calories left over

Are you trying to lose body fat? If so, you should be eating 500 calories less than you burnt today. If you are trying to maintain, you should eat the same amount of calories you burnt. Also, it doesn't matter at what time of day you eat. You will not gain fat unless you have eaten an excess of calories.

Are you trying to lose body fat? If so, you should be eating 500 calories less than you burnt today. If you are trying to maintain, you should eat the same amount of calories you burnt. Also, it doesn't matter at what time of day you eat. You will not gain fat unless you have eaten an excess of calories.

ok, so wait, if i need to eat lets say 1600 cal/day then i need to burn off 2100 cal? what happens on the days where you take a break from the gym? i ttake 2 days off a week. i'm probly interpreting this wrong....but just wondering......

You should think of it the other way around...if you burn 2100 calories, then you need to eat 1600. It's easier to eat for what you did rather than eat as much as you like and have to 'burn it off'. On your days off, you can just eat what you average during the week. I eat 1700 cals a day every day because I almost always burn 2200 cals a day. I take one day of just cardio, and one day off entirely. I still eat 1700 calories because my body needs them to repair itsself; when you're resting, you're repairing. If you like, you can do a smaller deficit, like 300 calories. Or, if you've been in a deficit for a long time, it's a good idea to eat maintenance, or what you burnt for the day. Every 2-4 weeks I do that on my cardio day...my BMR is about 1400, and with cleaning and cardio, my calories can get up to 17-1800. So I eat that amount even though I haven't worked as hard as during the week.

ok, now I have just logged off for the evening,and it says that I have eaten too few calories, that I could be putting my body into starvation mode.... Now im confused again.

How many calories have you eaten today?

also if click on the goals tab on your home page it explains it there on the right

Doesn't the program take the number of calories needed to do nothing but sit the entire day and use that as a base for the calories needed for the day? Therefore, any extra activity, like cleaning, shopping, walking, etc will be even more calories burned? Mine said I needed 1530 calories to sit all day and do nothing, and now that is the amount of calories I need for the day. So if I eat less than that and do a little exercising, I should definitely lose weight.

burning 2100 calories a day is pretty average. the 'average' person burns approx 2000 and the daily % values on everything are based on a 2000 calorie a day diet. weight trainers and others eat huge amounts of the RIGHT foods, and still lose fat. but it comes down to basic math for you.
1#=3500 calories. if you burn 2000 average, to lose 1 pound a week you need to cut back your calories (or exercise to burn calories totalling) 500 a day. for 2 pounds a week, you need to cut back/burn 1000 a day. I am 213 pounds, I need approx 1850 cal a day sitting still. to lose 2 pounds a week with out exercising I have to omit 1000 a day from my food leaving me with just 850 a day. this is obviously not enough for a healthy diet long term. If I burn 500 a day exercising and cut my calories from 1850 to 1200 (average on a diet) then I can maintain my health and still lose the 2 pounds a week.
the starvation mode is a basic human instinct of survival. if your body thinks it is being starved, it automatically shuts down the metabolism to burn fewer calories and that is very counter productive to what you need. there are lots of opinions of what it takes to send your body into starvation mode, but one day of being under a 1000 calories will not hurt you. but several days might. again, exercise is the key. if you eat 1200 calories, and burn 500 calories you are maintaining the necessary fuel needed for your body, as well as the necessary calorie deficit you need to lose weight. You would be surprised at just how much of the right food you can have. also, be sure to increase your water intake accordingly. well, hope you don't mind my jumping in. good luck

Very cool, I just was looking at my workout each day, I run the stair climber for 30 mins on level 16 and a 5 min cool down burning approx 485 calories each day, I ride a stationary bike after for 10 mins and a 3 min cool down burning another 100 calories. Exercises are performed on life fitness machines. I had not thought to take into account the calories the body burns from different foods and natural acts, minus your daily activity. However, even moving furniture each day, I don't feel that I am burning that many cals. I will do some research as suggested. Thanks for your input.

Good looking out, I will check it out thank you.

wow ok, so not sure if i'm understanding 100% but i just got back from the gym and only burnt 200 cal on the eliptical (i did do strength stuff too)....i need 1200 cal/day so now i need to make sure to burn 1700 cal? so i need to do more at the gym then right? lol sorry for being so annoying! lol

You should also find out how much you burnt during your lifting...that burns a lot of calories too. I usually lift for 60-80 minutes and end up burning about 250 cals more or less. If your BMR is 1200, and then you burnt 200 on the elliptical, and then another 100 lifting (hypothetically), that's 1500 total. However, I know your BMR is higher than 1200 because mine is 1300 and I'm shorter than you. You need to find your correct BMR first, and then add your activity to that. Just disregard any other numbers and use only your BMR and what activity you did. Then subtract the 500 from that to know what to eat.