Burning Calories

I was heavier then you when I started at this and the most I ever burned was 600 in a day and I ate most of them back.

Welcome, ahopen.

I would like to encourage you to stop exercising so much and eating so little. This is very dangerous for your body.

Burning 2,000 calories in exercise is an awful lot. For example, based on my body weight, the other day when I ran 4 miles at 5.2 miles per hour, it was calculated I burned around 500 calories or thereabouts. In order for me to burn 2,000 in one day, I would have to run 16 miles, or do some other combination of workout.

If I ate only 1210 calories, I would get sick. I might lose weight at first, but my body would soon plateau and I'd probably not lose a pound.

When I had a trainer, he taught me how to eat right, eat enough, and exercise well. In fact, I was about 180 lbs at the time and i worked out three times a week and he had me on 1360 calories a day. I lost weight slowly.

It's just that over the last few years I'd forgotten those good habits and gained some back. Luckily I have been remembering how to eat right and exercise and have lost 18 pounds.

I wish you the best of luck.

Assuming you are 5'4" (about average) and lead a sedentary life, you burn about 1985 base calories a day. That assumes that other than the 3 hours of exercise, you spend the rest of your time laying on the couch watching TV or sitting at a desk job. This number from the calculator at www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/BMR

1985 base calories + 2000 exercise calories = 3985 TDEE (total daily expenditure) - 1200 calories eaten = 2785 daily deficit
That equals 19,495 calories per week or 5.6 pounds per week (3500 per pound).
That represents a whopping 3% of your body weight.

I'm very surprised your doctor thinks that's healthy. When your doctor okayed the 1200 calorie plan, did you disclose to him/her that you also planned to burn 2000 calories a day in exercise? Or did you just say you planned to do "some" cardio, weights and yoga?

Because, without the 2000 burned, your numbers look like this:

1985 base calories burned - 1200 cals eaten = 785 daily deficit
That equals 5495 per week or 1.5 pounds per week

If your doctor was under the impression that you were going to do a typical level of exercise (for example 2 days of cardio burning 500-600 calories, 2 days of strength burning 200 cals, 2 days of yoga burning 100 calories, 1 rest day), you would burn another 1500-2000 calories a week. That would put your weekly weight loss in a healthier 2-2.5 pound range.

Think 3% of body weight is a healthy weekly weight loss? Read this article:
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2012/04/biggest-loser-destroys-participants.html

Two things: (1) I think it is very unlikely that you are burning 2000 calories a day. If you are using the calorie burn that MFP gives you, you should probably cut it in half because it is WAY overinflated. Invest in a good heart rate monitor so you can accurately track how many calories you are actually burning. (2) When you do figure out how many calories you are burning through exercise, eat at least half of those calories back or even all of those calories back if you are hungry. Like other people have said, you didn't get overweight overnight so don't expect to lose weight overnight. If you still don't trust the advice on MFP, go see your doctor. I don't know any single doctor who would approve of eating 1200 calories and burning 2000 calories (although I think that's an inaccurate number) on a daily basis! Good luck with your weight loss journey!