I'm confused about my calories/weight/TDEE and all that.

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samolai
samolai Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've browsed through thread after thread, only to get more confused. I'm just under 5'3" and still want to lose 8 - 10 more pounds. I'm a very petite person and gained about 20 in this last year of grad school, and I'm down by half. The last three months, my weight has fluctuated around the same 4 pounds, and I do weekly morning weigh-ins. I set my activity level as lightly active (I'm a teacher and I do 30 minutes of cardio 4 times a week with a new 3 hours of hiking on Saturdays). I set my weight loss goal as 1 lb a week. My calorie goal set by MFP is 1280.

My question is this: How much should I be eating? It seems like half the posts say "stay under your goal and don't eat back your workout calories." This is what I've been doing. I don't think I'm in starvation mode (the concept of which I think is a little silly). I'm a small person and the 1200 is a lot for me - I generally feel very full. But other people are arguing that if people in my situation ate more, and the work out calories back, I would lose more weight? And this is because MFP already created a deficit for me? (<-- I'm confused on that, too.)

I guess I just want to know what my overall goal is. Stay under? Don't eat work out calories back? Eat them all back? Did MFP already incorporate a deficit for me? Thanks, guys. Sorry, all the contradictory posts have really thrown me off.

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  • GingerLolita
    GingerLolita Posts: 738 Member
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    1280 is the goal that MFP set for you based on your general activity level. Because 1200 calories is regarded by most experts as a safe minimum for the average woman to eat, unless you're given conflicting advice by a health professional, aim to stay around or above 1200 calories.

    That said, you really should be logging your exercise calories and eating the new goal MFP sets for you based on your exercises. "Lightly active" only reflects your day-to-day activities, not the extra cardio and hiking.
  • samolai
    samolai Posts: 8 Member
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    GingerLolita: I do log my exercise, but I tend to decrease the amount of time by about half because I feel like MFP overshoots. Secondly, just to be completely clear, you are saying eat the entire new amount that it gives after I put in exercise. So if I exercise 400 calories, I should be eating a total of 1680 in a day?
  • GingerLolita
    GingerLolita Posts: 738 Member
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    Yes. MFP sets your net calories at 1280. Net calories = food - exercise/activity. This is why you can eat back your exercise calories. If you don't lose weight by eating 1280 + exercise calories, there's a miscalculation somewhere.

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