super confused...

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Hey everyone, well Im a bit confused here, you all say that to lose weight I have to burn more calories than I eat, alright, easy enough but then I burn about 500-1000 calories everyday plus what I normally burn (500 or so calories) and you say to eat back my exercise calories... How would this work, then?


I was thinking that I normally burn 500 + about maybe 800 = 1300 and eat about half of what i burned?

im on a 1200 calorie diet, so I would eat 1900 in a day? how would this work?

Replies

  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
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    Your body burns calories as well.. its not just about your activity.. You burn calories sleeping, laying in bed, watching tv etc.. Gotta count those too
  • angleu
    angleu Posts: 140 Member
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    Unless you use a heart rate monitor while working out how are you coming up with the 500-800 number?

    Most likely you burn on average anywhere from 1700 -2300 calories a day.. Broad range but I have no idea your weight, age whatever, then on top of that you are burning calories from exercise...so there is your deficit..
  • aljarema
    aljarema Posts: 7 Member
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    I think you're just overthinking things :) Say you eat your 1200 calories per day. Then you excercise and burn off 500 calories. 1200 calories- 500 that you burned= 700 calories.

    So really, even though you physically ate 1200 calories worth of food, after factoring in your excercise, you have a net of 700 calories.

    Now, the net number is the one you want to pay the most attention to. This is the number that (according to your specific plan) you don't want to go over 1200.

    So, since you worked your butt off and burned those 500 calories off earler, you have earned an extra 500 calories worh of food (this is the part where you can eat your calories back) that you can have before you reach your net number for the day of 1200.

    Dont worry about the amount of calories your body burns on its own (just from normal daily function). I tihnk maybe that is what is confusing you. Just focus on the number of calories you are eating and the number of calories you burn off with excercise.

    I hope that helps you, feel free to add me as a friend :)