Help with understanding calories

make sure your net never drops below 1200 and you shall shed more fat.

how long have you been working out? do you use a HRM? are you being honest with you cal count and exercise? you should see weightloss not only toning...when was your last physical and blood work?

Eat loads of protein so you're burning fat not muscle - eggs, fish, peanut butter.
http://www.shapefit.com/dailycalorie-calc.html
That's a good measure of how many calories to take in no matter how much you want to lose. As long as you don't eat until your full to the brim, you eat healthily, and eat all your meals, it should be easy to hit your goal, and shouldn't matter whether you're slightly over/under.

Hope that helped!

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
found a better calculator!

Thanks for this post. I am having the same problem, working out everyday and not losing on the scale. It's very frustrating cuz I am a number freak, I just can't seem to gauge my success by my measurements, I need to see the scale go down because I know it can, I've done it before.

I understand now how this works but what confuses me is on WW you eat to your point total and don't have to eat any of the activity points you get and yet you still lose, maybe I'm still not eating enough at 1200 cals plus exercise? So you are saying that I should be eating back most of the calories I just burnt? Help. :frown:

PS: And how do you get your ticker into every post, do you have to paste it everytime?

Thanks in advance.
DJ

Yes, MFP is designed for you to eat the calories you burn in exercise. MFP includes a built in deficit, regardless of exercise. If you don't replace the exercise cals, you make your deficit larger, which may be unhealthy. Read the threads I posted above and that may help you figure out what your deficit/goal should be.

Design your ticker, then click Signature at the top of the board and paste it there.

You should eat your calories from exersise back! on days i know i'm going to the gym, i log my exersie in the morning , then have bigger meals those days!


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit


This is just a part of it! please read the link above


Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)



Good luck on your journey

So I just went back and changed my goals to 1400, let's see if this makes a difference this week.

Thanks all.

DJ:flowerforyou:

when you go to the home page (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) You want the big "Calories remaining" number to be as close to 0 as you can make it (after filling in your exercise and food diaries)

Hey Jess, I know you already know my opinion, but you definitely need to eat at least 1500-1800 calories per day min. with the amount of working out you do. Also, I know you don't want to hear this, but you might need to workout LESS! Now a days the latest research says RECOVERY is the most important part of a training program. You might be over working, which causes your body to produce stress hormones, and that does not allow you to lose weight. You should stick to 3-4 days a week of hard training, and the other 2 days do something light, like yoga or swimming or just an easy walk to give your body a chance to recover. Take at least one day off of all training per week. I know they say "calories in/ calories out" is the answer, but that is an over simplified answer to weight loss. We are not robots! All the best programs I have read about lately are actually much higher in calories in, and high intensity shorter workouts (less frequently) are becoming the standard. Sorry this is so long, but as your trainer and friend I feel I have to chime in!!