Burning 700 calories a day, eating 1,200?

While weightloss is all about calorie deficit, you may lose more weight or less weight depending on how heavy you are, your muscle mass growth (which would increase weight), and genetics. Some people simply burn food faster than the rest of us. I burn 200 calories a day on a 500 calorie diet and it has taken me a little over 6 months to lose 30 lbs. So you can assume yours will be a little longer than mine as I net 200 calories less than you.

It all depends.

You're consuming only 500 calories a day? Hopefully that's a misprint.

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If you do the math that is a loss of under 1.5 lbs per week so they are probably eating a lot more and burning a lot less than they think

Either that or they have screwed their metabolism completely

You may lose quickly but 500 net is not enough and it will come back. And then some.

this has to be a joke, someone reassure me this person isn't netting 500 calories a day?

I don't why people are so obsessed with netting calories. Why bother to exercise and burn off 700 calories a day if your going to eat it all back? Why not just burn those calories, still eat a proper amount of food ( 1,200 calories a day) and lose weight twice as fast? I think it should be a personal choice weather to eat back your exercise calories or not.

Because 1200 cals ISN'T a proper number of cals for most women....and if you're using MFP correctly, whatever daily calorie goal you're given has you at a calorie deficit already - meaning you could eat all your calories every day, do zero exercise and you'll lose weight. Burning off more cals through exercise and then not eating back any of them leaves your body with a much larger deficit, too large, which may sound like a good idea to lose weight faster, but results in losing muscle along with any fat, eventually leaving you tired, crabby, no muscle tone, messed up metabolism, screwed up hormones, hair loss, brittle nails, and the list goes on. Fun! NOT!

MFP adds the burned cals back into your goal because FOOD IS FUEL and you should be eating at least a good percentage of them back. Personal choice? Sure. I ate too little for awhile. Lost weight. Reached my first couple of goals. Body weighed less, but I was just a smaller version of my same old squishy self. And I hated trying to stick to the lower cals, and trying to have energy to burn all the cals I thought I needed to.

I eat around 2000 cals a day a lose. I workout an hour or less each day. I never ever net below my BMR (1400) - I aim to net at least a couple hundred higher than my BMR. At 2000 a day with reasonable exercise, it's not a problem. Fat comes off, muscles sticks around, body is fueled and happy. Energy is a good thing! :bigsmile: Being able to eat foods I like and still fit them into daily calories is awesome - pizza, burgers, beer, wine, cake, ice cream, etc.

Give me the sustainable fat loss that I can stick to for good. :drinker:

To anyone who thinks netting 500 is okay...please seek help.

I agree that she's probably "auto wiping her brain" as you say and not accounting for binge days, otherwise she would probably be hospitalized from eating that little for so long. But I don't think she meant to say 1500 judging from her initial post and follow up post.

I have documented binge days and remember them. I have one day of eating 2500 calories,

That's not a binge. That's a normal pigout.

You're an anorexic in denial and you need therapy.

QFT...I'd say pretty major denial.

The body is an amazing thing. Since you have been starving yourself (which yes, that's exactly what you've been doing) the body actually creates a hormone to stop hunger signals and trains itself to "survive" for a short period of time. Your body (if it hasn't already) will start pulling fuel from any source it can. So I am positive you are losing any muscle you might have, along with calcium from your bones, which could lead to early osteoporosis. You are also damaging your metabolism.

this has to be a joke, someone reassure me this person isn't netting 500 calories a day?

I don't why people are so obsessed with netting calories. Why bother to exercise and burn off 700 calories a day if your going to eat it all back? Why not just burn those calories, still eat a proper amount of food ( 1,200 calories a day) and lose weight twice as fast? I think it should be a personal choice weather to eat back your exercise calories or not.

Because 1200 calories is not a "proper amount of food", but a deficit, already fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight. For instance, I need around 1500 to stay the weight I am as a lightly active, 5'2" person, so 1200 is 300 less than I need. If I burn 700 calories with exercise, I am netting only 500 calories, which is too low for someone to sustain oneself. Essentially, even eating back those calories, the person is still "netting" only 1200 calories. Most of us eat part or all of our exercise calories back.