IMPORTANT QUESTION

11Payne

I am finding out that I am supposed to be burning more calories then I take in. So if I have 1400 calories in one day i am supposed to burn 1400 calories if not more that day?

pstecher

Yes- but not all in exercise! You burn off a lot of that just doing day to day activities.

katamus

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12?hl=in+place+of+a+roadmap

You will naturally burn X amount of calories a day just by being alive.

My TDEE is around 1700. So anything I eat under that will cause me to lose weight. So I set myself for 1500 calories a day. When I exercise, let's say I work out and burn 350 calories. Now I have an extra 350 calorie deficit. Since I've already concluded that eating 1500 calories a day will cause me to lose weight, I eat back the 350 calories that I burned for the day through exercise. Which means I will eat a total of 1850 calories and still have a 200 calories deficit meaning I would lose .4 lbs a week.

kaervaak

I think you're a bit confused. You need to eat less calories per day than you burn. The total calories that you burn each day are called your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). This number is based on your height, weight, age, gender and activity. If you eat 500 calories per day less than your TDEE (this is known as your daily calorie deficit) you'll lose 1 pound per week. There are two ways to go about finding your TDEE. Either you can let MFP find your RMR (resting metabolic rate) and then log your exercise or you can set your goals manually to your average TDEE.

MFP automatically calculates how much you should eat each day based on the information you give it. However, most people want to lose weight unrealistically fast. Generally, unless you are obese, you should be aiming to lose 1 lb per week.