Jillian vs. Bob

I personally do eat my exercise calories. I have found that if I don't, I feel sick, tired, nauseated, and have migraines. It's not worth it not to. I don't need to lose 10 lbs a week, 1 a week makes me happy

I have been on MFP and eating healthfully/working out for 3 months. First two months have been great.

The past month, I dropped three pounds week one, stayed the same week 2, and jumped up three pounds week three. Basically, if I am the same weight as last week, I will have lost no weight this month. I am young, healthy, very active, and dedicated to my meal plan. What has changed in the past month? I've started eating my exercise calories.

So Saturday (weigh in day) is decision day. If I am down at least three pounds (to make a month average of 3 lbs) I will continue with the eating the exercise calories. If not, its back to a 1500 baseline for me.

so my BMR was 1474. does that mean I need to eat 1000/day? that isn't too low?

That means you should have your goals around 1474 calories/day. Mine is set just below my BMR. I used 1.5 lbs per week as my goal.

" My basal metabolic rate is 2099 (based on test performed by trainer) which means that is how many calories I will burn just for existing everyday. So I eat between 1500-1599 calories per day to create to 500 calorie deficit. Since 1lb = 3500 calories, creating that deficit 7 days a week should cause me to lose 1 lb per week. When I exercise, that increases that daily deficit, which in turn increases my weight loss. "

so if my BMR is 1474 minus the 500 deficit, that takes me around 1000. if I eat exactly the amount I burn where's the deficit? no wonder I haven't been losing much.

I'm no nutrition expert, but 1000 calories sounds really low to me. You may want to consult with a nutritionist. Remember, your BMR is the amount of calories that your body burns just to carry out it's basic fuctions. Once you get out of bed for the day, that number actually increases (mine was 2636/day). My trainer said that I could probably eat the 2000 calories that is my BMR and still lose weight, but I chose to reduce down to the 1500, which he also said is fine. The biggest thing is that you have to consume less calories than you expend every day. I'm actually doing an experiment today where I am wearing my HRM all day and night to see how many calories I actually burn in a 24 hour period. I'm curious to see how close that number is to my BMR that we calculated at the gym. I can tell you that I've had this thing on for 6 hours and 47 minutes and I've already burned 1102 calories just sitting at my desk at work. I've only eaten 800 calories so far, so I'm already at a deficit for today.

And to get back on topic....I would choose Jillian. I think she's the best. Bob always seems to be stronger throughout the season, but Jillian has had more finalists and 4 out of the 6 winners were Black team members.