New= Need explaining..

itsmylife28
itsmylife28 Posts: 19
edited September 23 in Motivation and Support
I dont really understand the calorie thing. My goal is 1200, but a i see alot of other people have higher than I do.. does this mean I did something wrong? Ive always herd you need to eat more small amounts to keep your metabolism going.. but why is mine so low? And also do I incorporate my exercise into my goal or what? I am trying to get my head around everything.
I am roughly 155 pounds. I ideally like to work out 3 times a week.. and I have a desk job. I want to lose roughly 25 pounds.


Can someone please explain it to me =[


[I am using roughly as I live in aus and everyone else seems to not be from australia.]

Replies

  • Caper88
    Caper88 Posts: 418 Member
    You have to have a calorie deficiency to lose weight. That is your number based off of doing nothing. The idea is to add in your work outs. When you add it in your work outs it will add calories to your food diary. This then gives you more calories that you can eat.
  • jocember
    jocember Posts: 31 Member
    From what I understand, it's like this: your body burns a certain amount of calories just existing every day (for most people, around 2,000-3,000) - if you want to maintain your weight, you would try to eat about as many calories as you burn each day. If you wanted to gain, you'd eat more. And if you want to lose, you eat less - that way you are always burning more energy than you consume. Exercise on top of that helps to burn even more calories, thus enhancing the loss.

    People at different sizes and activity levels will require more or less calories to lose at a safe rate than others.
  • MaddyBrah
    MaddyBrah Posts: 8
    Different people of different ages and weights, etc will have different calorie goals depending on how fast they want to lose the weight.

    Btw, i'm from Australia too :)
  • Caper88
    Caper88 Posts: 418 Member
    jocember explained it very well. Just remember if you work out and add it into your diary you will be allowed more calories to eat. The number you are given to start off with does not take into account you will be working out.
  • elid
    elid Posts: 209 Member
    The heavier you are, the more calories it takes to run your body. Since your weight loss goal is relatively small (in the grand scheme of things) and you say you are sedentary, your calorie goal will be fairly low if you want to lose weight.

    If you go up to the "Tools" tab and click "BMR calculator", you can figure out how many calories it takes for your body to run itself every day (this does not include any activity such as moving, walking, etc. It's an estimate of what you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day). Of course since most people don't stay in bed all day and do some activity, the # of calories it takes to maintain weight will be higher than their BMR.

    And as a previous poster mentioned, exercising adds calories to the total you can eat. :smile:
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Welcome! Try reading this thread, and also look through the stickies (thumbtack threads at top of each topic). Will explain a lot about how MFP works and how to set up a good plan. Good luck to you!

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits
  • itsmylife28
    itsmylife28 Posts: 19
    Thankyou so much all of you =]
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