Not sure if its right but it works for me!!

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rdonald711
rdonald711 Posts: 40 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been reading a lot of posts speaking of how we need to eat at least 1200 cals a day etc etc, but I may be wrong but I am under the impression that the way to lose weight is to expend more calories than you take in. I never reach my calorie goal of 1200 (funny I'm never hungry, now I know when I ate like I did before I was just eating to be eating, unless it was sweets) and if I do get close I make sure I exercise it right down as much as I can, I want to ensure I exercise at least the 3500 cals it takes to lose a pound in a week if I can. This may only be for me but I have had much better success like this than I have ever had, I stay under cals, stay under carbs and work out at least 30 min to an hour a day, I have lost 30 pounds, my arms are getting leaner, I beginning to feel like I did when I was boxing years ago, so I guess its to each their own when it comes to cal intake. HAPPY WEIGHT LOSS

Replies

  • CarissaNew
    CarissaNew Posts: 223 Member
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    Bump! I was just thinking about this the other day! I think I have been eating too many of my exercise calories!!! This post makes sense to me!
  • patio1313
    patio1313 Posts: 169 Member
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    Basically if it feels right...I mean I feel why eat if you are not hungry. There will be times that you might "over-indulge" and that is fine, but do what works for you and what helps you to see your results...As long as you do not starve yourself
  • sauza
    sauza Posts: 159 Member
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    Works for me too, I am a fanatic about food being fuel and that you have to eat enough, but enough for you, right? If I feel like I am stuffing a goose, this can't be good. If I am hungry, I eat.
  • pftjill
    pftjill Posts: 488
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    Are you doing strength training? Be careful, because if you aren't getting everything you need it does affect your body negatively. Of course you will lose weight if you eat too little calories, but it isn't the healthiest option. That is like that HCG diet that says to only eat 500 calories-they should just say-we promote anorexia. Be careful and make sure you are getting what your body needs, because it may not be taking your weight from your fat if you do it the wrong way-it will go to other sources as much as possible to keep that fat because you are not giving your body what it needs.
  • ShrinkinMel
    ShrinkinMel Posts: 982 Member
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    ITs not eat less than you burn from exercise its less they you burn TOTAL. The math that the calculations in the profile do is factoring those things in. Your body at rest if you do nothing all day is going to burn quite a bit just pumping blood and breathing.

    If you do what your are doing and don't see loss then you may want to take the well meaning advice of the majority here and eat what MFP tells you to eat. I personally eat a little less than the target it sets including my exercise calories(simply because estimates on burned calories can be off). If I exercise it may be 2000 calories or more. It works TRUST ME. Eating less than 1200 calories no matter how little you exercise can really screw up your body. Not just for the "starvation mode" theory but your organs. I was eating less than 1200 for a couple months in 2009 and dropped a good 30 lbs but then stalled and it came on super fast when I returned to eating normal. 3 months after that I was having upper right tummy pain so bad I couldn't sleep one night. I went to ER when my mom got off work(night shift) and found out I had 5 large gall stones most likely caused by that starvation period. It doesn't take long to mess it up either. For your weight 1200 calories may be fine but if it says 1200 calories you should eat 1200 calories. The closer your are to ideal weight the more important it is. While I have a lot of fat storage to burn from people with less will start cutting into their muscle mass.

    If you eat less than 1200 and burn calories off you will eventually be losing muscle and that is NOT what you want to be losing.
  • morganadk2_deleted
    morganadk2_deleted Posts: 1,696 Member
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    only problem with that is when under 1200 stops working were do you go from there, its not healthy or sensible in my opinion!


    Say healthy and strong
  • rdonald711
    rdonald711 Posts: 40 Member
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    Not sure if I was misunderstood by some. I eat, I just eat when I'm hungry and that does not alway equal to 1200 calories. I'm working on losing baby weight right now but as far as gaining muscle or losing muscle I was always very atheletic and being in the military I stay quite active now and I have never had an issue losing muscle even if I don't eat the alloted amount of cals MFP tells me too. Sorry I just don't really believe that there is a set number of calories one needs. Of course a fad diet like HCG diet wants you to live off of 500 calories a day, that's silly but on the other hand I have had days when my caloric intake has been less than 500, the other day it was in the negative.. I don't fell like I'm starving myself i'm just exerting more than I have taken in. This doesnt happen everyday but it does and it works just fine for me,
  • StaciO
    StaciO Posts: 998
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    If this works for you that is great. It worked for me too for about 3 months then the scale stopped moving.( I had my goal set to 2 pounds a week) I even started exercising more and eating less. I actually gained weight. I did that for 2 weeks then changed my goal to 1 pound a week and made sure that my net calories were at least 1200 everyday last week. I lost 4 pounds. I say if it is working don't fix it. But if it quits working, try eating a little more. Congrats on your loss so far.

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