Confused! (Calorie intake)

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aforange
aforange Posts: 116 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone, I'm Ange! I know this question has probably been asked a thousand times before (and I'm sorry for repeating it), but I've just joined today, put my weight in and got my recommended calorie intake. I'm 193lbs and I'm overweight, but the way my body is built I don't look obese / particularly fat, just a little chubby with good weight distribution (curvaceous) and I'm slightly heavy framed.

(http://i48.tinypic.com/2samcfa.jpg this is me.)

My recommended calorie intake is just over 1800? Which to me seems like A LOT, and I don't understand how it's going to help me lose weight quicker by eating that much a day. I usually stick by the "don't go under 1200" rule and watch what I eat but, yeah. I'm just a little confused. Also I don't understand how the calories you burn in exercise get plonked onto what you should be eating in a day? Does it not defeat the point you've burned those calories if you eat them all back?

Yeah, just, confused and wondering! Thank you all so much.

Replies

  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    How did you setup your profile? What activity level did you use? What weight loss goal did you use?
  • allirep
    allirep Posts: 26
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    eat. be active. enjoy it. MFP is a general guideline. you would do well to do your own research and set your own goals. i just use MFP as a diary. i customized my goals and i don't eat back my exercise calories b/c i've already figured that into my calorie intake.

    sounds confusing? it isn't.

    here is a good overview
    read this one
    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/02/25/level-up-your-life-3-basal-metabolic-rate/
    then this
    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/02/26/level-up-your-life-4-determining-your-calorie-level/

    add me if you like. i keep my food diary pretty well. i'm not perfect - but i'm losing weight and having the time of my life.
  • aforange
    aforange Posts: 116 Member
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    I feel kiiiinda very stupid at the moment, I did actually resolve this problem pretty quickly.

    I realized I'd only keyed in I wanted to lose a single pound every week, now I've bumped it to two it's dropped to a more realistic 1350 calories per day (plus what I need with exercise) so, it's better now. I'm going to try and eat enough and keep my levels straight, but thank you guys for the replies.

    Just me having a bit of a derrrbrained moment.

    I understand now why it's important, those pages are really quite nifty for info (thanks Alli). :)
  • azalais7
    azalais7 Posts: 187 Member
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    Re: exercise calories: the MFP calorie goal is based on your supposed daily activity level, not counting exercise, and is what you should be eating if you don't do anything else. In other words, the calorie deficit is already built in. The reason to eat back exercise calories is that exercise takes that deficit even lower, which can sound great in theory but depending on how many calories we're talking about can end up being counterproductive.

    For what it's worth, I don't recommend going so low with your calories, as unless you're very, very short, this is taking you well below your BMR. It's not generally what we want to hear, but slower is better and more sustainable; you don't want to end up gaining it all back and more once you start eating at maintenance level because your metabolism has slowed to compensate.

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