Calorie counting and such... I could use some help :)

calorie counting is base around your weight. And when trying to lose the weight you should drink lots of water atleast 8 cups a day or more. do some walking or jogging. If you want give me your height weight and age and I will calculate a calorie counting for you to follow on a daily base

Welcome to the healthier side...Ranae.R Anyways, I'm pretty new at this also (2 weeks) and haven't got all the answers yet. But so far I am meeting my goals. My daily caloric intake was suggested by the computer according to my weight loss goals and starting weight. After a few days of eating right, I was comfortable limiting my calories even further on days when I was relatively inactive. On days when I exercise, I eat more to fuel up. The bar graph thing doesn't seem to work right. I have some weird negative numbers too. But no worries, it is a good way to keep track day-to-day. Anyways, that is about all I know. You can friend me if you like

when your net calories for the day is in the negative, it means that you put out more calories than you took in. when you complete your diet/fitness profile in MFP, it automatically calculates your recommended calorie intake for the day based on your activity level, weight loss goals, height, weight, etc. that number is what you want to aim for each day, more or less -- don't freak out if you're not exactly on target everyday.

when you log your exercise, it automatically adjusts the number of calories to reflect the amount of calories you've 'earned' through exercising. it's recommended that you eat at least some of those extra calories so that you're not in the negative. you'll have to do your own little experiments to see what net calorie amount is best for you. it might be that you need to eat all of your exercise calories to lose weight. or, you might not -- it all depends on your body. Hope this helps...

So, here is the deal (by example), the result is what you should be eating at the end of the day.

Basic 1200, if no exercise: 1200 + 0 = 1200
Basic 1200, if say running and burn 300 calories: 1200 + 300 = 1500 (eat around this number).

You need to eat your workout calories (the 300 in this example). Your muscle needs more calories to survive/build, and fat need about 4% what muscle needs to survive. Therefore, if you constantly under taking calories, the workout ones, your body will end up loss muscles, not fat (that's what many people refer to: body started to store more fat when one is in starving mode).

since you've prolly got a hang of it now ..Welcome