net calories or intake 1200?

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aaaron00
aaaron00 Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok so I've been seeing so many mixed answers about this... MPF says I am supposed to meet 1200 calories. I have been eating 1200-1500 a day and burning 500-900 thru exercise leaving me with a net intake of 530-730 per day. I have been doing this for a week and have lost 3 pounds. To consistently lose 2 pounds a week, are my NET calories supposed to reach 1200 or am I doing this correctly with INTAKE being 1200? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it's something I've seen varied answers on!

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  • kelly_e_montana
    kelly_e_montana Posts: 1,999 Member
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    NET at minimum. Everyone loses fast right at first on a low calorie diet, but it will taper off. The first week is usually a lot of water weight, too. You need something sustainable for the long haul. I'm not going to be one of the science-y people on here, but the simple point is that if you're not feeding yourself properly, you can expect to lose muscle at a higher rate, too. And, once your stop, it will be very easy to gain it all back.
  • Wakeupwaisted
    Wakeupwaisted Posts: 25 Member
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    I was wondering about this too.
  • mgobluetx12
    mgobluetx12 Posts: 1,326 Member
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    Haven't you noticed that when you work out and add your exercise that MFP adds those calories back into your goals for the day? Or are you not logging your exercises?
  • MouseTmom
    MouseTmom Posts: 201 Member
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    Just be careful of exercise calories - MFP seems to estimate them pretty high - I usually only eat back about 1/2 of the exercise calories just because of that!

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