums or you'll have snobby people yelling at you. Just PM someone who you know is an MFP expert! PM the nice girly who left you the first comment.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    If you look at:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/

    It will show you the daily and weekly calorie goals. This is what I use to see if I've reached the amount of calories I wanted to burn for the week.

    Now, if you go into:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals

    you can change your goals using your personal calculations or the MFP guide (their suggested goals).

    I changed my settings (using their suggested goals) and it showed came up with the 5000+ number. I've since changed it back to something a bit more attainable using my own numbers.

    Oh I think I see. I don't really pay attention to the exercise goals I set up through MFP, which is probably why I was confused.
  • JennytheWicked
    JennytheWicked Posts: 67 Member
    LOL Oh em.

    I don't care. We have people like that on BG too.

    If people want to be rude, they can take it to 4chan. I had a question and it was apparently confusing. Oh well. People love to be rude on the internet because there's virtually no backlash.
  • JennytheWicked
    JennytheWicked Posts: 67 Member
    No worries. I appreciate you taking the time to help though. :)
  • rm830
    rm830 Posts: 531 Member
    I believe that's taking into consideration how many calories you burn through the day from where your acitivity level is. 5000 still seems a bit high...Sorry if that doesn't really help...
  • jennkain97
    jennkain97 Posts: 290 Member
    first, if MFP said 5000+ calories, i think maybe you just input a wrong number somewhere?

    second, 640 calories is a pretty reasonable goal, if you're willing to put in the time. it's going to require an hour or more (depending on your unique metabolism) of pretty intense aerobics, or longer if you stick to something w/ lower intensity. but in the general sense, it's certainly reasonable/doable.
  • Brenda_Pancakes
    Brenda_Pancakes Posts: 288 Member
    Hmm... so they say that 1 lb comes to 3,500 calories, right? So, in theory - if you wanted to burn/get rid of (not counting eating at a deficit, here) 1.5 lbs a week... if you plan on working out, say, 6 days a week... you would want to burn 875 a day... Which sounds like an aweful lot to me... daily, anyways... sure you'll have those mega burn days where you do a couple exercise routines in the day... but a DAILY burn of 875 just sounds like a lot. cut it down to only 1 lb a week - you'd want to burn about 584 a day... In theory - of course.

    I'm sure my math is off - figureing i'm sure the calorie intake plays a huge roll as well... My thinking is that if I didn't change what I ate - and I maintained at a solid weight - I would have to burn that many calories (584) per day to see a loss of 1 lb per week.

    MFP does the calc for you; which is nice.
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
    I try to burn 1600 a week, but I have no goal for calories burned per day, because sometimes I'll burn 500 and sometimes 0.

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