seriously confused

Fill all your info in on here and it will give you a calorie goal. That's what MFP is for.

It really depends how fast you want to lose it.

For most people's tolerances, I'd guess somewhere between 1200 and 1500kcals per day would produce results fast enough you'd be happy but be enough food that you're not starving.


Osric

MFP, for me, pushes my protein % too low, so be careful there.

If you use http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ then your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) would be 1447 calories and based on exercising 5 days a week your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) would be 2117 calories. An aggressive target is TDEE - 20% meaning 2117 - 423 = 1694 calories per day. This would amount to a calorie deficit of 2961 per week or just over 0.8 lbs per week. There are plenty of assumptions in there with regard to the level of exercise at the gym but it is probably pretty close. If you targeted 1617 calories per day that would amount to a pound a week, a safe number for most people.

ummm still lost. ive been eating back my exercise calories and netting between 1400 and 1600 but no loss for over a month

Do you weigh everything you eat with a food scale?

This may sound a little strange, but this seems to work for me. I put my numbers into MFPs calculator (day job -light activity, weight, goal, weight loss per week, etc), but then I digress from MFPs recommendations.

I do not add in exercise calories. Not saying I do not exercise, I do. I just do not add those calories back.

Three other simple rules:

1. Keep running total of amount of calories not used on daily basis (these are available for a treat or cheat day)

2. At the end of the week, 30% of the saved!calories expire.

3. Count all calories and be honest.

just about everything yes

Weigh everything.

Also, I kinda doubt that a horseride is burning 500 calories.

If you're that active, you may not be netting enough.

First do not eat back all the calories you burn. Then you are just wasting your time going to the gym. Remember if you use more calories than you take in you will lose weight and or inches. Its simple physics. I know you go to the gym, but what do you do there? If all you do is cardio then pretty much all your losing is water weight and speeding up your metabolism for a short period of time. You should be doing some weight work to balance with your cardio. The Cardio gets your metabolism going, gaining lean muscle will keep the burn going. Lean muscle is what will burn fat the quickest. Good luck.

If you are using MFP's numbers, eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories as while there is an aspect of physics to this, at the same this it is biology as well. Biology does not always function as easily as physics. I also echo the point of measuring something other than just weight. Weight is a rather unhelpful measure of progress since it can vary a lot due to factors that have nothing to do with putting on or taking off fat. Measuring your chest, waist and hips can give a much more valuable measure of progress.

^what he said

plug your numbers into MFP ... choose "moderately active" and follow the calorie guidelines for a few weeks. If you're losing weight, cool, it's working. If you're not, then drop your activity to "lightly active" and do that for a few weeks.

Except if you use MFP's numbers you chose your activity level base on your work day ie desk job = sedentary and then add your exercise as you do it. Unless the OP has an active job that would not be a good choice.

That's why I said do it for a few weeks and reevaluate. In my experience most activity modifiers overestimate what people are actually burning. This leads to slow progress and frustration. Better to aim low at first and add calories as needed.

ummm still lost. ive been eating back my exercise calories and netting between 1400 and 1600 but no loss for over a month

We see this OVER AND OVER again on these forums. The "net calories" screws people over.
MFP credits too much burn for just about every activity.

I joined a group here a couple weeks ago because I was experiencing similar questions and issues. Read the links below and they should really help you out a ton! Best of luck.

Setting Your Calorie and Macro Targets

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1058378-oh-noes-i-am-eating-below-my-bmr

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1072049-thoughts-on-tdee-calculators-and-switching-from-mfp-to-tdee

Exercise calories

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

Logging accuracy

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

ummm still lost. ive been eating back my exercise calories and netting between 1400 and 1600 but no loss for over a month

We see this OVER AND OVER again on these forums. The "net calories" screws people over.
MFP credits too much burn for just about every activity.

Totally agree...I use a heart monitor and believe me, the burn is way lower...my friend used to 'burn' like over 1000 cals at gym and I thought wow...she is working out like a maniac....but no...she either used the machine or MFP numbers...she wasn't losing as fast and was wondering why....heart monitor is the answer...in my opinion of course!

It depends a lot on what you're doing at the gym too. I'd invest in a heart monitor to have an idea of what your calorie burn is.

ummm still lost. ive been eating back my exercise calories and netting between 1400 and 1600 but no loss for over a month

Try one or both of:

(a) eat less - I'd suggest 200-300 calories per day less. e.g. aim for 1200 a day instead of 1400-1600

(b) put your weight measures into a trend based tool like trendweight.com and see if you are getting points up against the line or if your line has a nice linear slant down

The first suggestion will make you lose faster. The second will show you when you've really hit no further progress.

Osric

Invest in a HRM if you don't have one already. Add your calorie burns on MFP based on what it says. Weigh EVERYTHING. I agree with above poster about burning 500 calories horseback riding. I'm not saying it's not possible, but you should probably get an HRM to know for sure.

HRM introduces its own set of badly estimated calorie burns.

Agreed that 500 calories is most likely an over-estimate - I would start by cutting that number in half. In fact, based on what has been posted by the OP, I would cut ALL the exercise calories in half. Do that for a few weeks, and let's see where we are at.

I am also a rider, and I run, cycle, and hike. While I agree with you that an intense riding session is great exercise and more so than a non-rider might appreciate, I do not believe you are burning 500 calories. This is based on my own experience with logging calories from various types of exercise. Yes, I am tired and sweaty after a one hour riding lesson, but nowhere near as much as a 40 minute run, and on the latter I might burn 350 calories max. I adjusted MFP's estimate for horseback riding downwards because I felt it was vastly overestimating my burn.

Anyways, the point is this: if you aren't losing weight at that caloric goal, and assuming you are accurately weighing your food and recording it all, the short and simple answer is to lower your daily goal.

I dont use MFP's numbers for my burns and regardless of what I put into MFP it comes back with 1200 calories:grumble: I think id starve if I stayed on 1200. lol

Then use a trend graph to see if you're making progress or not. If you really aren't making progress, less food is the only practical way to fix it.

Osric

unless they aren't eating enough... then less food isn't necessarily the answer.