Calories burned & eating = Losing?

You just have to do the math.

It takes 3500 calories per pound. Therefore you need to burn 7000 more calories per week then you consume if you want to lose 2 lbs. a week.

if you are supposed to eat 1200, and you burn 900 through exercise, then you should eat a total of 2100 that day. Inside that 1200 number there has already been built in a deficit, so that if you never exercised at all, at 1200 cals, you will still lose. Deficit=loss. BUT if your deficit is too big (not eating back what you earned through exercise), over time you'll depress your metabolism and start hanging on to the weight instead of losing it.


EAT back what you earned through exercising, your body needs fuel. Trust me, it works.

I'm new here to MFP and I was reading some questions that were similar to mine but I still don't understand...

My goal is to lose about 2lbs a week. I workout 5-6 days out of the week burning at least 700 - 900 calories per workout. I have a sedentary job & I'm an evening student but busy evenings & weekends. According to this site if I don't workout I should only consume 1200 calories a day. I have to eat about 1700-1800 calories on the days I workout otherwise I am STARVING by the time I go to bed. Is my goal realistic? Can I lose 2lbs a week the way I'm eating & working out? Help me understand the calculation for my calories eating & burned = weight loss?

I'm 167 (but I don't look it my weight is evenly distributed)
5'5"
700-900 (3 days out of the wk I do boot camp workout)
1700-1800 calories eaten daily (except on wkends alot less)

THANKS!

MFP never suggests lower then 1200 calories for your intake. This is based on the idea that eating too little results in your metabolism slowing quite a bit, which makes consistent weight loss hard, and makes maintaining your weight loss very hard. 1200 has no huge signifigance, except generally being a good number to stay above.

Losing 2 lbs a week is very ambitious for someone who isn't very overweight. I would recomend starting with your settings to lose 1 lb. a week. Slow weight loss is maintainable weight loss.

The reason you are starving if you eat less than 1700 calories is because if you burn 800 calories that day, you're only leaving your body 900 calories for everything else. It is the general opinion that this is too few calories. I just used on online calorie calculator that says your maintenance calories are around 1750 calories. This does not take into account exercise, so if you work out and burn 800 calories, your maintenance calories would be over 2500 calories! That means that if you eat around 2000 calories on your workout days you should lose at least 1 lb. a week and will still keep your net calories (intake-exercise) over 1200 and keep your metabolism from dipping so low that it affects your health.

Another suggestion; you're working out really hard. Every 3-5 weeks, take a week off and rest, or atleast do easier workouts, which is known as de-loading. This will give your body the chance to recover.

Cool. ... but I'm still sticking to the plan of 2lbs a week, I don't think that is so drastic. I do like your idea about taking a week off or lighten my workout for a week to give my body a break this makes total sense, maybe a leisure bike ride, yoga videos or long walks and eat 1200 - 1300 calories on those days.

I am 5'9 1/2" and weight 170(ish) I was told by both my nutritionist and my metabolic technician today that I lost the "right" to loose 2 lbs a week 150 lbs ago... the less you have to loose the slower it is (SHOULD) going to come off... if you set unrealistic goals for your body... (not saying your are- but you need to be honest with yourself to determine what the real nunbers are saying) then you are not going to stick with the plan and will be discouraged because you are not loosing that 2... but if your goal was 1.. and you occasionally loose 2.. you will be happy that you are accompolishing your goals!

just saying..

la-
www.thecurvylife.com