How many calories should I burn?

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How many calories should I burn per day with exercise? I'm 5'3" and 138 - 140 lbs. I exercise 6 days a week, doing 35 - 40 minutes of cardio each day, and 20 minutes of strength training every other day. I'm also gonna start doing HIIT on my stationary bike, for 15 minutes in the morning before breakfast. My BMR is about 2300 - 2400 calories so I eat about 1600 - 1800 and I burn about 300 with my exercise. Does this sound good? I wanna lose 5 pounds a month

Thanks

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  • Cajunmalakai
    Cajunmalakai Posts: 59 Member
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    With good diet and exercise about 2 .lbs a week is what is considered safe. That being said, everybody is different. Some people have to struggle for every ounce, and some people couldn't keep fat on their bodies if they tried.

    How many calories you need to burn depends on your goals. Your doing a lot of cardio, which is good for burning fat, but to much will also burn through your muscle tissue as well, and your muscles are a BIG part of your metabolism. The more lean muscle you have the more calories you burn at rest, so strength training is just as important as getting your heart pumping.

    For general fitness, strength training 3 days a week is a good baseline. Are you doing full body routines, or are you splitting muscle groups?
    If 20 minutes is all you have time for you can still get an effective workout as long your training hard and heavy. But if possible, try to boost those workouts to about 35 minutes or more.
    Studies show, that about 32-35 minutes of solid strength training can boost your resting BMR for up to 36 hours after you finish.