New and totally confused!

Calorie Counting is easy now with all the tools out there to help you.. Like My Fitness Pal.. Once you know how many calories you should be eating to lose weight you will enter your food into the app and it will tell you the calories in everything you eat.

Basically, just follow the instructions as MPF has laid them out. Enter height, weight, goal weight, activity level and MPF will tell you how many calories you need to eat per day to lose. Just log the food into MPF using the food database or the barcode scanner on the app. And log your exercise too. Make sure to try to get to as close to your net calories most days. If MPF says you should eat 1500 calories, then your net calories should be as close to that number as possible. Not a big deal if its not exact every single day. But definitely log everything you eat and all your activities.

If you filled din your weight, age, activity level, and weight loss per week goal, MFP automatically set a caloric goal for you. Just click the FOOD tab and search for the foods you eat each day. If you have the app on a Smarphone, you can scan the bar codes. That's it. Then click on the Exercise tab and add in the workout from the gym.

I've done that, thanks it's given me 1370 calories per day. What happens if I don't hit my exercise calorie targets though? Does that mean I will put on weight? Or are the targets the extra calories I am given after exercising e.g. I went for run today and it was 165 calories burned so I got extra 165 calories to eat. So is the 1370 what I need to eat daily to lose weight before doing any exercise?

MPF gives you your net calories, this is the number you want to be close to. Logging your exercise gives you extra calories to eat. So if you don't exercise, don't log it and you won't have extra calories to eat and will still lose weight.

I know everyone says to eat them.. But I don't.. I never have.. The only time I will go over my daily goal of 1200 Calories is if I've worked out twice a day.. Therefore I need the food for my energy levels.

You have done an amazing job losing so far, congratulations!
What MFP calculated for you IS a deficit and you do need to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. I am eating back all of mine today because it was just a walk and because I've been sick for two days so WAY under my goal of 1470 calories. I'm feeling better so I am eating today. usually I eat back half of my exercise.

good luck figuring it all out!!!

Basically, just follow the instructions as MPF has laid them out. Enter height, weight, goal weight, activity level and MPF will tell you how many calories you need to eat per day to lose. Just log the food into MPF using the food database or the barcode scanner on the app. And log your exercise too. Make sure to try to get to as close to your net calories most days. If MPF says you should eat 1500 calories, then your net calories should be as close to that number as possible. Not a big deal if its not exact every single day. But definitely log everything you eat and all your activities.

So if my daily calories are 1370 then my net should be as close to that as possible?

Yes...this tool is designed to do all of the work for you. Just keep in mind that you most likely need to make some allowance for estimation error when it comes to calorie burn...most do 1/2 to 2/3 depending on how reliable they feel their burn estimate is. I always ate back about 80% of what my Heart Rate Monitor told me for an aerobic event...they're far less reliable for anaerobic exercises like weight lifting. What you have to be aware of is that larger individuals can sustain larger calorie deficits with little to no ill effects for quite some time...you are leaner with only 17 Lbs to lose...you should be eating back most of your exercise calories in order to properly fuel your activity...when you are leaner and have too large a calorie deficit, your body will start burning muscle mass to compensate...trust me, you don't want to lose muscle.

also in RE to your comment about burning more than you consume...you do realize that your "burn" calories all day long, 24/7 just being alive right? You also burn calories just livin' your day to day...exercise thermogenesis is actually a very small part of the average persons daily calorie requirements. Remember, you calorie goal already includes a weight loss deficit form what MFP is estimating as your maintenance level of calories (sans exercise)...you technically don't have to go exercise anything off...it's all built into your calorie goal.

With calorie counting it is very important to be as precise as possible...this means weighing and measuring your food and ingredients and making the best determination you can...also checking your calorie burns against multiple sources to make the best estimate possible. Underestimating intake and overestimating burn are the primary reasons that "it just doesn't work" for about 99.9% of those people.

why not try overlapping for a while? plug in what you're eating on weight watchers and see how many calories it comes out to be.

^^This^^

What's wonderful about MFP is that it calculates almost everything for you It's actually easier than converting everything to points, but it's basically the same gig. Use the tracking tools to keep track of your measurements as well.

Here's to you for keeping it up!!!
:drinker: