HELP...I'm new and kind of confused :/

Macksnangl

Hello, I'm really new to this program. I found the app on my iPod then found the website.
I have been walking for about 30 min every morning (I am thinking about upping it to 45 min) then doing a couple strengthening exercises (crunches, squats, and push-ups with my knees on the ground) and I have a total of 1200 calories per day. With all of that exercise I am only burning 209 calories.
My question is...am I needing to be burrning more calories than I am eating?

Lady_C_the_1st

Hi, welcome , You need to make sure that you are eating your exercise calories. 1200 calories should already include your deficit in order to lose weight at a healthy rate for you. If you do not eat your exercise calories your deficit will be too high and not very healthy. I hope this helps.

LittleSpy

You do realize you're already buring a LOT of calories just by being alive & with your normal daily activities, right?

Say you burn 1500 calories a day just by being alive (that's called your BMR). Then say you burn another 700 calories on top of that with your job and normal activities (say you're a waitress in a high volume restaurant & run your butt off for 8 hours a day). Well, then you're already burning 2200 calories. Anything you burned with exercise on top of that would just add to that total burned. So, if you're burning 2200 calories with your normal daily activity, and you're eating 1200, well that means you're already at a 1000 calorie deficit, right? So any exercise you do further adds to that deficit. This is why it's recommended by MFP that you eat your exercise calories -- because you don't want your daily calorie deficit to be too high (it could freak your body out & then not good things happen).

For example, I burn about 2150 calories with my daily activity (desk job) and just staying alive. I eat a base of 1200 calories (which already puts me at a 950 calorie deficit daily). I also exercise most days, burning anywhere from 300-800 calories. Which increases my deficit from 950 calories to 1250-1750 calories. That calorie deficit is too much for my body to handle so I have to eat some of what I burned through exercise to keep my body nurished and happy. I typically eat about 50% of my exercise calories (the amount you need to eat varies from person to person). This means I eat a total of 1350-1600 calories a day. And I lose over 2 pounds a week doing this. (To lose 1 pound you must burn 3500 calories more than you consume).

Here, read these -- more in depth (and better) explanations:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

abbie38

jlb. Very well said and sound advice

Macksnangl

You do realize you're already buring a LOT of calories just by being alive & with your normal daily activities, right?

Thank you for your post and no I didn't realize that...I thought you had to be exercising to burn calories.