Help!! can i really eat all this and still lose weight?

Hi I am 19 5ft4 and 136 lbs. Goal weight of 130lbs. According to my fitness pal I need 1980 NET CALS a day to lose weight. That's before ive started exercising.
I put in the information that I am very active (I gym 2 hours a day , 5 days a week) .
So according to this if I burn say 500 cals at the gym I can still eat 2480 cals and lose weight because my net will be 1980.
This seems to high to me to lose weight
please someone explain asap

If you are including your exercise time in your activity level - which it seems you are doing - then you don't eat your exercise Calories. Your activity level - doing the MFP method - isn't supposed to include exercise time. What do you do, outside of exercising?

MFP is designed to give you your caloric needs before exercise. That way, when you add your exercise, it gives you extra calories. For example, I put myself as sedentary, which gives me a net goal of 1430 per day. I wear a BodyMedia Fit, so when it syncs, it will give my my exercise calories to eat, so I'm eating around 1800 calories per day, more if I am more active.

Also, you can check out this link:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

This link calculates your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). Put in all your info, including activity level, and it will give you a set calorie amount to eat. With this number, you won't eat back your exercise calories, because they are already taken into account. For you, i got these numbers:

BMR: 1379
TDEE: 2379
TDEE -10%: 2141

The TDEE -10% is a "cut" from you daily calories burned, which is where you will get the deficit for weight loss. So, according to the website, you can eat 2022 calories a day for around a .5 lb/week weight loss, which is reasonable for someone with your goals.

Also, I just now saw that you have MFP set to lose 1 lb per week. With only 6 lbs to lose, 1/2 lbs per week would be more appropriate.

Sounds like you could be double counting exercise
If you're very active because of your workouts then don't log them separately - that would count the activities twice and send your allowance unrealistically high.
I set mine to sedantry and log my walking and swimming
Some people say they're v active then don't log the gym
If you have a strenuous job and work out then by all means add it in

Hmmm... As a personal trainer, you very well may be Very Active anyway. Definitely not Sedentary. Probably more like somewhere between Lightly Active and Very Active.

As such, I'd recommend doing what MFP tells you. Try it for a month, then reassess, if necessary.

going to +1 the only losing .5 lbs a week.

Its only 6 pounds 1lbs a week is just unrealistic long term.

yup. this.

ok thankyou all so much for your advice. This makes things clearer.
Just to note
I go to the gym 5 times a week 2 hours a day
I walk my dogs once a day for about 30 mins
At work I will be on my feet a lot , doing stuff around the gym etc

So before exercise , generally what do you think I am in terms of activity level?

very.

Hi I am 19 5ft4 and 136 lbs. Goal weight of 130lbs. According to my fitness pal I need 1980 NET CALS a day to lose weight. That's before ive started exercising.
I put in the information that I am very active (I gym 2 hours a day , 5 days a week) .
So according to this if I burn say 500 cals at the gym I can still eat 2480 cals and lose weight because my net will be 1980.
This seems to high to me to lose weight
please someone explain asap

You should look at what you do before you workout. So what do you do during the day? Do you sit, are you on the move all day long. That is what you should be doing.. So a normal day in the life of you - if you were to not go to the gym what would your activity level be?? THEN put in your activity for the day as it should change everyday.
But yes if you are very active and on the move then think as your body as a car, your car needs fuel to keep going. But look at what you are doing in your job. You might be over estimating your activity level for the day - NOT saying that you are not that active. But for example... If I go to kickboxing and the class is 60 minutes long - I will only put in for 50-55 minutes. If a clean my house for 2 hours but an hour of that was folding laundry - I only put an hour in. I don't want to be disappointed when that 5 week estimate comes up. I would rather under estimate my activity level and be pleasantly surprised each week.
Congratulations in taking the first step to the new you. it's hard work and takes dedication, time and LOTS of research. Enjoy your journey.

think is I have a heart rate monitor so I know im burning like 500-600 at the gym each day , suggestions?

If you have an HRM, you could set your activity level as "lightly active" since your job isn't sitting at a desk all day and THEN log exercise calories from your HRM separate since that is much more accurate than general numbers MFP uses. It tend to overestimate. If you set your activity level to include your workouts in your daily activity, then you shouldn't log your workout calories on top of that because then it's the same as logging exercise twice. You likely wouldn't lose anything with those calories, maybe maintain at best.

I have an HRM as well, and have a lightly active job where Im standing and walking a lot, but I set my lifestyle activity level as "sedentary" to account for the overestimation of the numbers they give then log workouts separately since I have an accurate burn on my heart rate monitor. There's also a formula to get more personalized estimate of your daily calorie expenditure before exercise just based on height and body fat percentage, as Im sure you know that more muscle mass= higher calorie expenditure. I find my results on these calculations are much different, and actually says I burn less than Myfitnesspal does. You can easily find that formula by googling "katch-mcardle formula" or checking out this one:

http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/400.cfm

This site gets right down to details as far as how many lbs of fat mass, how many lbs are lean mass and how many calories to eat based on your activity levels for a 15, 20, 25, or 30% deficit.


For me to maintain on Myfitnesspal's general estimations-

Sedentary calories is 2160
Lightly active is 2420
Active is 2760
Very active is 3110

Big differences in results will occur if the wrong activity level is chosen.

My point is in showing this is, if you look at those "very active calories" versus what I burn lightly active (since lightly active account for a job that require a lot of standing/walking), that's 690 calories difference per DAY difference. To be able to say I'm truly "very active" I'd have to burn nearly 4830 calories a week (690 x 7 days) in workouts separate from my lightly active regular routine (that is close to 1000 calories per workout if you do this 5x per week).

I'm probably just confusing you more, but choosing "very active" is probably not the most realistic unless you're actually burning like 1000 calories per day above an average person just in lifestyle, or have a strenuous job of hard labor not including workouts. Also, it's a lot of trial and error to figure out what is going to work. If you're unsure, try it for a few weeks and look at how it's working. If it isn't, re-evaluate and try again.

Sorry this is so long and rambly, haha.

ok thankyou all so much for your advice. This makes things clearer.
Just to note
I go to the gym 5 times a week 2 hours a day
I walk my dogs once a day for about 30 mins
At work I will be on my feet a lot , doing stuff around the gym etc

So before exercise , generally what do you think I am in terms of activity level?

delete.

You can eat anything and lose weight.

You just can't eat in however much amount you want.

/thread

Not /thread actually because OP didn't ask a question about which foods she was eating to lose weight. She asked about the amount, which is exactly what you just said. It didn't help her figure the amount she needs to lose weight by saying "you just can't eat however much you want." That's kind of the point of her entire thread.