We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Hello All, and i need advice :P

alfredpacker
alfredpacker Posts: 2
edited January 5 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, my name is Adam and me and my fiance are 22 years old and are looking to improve our quaility of life by losing the weight we have had for far too long. This weekend we went out after clearing our cabinets of junk and bought all good healthy food and snacks including fruit, nuts, veggies, meat, and very little dairy. We downloaded the my fitness pal app, entered our info and ate a very filling breakfest which I have tracked on here if anyone would like to look for reference. With that said as this is our very first serious diet and we both really want to lose a good portion of weight I have a couple of worries and questions.

According to MFP if I want to lose 2pounds a week I can eat 1590 calories, plus exercise I do to add to it I assume. This is where things get tricky for me, Me and my fiance work the same type of job, a job where we walk nonstop for about 3-4 hours at the very least. Once again According to MFP during this time I burn 600 calories, now I am worried because as I sit here at work and type this based on what I have ate today I need to eat 1227 more calories and all I have is 12 almonds and dinner was going to be baked chicken breast with green beans which I highly doubt will be anywhere near 1200 more calories.

Sorry for typing your eyes out, heres where my questions start.

I'm not hungry, am I looking to much into this, does it matter if I dont reach my daily intake?
Because we walk the same amount everyday for our job, does our bodies get used to it and not burn as much?
Should we just force our selfs to eat more? Maybe add and extra tbspoon of peanut butter to our snack, things like that?
By being under the daily limit, do we lose weight faster, will it harm us if we dont feel hungry?
Any tips or advice to help us out?

Bonus problem: We, especially me were wanting and planning on doing Insanity which I have heard can make you burn close to another 1000 calories! What are we supposed to do, I just cant see me eating 1500 more calories worth of food. I would really like to be able to still do this workout if possible.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back soon :)

Replies

  • juliesjuke
    juliesjuke Posts: 93 Member
    Hi Adam,welcome. You should eat all of your calories per day. the calories that you get from exercise ,you do not have to eat.In fact you will lose more if you don't eat them.
    Have you checked out the blog on here, and discussion board? There are so many people that can give different ideas/support/encouragement. We are all basically in the same boat. Good luck with your journey.Keep with it you'll do great.Really nice that you two are doing this together.:wink:
    .
  • jhassan1980
    jhassan1980 Posts: 28 Member
    Hi Adam!

    Good luck to you & your GF. My BF & I started out in Feb 2012 & have been very successful because we did it together! I lost 54 lbs & he lost 71 lbs (so far).
  • now_or_never12
    now_or_never12 Posts: 849 Member
    Hi Adam,welcome. You should eat all of your calories per day. the calories that you get from exercise ,you do not have to eat.In fact you will lose more if you don't eat them.
    Have you checked out the blog on here, and discussion board? There are so many people that can give different ideas/support/encouragement. We are all basically in the same boat. Good luck with your journey.Keep with it you'll do great.Really nice that you two are doing this together.:wink:
    .

    Eat any calories you burn from exercise. Not eating them works for some however it doesn't mean you will lose more if you don't. If you are using MFP estimates of calorie burns eat half as this site tends to over estimate. Find what works best for you. Too much of a deficit (by going to high on your weekly goal or not eating exercise cals) isn't good.

    How much weight do you want to lose? 2lbs per week is normally only suggested if you have more than 75 lbs to lose.

    Also, if you and your lady walk a lot at work don't factor that in as exercise. Put it in as your lifestyle (sedentary, lightly active, active, highly active). What you do at work you add in when you are setting up your goals and calorie amounts... not added as exercise.

    I used to have a job where I would walk anywhere from 3 -6 hours a day... I entered my activity level as active.
  • alfredpacker
    alfredpacker Posts: 2
    Thank you all for all the helpful advice, I suppose with all the calories we burn from exercise we can use up if we are feeling not so full, so that is great news, I guess we need to invest in a HRM to better track.

    Also another question I had but forgot to ask about was what everyones opinion and/or experience with Shakeology. I had been reading about it and it seems some people swear by it while others are on the fence. I know the price is high, but for a meal replacement it seems like it would even out about the same.

    I cannot wait to go home and begin Insanity, we have been trying to eat better for a couple months now and when my fiance told me she had lost almost 20 pounds i was so proud of her :), I wish i could lose weight that easily. I will give updates on our progress and ask anymore questions if they come to me. Once again, thanks all!
  • Sh5073a
    Sh5073a Posts: 21 Member
    Hey Adam,

    I'm also a newbie to MFP but I found some of the threads very helpful. Have you read this one: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo ?

    The discussion was very helpful and I feel like the explanation was logical. I have also tried to look for other places to compare information. Here is another place I found some information (and a formula) that can serve as a guideline. http://www.livestrong.com/article/302963-how-many-calories-should-a-200-lb-man-eat/ Not sure if other people have found that site helpful, but I've compared info on what is a healthy amount of weight to loose, how many calories are in X types of foods, how many calories are burned for X exercise, and the information here and on livestrong.com seems pretty similar.

    Also, I haven't seen anyone mention this much, but if you're planning on doing Insanity and you're a person with a high level of activity, you may just want to run things by your doctor to make sure you're taking in an appropriate number of calories for the level of activity you're planning on.

    My two (very amateur) cents.

    Best of luck to you and your girlfriend!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories