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rbart
rbart Posts: 5
in Introduce Yourself
So I've registered and started tracking my calories... which MFP says shouldn't exceed 1200 in a day. But how many calories do I have to burn in a day? All 1200?

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  • flinchyny
    flinchyny Posts: 106 Member
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    I am sure someone will come and post an in-depth reply, but here's the short version:

    1200 is what you should eat.

    If you burn calories via exercise, enter in the activity and MFP will up your calorie total for the day -- e.g., if you burn 200 calories jogging this afternoon, MFP will now say you can eat 1400 today.
  • BassBoneBabe
    BassBoneBabe Posts: 226 Member
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    Technically speaking, you don't need to burn any, technically. MFP already puts a deficit in depending on what you wet your goesl at. For example, if you set to lose a pound a week, it subtracted 500 cals a day from your lifestyle in order to get to the 1200. When you exercise, you actually gain calories that you can eat! So if you burn 250 calories walking, you can eat some or all of that back. I recommend only some because the calories burned is most likely an estimate.

    Welcome and good luck to you and your new life style! If you need any friends, feel free to add me :-)
  • SammyLynn010
    SammyLynn010 Posts: 293 Member
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    I think we have all asked this question...

    1200 calories is the smallest amount of calories your body can run off of and not go into starvation mode. When you set up your goals you told it your weight and all of that, so based on this it calculated your BMR <---the amount of calories your body burns in one day...so then it asked you your goals and you told it like 1 pound or 1.5 pounds in a week to lose...so now MFP knows what deficit you need to have to lose that amount of weight.

    So when it says 1200 calories, that is the amount of calories that you can have in a day and lose your desired amount of weight. That might not seem like a lot so most people exercise more so that they can earn more calories to eat.

    Hope this helps!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    So I've registered and started tracking my calories... which MFP says shouldn't exceed 1200 in a day. But how many calories do I have to burn in a day? All 1200?

    Most likely you burn 1600-2200 calories a day without exercise so you don't have to burn any extra if you are only eating 1200 calories. Like others said if you want to eat more exercise and eat those calories, that way you will still hit your weight loss goal.
    Welcome and good luck.
  • gabi_ele
    gabi_ele Posts: 460 Member
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    MFP already took off the calories for the day in order to lose the weight, so 1200 it is. That said everybody is a little different and you might have to fiddle with the calories a bit in order to get the best results .DO NOT GO UNDER 1200 CALORIES A DAY. Your body needs fuel to work properly and if you go to much lower then that you will slow down your weightloss and your body starts to burn muscle instead of fat . Eat as close to nature as you can get, the more refined the food the worse it is for your body. Lean protein and complex carbs are your friends and EAT YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES at least most of them ( If you burn 500 cal every day for exercise add it during your day, not all at once) there are a lot of informative threats to learn about how to easily and savely lose weight and keep it off.
  • rbart
    rbart Posts: 5
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    Thanks for all the info. Very helpful. There's no fear of going below 1200! I was over by almost 300 calories yesterday... goes to show that most of us have a very skewed perception of what we're eating and its impact on our bodies. I had eaten almost all 1200 calories before dinner! I'll be refining my choices today. Thanks again!

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