oh so confused about how many calories to eat!

cmcx3

I am ridiculously confused about how much I should be eating a day. I'm unsure of NET calories, etc.
I just signed up this morning, so bear with me! haha when I put in all of my information, MFP set my daily calories at 1,480. is that how much I'm supposed to eat every day? or should I be eating more than that once I exercise? or does that 1,480 already take exercise into account? please help haha I feel like a crazy person!

teisha98

Once you log in what type of workout that you have done for the day then it will give you more calories that you can eat. The 1480 is what you can eat without doing any exercise. Hope this helps

TeaBea

Once you log in what type of workout that you have done for the day then it will give you more calories that you can eat. The 1480 is what you can eat without doing any exercise. Hope this helps

This!^

MFP builds the deficit in BEFORE exercise (as long as your activity level doesn't include working out).

Be careful re: calorie burns using MFP ..... some exercises (and machines too) can be overstated. You can use a heart rate monitor ... should be more accurate ... or eat a % of calories back if calories burns seem excessive.

TR0berts

Once you log in what type of workout that you have done for the day then it will give you more calories that you can eat. The 1480 is what you can eat without doing any exercise. Hope this helps

Yep - just be careful about your exercise Calories. MFP has a tendency to overestimate Caloric burn - many people only eat about half of their exercise Cals.


As an example...

You start out with 1480
You exercise and MFP bumps you up to 2080 based upon an estimated 600 Calorie burn from exercise.
Many people will only eat about 1780 or so, just to make sure they continue to have a deficit.

Of course, if after 1780 you still feel hungry - especially if you're not particularly hungry on your regular 1480 days - go ahead and eat some more. As long as you're on an overall weekly deficit, you'll lose.


edit: BAH! Ninja's by TeaBea... :happy:

cmcx3

thank you for the quick responses! I really appreciate it!
however, I am having a very hard time believing I will be able to eat that many calories a day... I mean, it's already 3pm here and I still have 1,053 calories left to eat, and I haven't exercised yet >_<

TR0berts

Then eat some Calorie-dense foods. Peanut butter - depending upon brand - is about 200 Cals for 2 Tbsp. I almost always end up eating 3 Tbsp. in a sandwich. That, plus the bread, is over 400 Cals down real quick. Wash it down with some milk and you're now over 500 Cals. Then eat a good dinner.

cmcx3

I honestly never noticed how few calories I eat
no doubt my body is in starvation mode! it probably holds on to everything I put into it! and I probably don't even have a metabolism at this point

cmcx3

just wanted to thank everybody again I've been on a couple of similar sites where my posts wouldn't even get looked at for weeks!
I have a good feeling about this place!

ddky

I started out at 1200. I was losing weight, but I was hungry. I went up to 1400. I still lost weight and not hungry most days. I eat back part of my exercise calories but not all because I don't do any strenuous exercise. Usually I just do a 30 min walk. I just bumped up calories to 1500. I will do that for a few weeks and see if I still lose weight. Welcome to MFP. This is a great site.

lexlyn14

Hi...MFP put you at 1480 calories before exercise...which means if you dont exercise at all you can eat 1480 calories and still lose weight...However if you work out enter in the mfp exercise and it will tell you how many calories you burned...it will then add those burned calories to your existing calories so you can eat more...However BE CAREFUL believing how many calories mfp says you burned...I just bought a HRM to be more accurate and found that MFP way over inflates the calories burned...good luck!!!