I'm new - love the site but I'm slightly confused about my B

Hello,

I am new here and there are a few things I am slightly confused about! I have been reading through all of the forums with interest & I am wondering a few things about how many net calories I am allowed if I take my BMR into account if I want to do this & lose weight!

I have never done anything like this before but I do want to lose some weight. I put weight on in 2003 when I started to take medication and I lost some of it and then gained it again. (I think I went up to about 13&1/2-14 st (189-196lb) but didn't weigh myself much). Since then I seem to have gone up & down but not lost much.

I am 5 ft 8 & prior to 2002 (& medication) when I was at college and before that I never worried too much about what I ate and was busy enough to be ok and stay at between a weight of about 10 &1/2 - 11 & 1/2st (147lb -161lb). (Years ago when I was at school I used to eat up to 5 chocolate bars a day & was like a rake!)

I am now self employed and work from home the majority of the time meaning a lot of the time I don't burn calories from going out to work etc. as I am on the computer a lot and I was unemployed for a while before this while I was first signed off ill & then while I started my business. About a year ago we got the wii and wii fit at home and I started going on that a lot. I lost some weight & could see my body changing a little bit (I even thought I had started to see some abs at one point!) but I never tracked my calories or anything like this and then in the summer I was too busy to go on the wii either working (which for about a month included doing work painting & decorating which burnt some calories and made me lose some weight) and I went camping and body boarding a few times and by the end of last August (on my birthday in fact!) I was 12 St 2lb (170lb) which although according to the wii is still overweight I was feeling really good about myself - compared to how I had been.

Then during autumn & winter I got back into bad habits of not exercising due to lack of time and motivation (trying to keep things a-float being self employed and earn enough I'd end up spending long hours on the computer working, drinking lots of coffee to keep me going and eating chocolate & crisps when I was hungry because it's easier & quicker than trying to choose what to eat or to prepare/cook it), and I stupidly weighed myself on Christmas day after eating Christmas dinner & was about 13st again (182lb). Then I saw some photos of myself over Christmas & thought right I need to lose some weight & that's it I am definitely going to do something about it this year.

Then after quite an active start to the year - going on the wii, I found this website & decided to join. I've only been on here a week & have exercised everyday to burn off most of the calories I want to eat. I.e. I have made sure my net calories are 1,200 taking into account 'the food I eat' less the 'calories I have burnt'.

A couple of days my net calories have been less because I had burnt off more earlier in the day in order to account for what I maybe wanted to eat and didn't want any more food (I think I overcompensated slightly) & then this weekend I have had a few more and not burnt as many but am hoping this will balance out overall (does that work - i.e. over the week I have an average net calories of 1,200??). I have gone over by about 600 calories this weekend overall & that includes eating out with my stepdad who I haven't seen since last September so I wasn't going to say no because of this) & I chose low-ish calorie choice of meal - it was limited as it was at a Pizza restaurant - but I didn't want to spoil it by counting calories all night but at the same time I was under everyday (Mon-Fri & on Friday I was under by 374 calories...)

I have enjoyed keep a check on things & exercising more and feel a lot better about myself for at least doing more than I was a week ago. I feel healthier just for doing the exercise & I know I am eating better because I have had a lot less of my usual treats - I have cut down on chocolate (a lot - maybe 1 cadbury's roses choc in a day or sometimes 1 biscuit instead of about 7 or even 10), have had no crisps - I went for a pear instead, have had less coffee (I only had 3 cups one day (I have been known to have 6-8 cups & I used to have whole milk, 1 sugar whereas now I am having semi-skimmed milk, 1 sugar) & less wine. I have felt less bloated after meals because my portions are a lot smaller & I don't always feel like I want more.

I put in what I had consumed on the weekend (last weekend) when I downloaded the app to my phone & on the Saturday I had 2948 calories & Sunday 2294 and hadn't done ANY exercise - granted it was the weekend so I wanted to relax as I had done a 55 hour week prior to that but then it's still not excuse &. I saw that & just thought I am killing myself here!)

But I do feel like I want a bit more food (just a couple more chocolates or even more fruit & am annoyed that some food I bought has gone off this week (avacados, fruit, veg, potatoes etc) because I'm not 'allowed' to eat that much & I don't like waste! Generally, when I'm not too busy I usually eat quite healthily and try to get most of my 5-a-day fruit & veg etc. as well as the snacks. I cannot believe how many calories there are in some things - such as 1 tbsp of olive oil as I discovered today!

Just looking though all of the posts I am slightly confused about how your BMR fits into this. According to MFP my BMR is 1,576. This is the amount you need to exist - yes? - without burning any calories (apart from everyday ones)? Should you be aiming to eat this many & then if you exercise eat those too? According to MFP I should have net calories of 1,200 in order to reach my goals so I have been subtracting my exercise from what I have eaten & then aiming for my net calories of 1,200. Is that correct or should I be aiming to have net calories of 1,576 or will this just maintain my weight or put weight on? According to another site that is similar to this one (Spark People) my BMR is 2194 & they seem to recommend I eat between 1,500 - 1,850 calories a day but they don't take into account the exercise I have done (which to me doesn't make any sense...) I am asking because I don't want to go into starvation mode - that would just be pointless - but at the same time I don't want to up the amount of calories manually on here and do things all wrong! I would happily add more calories if it meant I could eat a bit more!

Thanks for any advice you may be able to give & for all of your posts which have been really inspirational to me!

Jazamin