Looking for Friendly Advice

lucysmommy
lucysmommy Posts: 460
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi

I started using MFP last monday and i have given myself 1200 cals plus exercise cals.

The problem I am having is that I under 4286 for the week and i know myself this is a lot and I still have 2 days left of this week, dont get me wrong the scales are showing a loss of 4lbs this week but I want to do this sensibly.

Would it be better to eat say 1600cals and not eat exercise cals?

I burn roughly 600-900 cals a day when at the gym and I go to the gym most days.

Thanks for any advice in advancwe

Replies

  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Depends on how much you are losing.

    Just let MFP set your goals using sedentary lifestyle. Usually 1 pound a week is the best to set your goals at. From there, go back and manually set goals to make it where protein is 30% of your diet.

    Now that that is done, log your cardio exercises and go ahead and eat back half those calories. Be sure to also do strength training (don't log it as cardio). Strength training is meant to help keep muscle and make sure everything is firm when you get skinnier. MANY girls here have before and after pictures of GAINING 10 pounds and look sooo much better for it (muscle weight).

    Best thing though, is make sure this is something you can live with. If it is tough to do every day, you will eventually stop and fail.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    Depends on how much you are losing.

    Just let MFP set your goals using sedentary lifestyle. Usually 1 pound a week is the best to set your goals at. From there, go back and manually set goals to make it where protein is 30% of your diet.

    Now that that is done, log your cardio exercises and go ahead and eat back half those calories. Be sure to also do strength training (don't log it as cardio). Strength training is meant to help keep muscle and make sure everything is firm when you get skinnier. MANY girls here have before and after pictures of GAINING 10 pounds and look sooo much better for it (muscle weight).

    Best thing though, is make sure this is something you can live with. If it is tough to do every day, you will eventually stop and fail.

    Example of what he is referring too.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat

    My preference and what seems to work for a lot.

    If you are consistent with your gym routine (like I workout 6 days a week, at home), set your goal to 1 lb a week and moderately active (lightly active if you only do 3-4 days of exercise) and do NOT eat back exercise calories. This allows for more consistent eating.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    There are a couple of schools of thought on it....

    One way is to figure out your TDEE and then set your calorie goal to 20% less than that, and not eat back exercise calories. The other way is to let MFP figure your calorie goal and log your exercise and eat to fuel the workouts.

    Are you not feeling satisfied with 1,200 calories? Then set your goal to lose 1 pound a week as DanaDark suggests.
  • talafakhouri
    talafakhouri Posts: 2
    Hey there, try to lower your calorie intake by having a high-protein breakfast (and dinner in order to prevent the midnight snack craving), boiled eggs for instance, so that you'll feel full longer throughout the day without even having to touch carbs! This, in addition to lowering your carb intake to approximatively 50g a day, will promote fat loss even if you do not exercise intensively on a daily basis. Best of luck!!
  • lucysmommy
    lucysmommy Posts: 460
    Depends on how much you are losing.

    Just let MFP set your goals using sedentary lifestyle. Usually 1 pound a week is the best to set your goals at. From there, go back and manually set goals to make it where protein is 30% of your diet.

    Now that that is done, log your cardio exercises and go ahead and eat back half those calories. Be sure to also do strength training (don't log it as cardio). Strength training is meant to help keep muscle and make sure everything is firm when you get skinnier. MANY girls here have before and after pictures of GAINING 10 pounds and look sooo much better for it (muscle weight).

    Best thing though, is make sure this is something you can live with. If it is tough to do every day, you will eventually stop and fail.

    Example of what he is referring too.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat

    My preference and what seems to work for a lot.

    If you are consistent with your gym routine (like I workout 6 days a week, at home), set your goal to 1 lb a week and moderately active (lightly active if you only do 3-4 days of exercise) and do NOT eat back exercise calories. This allows for more consistent eating.

    thanks for this - i will change my acitivity level and see how that goes

    i have about 80lbs to lose - so basically a lot.... i really want to do this the right way
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    Depends on how much you are losing.

    Just let MFP set your goals using sedentary lifestyle. Usually 1 pound a week is the best to set your goals at. From there, go back and manually set goals to make it where protein is 30% of your diet.

    Now that that is done, log your cardio exercises and go ahead and eat back half those calories. Be sure to also do strength training (don't log it as cardio). Strength training is meant to help keep muscle and make sure everything is firm when you get skinnier. MANY girls here have before and after pictures of GAINING 10 pounds and look sooo much better for it (muscle weight).

    Best thing though, is make sure this is something you can live with. If it is tough to do every day, you will eventually stop and fail.

    Example of what he is referring too.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat

    My preference and what seems to work for a lot.

    If you are consistent with your gym routine (like I workout 6 days a week, at home), set your goal to 1 lb a week and moderately active (lightly active if you only do 3-4 days of exercise) and do NOT eat back exercise calories. This allows for more consistent eating.

    thanks for this - i will change my acitivity level and see how that goes

    i have about 80lbs to lose - so basically a lot.... i really want to do this the right way

    Then I woudl highly suggest incorporating weight training as it will help preserve your lean body mass as well as improve fat loss.

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