This is difficult.

Your activity level doesn't need to reflect your exercise, as you are recording the calories burned (and eating them back :happy: ).

Your husbands and his friends probably outweigh you by 50%, and the female body is more efficient in its use of calories (insert rant here on how unfair that is), so they could eat many more calories than you do and still lose weight. Eat what is right for you and your body.

Trust me, I gained a lot of weight just eating "my half" of appetizers, pizzas, etc.

Actually the activity settings on mfp don't include exercise. For example I move a lot at work so I am very active. Actually more than very active even before I exercise. If I were to not eat back calories I would keep losing.

OP, maybe stick with this number for a while and see what the scales say. For example I was set to lose 0.5 pounds when cutting but was losing more than that so I knew to increase my calories. 1.5 might be a good number for you each week, but you may also find 1 pound better. It's a trial an error thing. The big thing is to log acurately so you can see in front of you what is happening. Also remember that there's a deficit built in. 250 calories per half a pound. So if you have a day where you go a little into the red it's not the end of the world.

I also agree that the guys won't realise you need less than them . I have to be mindful that my husband doesn't need to quite eat as much as I do :laugh:

As someone has already pointed out "activity level" is meant for your occupation.

Someone on their feet for hours a day would be very active, like a nurse or a waitress. If you currently are unemployed or have a desk job you need to set your profile to sedentary. Otherwise when you log your exercise calories, you will be eating them twice, nullifying weight loss and maintaining your weight instead.

As long as your account is set up correctly and you're netting 1200 calories, you'll be fine.

(also there are some exercises on MFP that tend to be exaggerated for calories burned, most people, including myself log 50%-80% of the time used for things like Elliptical or Zumba. Things like "walking" seem to be the most accurate. For the most accurate estimation of calories burned, look into a HRM with a chest strap.)

You are starving yourself for no reason. This is not only unhealthy for your body, it is unhealthy for your mind (because you're deceiving yourself into believing the lie that the "magic number" of 1,200 calories is somehow healthy. It's not).

Based on the information you've given us, you need to eat 1,735 calories to lose 1.5 lbs a week the RIGHT way. And the calculation I did already accounts for your exercise so you would NOT eat any calories back. Just eat 1,735, continue to exercise as you are but don't "count it" back in, and you'll do fine.

If you have questions, just let me know.

http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/tools/Calculator-Daily-Calorie.html

There is no secret to calculating TDEE. Op can do it herself if she wants to use that method. And what is the difference if she eats 1200 AND her exercise calories back? She is NOT STARVING HERSELF, and is likely eating close to 1700 - 1800 calories anyway the way she has figured it.

Not sure I called it a "secret" (where??) and I would certainly never begrudge someone calculating their own TDEE - lots of unnecessary negative assumptions here on your part...??? There was no indication the OP had done any actual calcs so I was simply attempting to provide insight to her by demonstrating what her daily cals should look like using a calculator I used to lose ~70 lbs. No harm, no foul - that's why we're here - to help one another.

Looking back at the original post, I see now that I totally missed the word "net" in the original post. I mis-read that she was only eating 1,200 and then exercising like crazy. I hope we can agree that this behavior would indeed be unhealthy, which was what I based my response on. In the future I'll be sure to read more carefully. Thanks.