I Burn More Calories than I consume... safe?

If you are incredibly incredibly motivated, then eat a normal amount of food and increase your exercise. Go insane with the exercise and eat your 2000 calories each day. I bike, so I burn 1500+ calories in 80 minutes of cycling at 16MPH. Today, I ate just over 1650 calories. I was never hungry all day, and I split those calories up into 5 tiny meals just hours apart. That is the way to do it if you are that set on a goal. If you continue to fail to nourish your body, then it will go into starvation mode and you will have more problems losing the weight. Feed your body. Work the fat off through exercise. Yup, use your incredibly motivated to do more exercise.

I've been where you are. I did that for about 3 months and I reached my goal. However, my hair fell out in clumps, I fainted a lot, I was an emotional wreck and I developed a hormonal imbalance that I'm still dealing with 5 yrs later. Please consider eating more. It's unsustainable long term and I'm telling you it's not worth it. I gained it all back plus some.

At a minimum you need to eat 1,200 calories. Eat up to your minimum, then burn your calories by working out. Eating 400 calories a day is crazy and it's going to hurt your body. You're not going to lose fat, you're going to lose muscle, so you're going to lose form. Your body fat can only take so much, if you create too big of a deficit you're going to severely destroy your muscles. Also, when you're on such an extreme limitation, you can't work your body out.

You need to change the way you look at things. Work on creating a more fit body, not a thin body.

First off, welcome to MFP. :flowerforyou:
Secondly, everything they said: you need to eat more, what you're doing is unhealthy, etc. :sick:

Don't eat less than 1200 cal per day. That's plain total calories, not calories minus exercise. When you don't eat enough, it's harder to lose weight, and MUCH harder to control your eating. Also, you'll eventually start burning muscle, which will slow your weight loss even more. Instead, do muscle-building exercise, even if it's just with your own weight, or lifting bags of kitty litter. Muscle uses more calories at rest than fat does, so building muscle will spiral into losing more weight.

A healthy rate of weight loss for most people is 1-2 lb per week.
1 lb of fat is 3500 calories, which is an average of 500 calories per day to short yourself, through eating less & exercising more. (But eating properly is the most important part. It can take an hour on the elliptical for me to burn 700 calories, but I can eat more than that in much less time.)

So where do you start? :ohwell:

1 - Let's figure out what you "should" weigh, so you have a healthy goal.
How tall are you? Because that's used to determine your body mass index (BMI). A healthy BMI is between 19 - 24.9.
This page has a BMI calculator, as well as charts: http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi_index.html
I think the charts are more informative, easier to see where you are and where you need to be. One side has height, the other has weight. Where they intersect is your number. Now look to the left to see where it changes to green. Look up to see your goal weight.
In January, I was at 39. Right now, I'm at 36. Down 25 lb. :bigsmile: For me, at 5'10", the top end of that range is 173 lb.

2 - Then figure out how many calories you need.
2a - The simplest way to figure out your calorie needs is to take your healthy goal weight and add a 0 on the end. (This is the method my doctor & dietician use.)
For me, that would be 1700. That's my goal calories for the day, and will eventually, slowly, in a healthy way, get me to my goal weight.
(Then if you feel hungry, you can add 1/3 - 1/2 of the calories you used in exercise.)

2b - Another way is to find your resting metabolic rate, or basal metabolic rate, then add part of the calories you use in exercise.
Here's a RMR calculator: http://www.shapeup.org/resources/rmr1.html
Again using me as an example, it says my current RMR is 1850 cal, and at my goal weight it will be 1468. If I eat what's required to support my goal weight, I'll eventually weigh that much. Today MFP says I did 652 cal of exercise, so I'd add 200-300 to that 1468, to get about 1750.

2c - Another way is to take your current weight (200), add a zero (2000), and subtract 500 (1500). If you eat 1500 cal per day, in a week you should lose 1 pound. Don't go below 1200.
Look at what MFP says you're using in exercise, and add about 1/3 - 1/2 of those calories. Walking a mile takes about 100 calories, so if you're walking 2 miles a day, you could eat 1600 cal per day.
As you lose weight, you'll have to recalculate & eat less.
Using this method on me, I should have 1900 calories for now, and eventually drop to 1200 when I'm nearing my goal weight but still need to lose. That seems awfully low, though I won't have to do that indefinitely.

3 - Now eat healthy meals. Include protein at each meal & snack so you feel full longer. Choose whole grains, usually avoiding simple white starches. Eat vegetables of all sorts, fruits. Don't drink your calories! (I used to go through several quarts of gatorade every day! EEK!!)
This page has sample meal plans for 1200,1400, and 1600 calories.
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/preschoolers/meal-snack-patterns-ideas/1600-calories-patterns.html


For more nutrition resources:
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
http://www.shapeup.org/

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