Is it bad to burn more calories than you eat?

noushbox
noushbox Posts: 3
edited September 20 in Health and Weight Loss
I always thought you had to burn as many or more calories than you eat in one day to lose weight, but I've been working out and eating light for 3 months and haven't lost a pound! What am I doing wrong???

Replies

  • onelegpat
    onelegpat Posts: 33 Member
    I'd love to see your numbers!
    What a curious logic.
  • SarahNicole317
    SarahNicole317 Posts: 302 Member
    Lets say your basal metabolic rate is 1700 calories with no exercise. If you eat this and do not exercise you will maintain your weight. If you burn an extra 500 calories a day...so you plug that into the exercise, it says you are allowed 2300 calories for consumption. Chances are if you eat these calories you will only lose a minimum amount of weight each week. If you don't eat these calories you can potentially lose a pound a week.

    These numbers are hypothetical. However, just remember if you burn more than you consume you will lose weight. If you consume more than you burn you will gain weight.
  • sendmoretigers
    sendmoretigers Posts: 48
    not a lot of info to work with but seeing as i'm sitting in front of my computer i might as well post a reply...generally, amongst people i know personally who are trying to lose weight, situations like yours tend to be vocabulary related. i find that when i say "working out" or "eating light" those terms mean something completely different than when they say them. eating a healthy, balanced diet and eating light are not necessarily the same thing, what you eat is as important as how much. i see people at the gym i go to who are on a bike or treadmill for a decent amount of time but barely moving, certainly not breaking a sweat or raising their heart rate. the first step, i believe, in any life style change, is to honestly evaluate what you are really doing and what you want to change and then taking real steps, if only small ones at first, towards your goals.
  • rjadams
    rjadams Posts: 4,029 Member
    there is a fine line between burning more than you eat and not eating enough to keep the machine running smoothly. If you are eating too little you will not loose weight. use the tools on this site to check your RMR and the way the system calculates what you should be eating. if you follow the guidelines here you should be in pretty good shape.
  • BiggTitsMcGee
    BiggTitsMcGee Posts: 2
    You should be losing some wieght, unless your lying in some way, you really have to work hard and eat right
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    You should be losing some wieght, unless your lying in some way, you really have to work hard and eat right

    Hopefully the OP has gotten this worked out since 2010!
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    Ah, the trap of exercising to lose weight. :grumble:

    You're not burning as many calories as you think you're burning.

    You're not eating as few calories as you think you're eating.

    You haven't broken the laws of thermodynamics, you've just got a math error. Fix it, and you'll be as right as rain. :drinker:
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