Excersise Calories ?

Think of it this way. Lets say eating 2000 calories and no exercise would keep you at your current weight. Eating 2000 calories and exercising for 200 calories would make you lose a little weight over time, because your net calories would be 1800.

On the other hand, eating 1800 calories and no exercise would also make you lose a little weight over time, because your net calories would still be 1800.

So if you are eating 1400 calories, and not exercising, you woudl lose a bit more weight over time because your net calories is 1400.

Eating 1400 calories, exercising for 200 calories, and then eating 200 extra calories (eating yoru exercise calories) would still have a net of 1400 calories, for overall weight loss over time.

So yes, you should worry about your overall net calories for the day.

Many experts say that going below about 1200 net calories per day stresses your body and will result in your body shutting down and retaining all its "energy", which is fat and muscle. So you should probably not eat 1500, exercise 700, and not eat them back, because your net would only be 800 calories per day.

Ok I've been really confused aboout this also. And I must be really slow due to lack of sleep (sick baby last night). So if I set myself to 1300 (I did some extra research about bmi bmr and ... that t one) and I do say Zumba for 400, so that brings me to 900, so I should eat back enough to get above 1200 right? Problem is, sometimes I am just plain not hungry.

I just joined MFP, so I'm new here! I'm sort of struggling with this myself. I think I may not be eating enough calories in a day. I'm afraid that's what is holding back my weight loss. I'm not starving myself. I think I'm making good food choices...at least most of the time! But on an average day, I'm eating between 1200-1400 calories and excercising 200-300 calories/day. MFP says to eat just under 1500 calories. That makes me net 900-1200 calories/day. Significantly lower than MFP suggests.

I've lost around 20 pounds before joining. I say around because I seem to keep gaining and losing the same 5 pounds and not getting any lower. I'm frustrated because I'm logging everything I eat, and the calories are so low, and I'm exercising nearly every day, and nothing is happening.

If you are doing the same workout routine every day your body will stay at a stand still.. try something new like a new gym class, yoga, or even new dvd.. this will help confuse your body and help you continue on your weight loss goal!

What you have to understand is our bodies have calorie requirements to produce energy. When you set up MFP, you tell it how much you want to lose per week (a lot of people aim for 2 lbs per week). That means that MFP will cut 1000 calories from your Total daily energy expended (TDEE). So to understand this, you have to understand one other thing; that would be your BMR or basal metabolic rate. BMR is the amount of calories that your organs and body functions burn to conduct it's functions; essentially, this is the amount of calories your body will burn if you slept 24 hours. Then there is are the additional calories you burn on top of yoru metabolic rate. Most people will say they are sedentary. Even if you sit at a desk you will walk around to go to the bathroom or you cook food or walk to your car. So my BMR is 2080 and I have a desk job. So my TDEE is

2080 *1.2 = 2496 <-- average calories I burn daily

Now if I want to lose 2 lbs per week, then MFP will do this

2496 - 1000 = 1496

Now if I exercise and burn 500 calories, my deficit now goes to

1496 - 500 = 996.

that is the equivalent of what I would eat. There are issues with this. Even though you might be full, your body is not receiving the nutrition it requires to function properly. Again, go back to the BMR (or the amount of calories used to function your organs and bodily functions. I am over 1000 calories under that. This can cause your metabolism to adjust (slow down to compesate) and for your body to become catabolic; this is where your body converts the amino acids in your muscles to produce energy. Doing this once in awhile is ok, but frequently, you will risk both. The issue with this is it creates a difficult journey for you long term as a body will burn less calories now.

So how do you prevent this. Well there are several ways, one include exercise in your calculation. For example, i have mine set at moderately active as I workout 5-6 days a week. Or you can set your goal to be less aggressive (1 lb per week or even 1/2 lb and create teh deficit through exerice). Now, one thing to keep in mind, the closer to your goal, the smaller the deficit,

75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs per week
50-75 lbs to lose 1.5 per week
20-50 lbs to lose 1 lb per week
<20 lbs to lose .5 lbs per week

Also, if you have trouble eating, then you need to start eating higher calorie foods; nuts, peanut butter (even spoonfuls of it), avocado, cooking in evoo, or high calorie protein shakes (muscle milk) or even weight gainer protein powders. Now weight gainers/muscle builder protein powders are kind of missleading. They are just high calorie protein powders and will not make you gain weight unless you are in a surplus. If you do all this, then you should be pretty good in terms of a healthy weight loss. As too fast will cause issues. A high risk of muscle loss, stretch marks, long term failure (too agressive of a goal making it hard to stick with).

Hope you all find this helpful.