calorie ?

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acoppolo78
acoppolo78 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have my calorie goal for the day to be 1420, i add in what i do at the gym which is usually 30-40 minutes on an elliptical trainer. Which is more accurate in counting calories the equipment im using or this app. And should i add in what i walk throughout the day as calories burned? What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

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  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
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    You will lose weight at 1420, period. You told MFP how much you wanted to lose per week, it gave you a target for that. So there's no "good amount of calories to burn per day" to lose weight. You don't NEED to burn extra. So do exercise you want to do and feel good doing, for fitness and wellness and health. Don't push to hit arbitrary calorie burn goals.

    For burns, use the lower estimate. If you're doing steady state cardio (no intervals, breaks, changes in speed, etc) and you are wearing an HRM, or your machine has an HRM (like in the handles and you keep your hands there) then go with the HRM estimate.

    If you go on a walk, you can log it. Walking as part of your day is accounted for when you tell MFP your lifestyle (sedentary, lightly active, etc) -- this is intended to account for types of movement that is not easy to quantify, in the way that running a set distance in a given amount of time is.

    MFP is also designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. You should eat back 50-75% to start, and see how that goes. You can adjust to eat fewer or more back based on actual results (how you feel, how you perform, how much weight you're losing over time -- give it a few weeks).
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    edited May 2015
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    I have my calorie goal for the day to be 1420, i add in what i do at the gym which is usually 30-40 minutes on an elliptical trainer. Which is more accurate in counting calories the equipment im using or this app.

    In my experience, neither is particularly accurate. I'd take maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of the average of what the two of them give you. And if after a few weeks, you find that's not working, adjust as necessary.
    And should i add in what i walk throughout the day as calories burned?

    No you account for that in your activity settings in your MFP app...if you have a 'desk job', choose sedentary. If you have a job that you walk around a lot (say maybe a teacher), choose lightly active. If you have a very physical job, choose 'active'.
    What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    More than you eat.

  • astralpictures
    astralpictures Posts: 218 Member
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    Both the app and the machine aren't very accurate. A heart rate monitor is more accurate, but still not perfect. Machines sometimes double the amount of calories you actually burned.

    Don't add what you walk normally throughout the day, but make sure you select how active you are when filling out your profile. If you go on walks above and beyond normal (hiking, fast walking in the park), log those. I use Runkeeper and sync it with MFP.

    There isn't a good amount of calories to burn per day to lose weight. A deficit is all that's required, and it's easier to be in a deficit with a controlled diet. Just make sure you eat your 1420 calories MFP gave you without exercise, and eat back maybe half of your exercise calories (for example you get a HR monitor, it tells you that you burned 300 calories at the gym, eat an extra 150 calories for the day, so 1570 total, to be safe for over-estimating the burn).
  • acoppolo78
    acoppolo78 Posts: 13 Member
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    What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    More than you eat.

    [/quote]

    So your saying if i eat 1400 calories a day then I should burn the same amount of calories
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    More than you eat.

    So your saying if i eat 1400 calories a day then I should burn the same amount of calories[/quote]

    This doesn't mean you need to burn more than 1400 calories with exercise. Most of us burn most of our calories just existing and doing daily activities.

  • jaqcan
    jaqcan Posts: 498 Member
    edited May 2015
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?
    More than you eat.

    So your saying if i eat 1400 calories a day then I should burn the same amount of calories

    You are always burning calories, just by existing. You don't need to out exercise your food intake. If 1400 calories is what MFP has given you, then just by existing and moving about your daily life, you will burn more than that for weight loss.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    More than you eat.

    So your saying if i eat 1400 calories a day then I should burn the same amount of calories[/quote]

    You already burn more than what MFP gives you to eat just by going about your day (work, school, taking care of the family, errands, socializing, and basic bodily functions), so exercise is added into your deficit when you do it (it's not a requirement). I'd take 50% off the lower number and log that.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    I have my calorie goal for the day to be 1420, i add in what i do at the gym which is usually 30-40 minutes on an elliptical trainer. Which is more accurate in counting calories the equipment im using or this app. And should i add in what i walk throughout the day as calories burned? What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    only eat back half of your burned calories.

    I would not add in the walking calories..

    I assume you are doing MFP method, and not TDEE..yes?
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    More than you eat.

    So your saying if i eat 1400 calories a day then I should burn the same amount of calories

    Well to lose weight, you need to burn MORE than 1400.

    But as others have pointed out, that doesn't mean you need to log 1400 calories just from exercise. Your body burns calories all day long to pump your heart, fire the neurons in your brain, etc.

    You can estimate how many calories this is using one of many online calculators...but remember it is just that...an estimate.
  • acoppolo78
    acoppolo78 Posts: 13 Member
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    What is TDEE?
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

    It's the sum of calories you body burns just to function (also known as BMR) + Calories burned from normal day-to-day activity + calories burned from intentional additional exercise.
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
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    ceoverturf wrote: »
    Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

    It's the sum of calories you body burns just to function (also known as BMR) + Calories burned from normal day-to-day activity + calories burned from intentional additional exercise.

    OP, if you go into the Getting Started forums, there are stickies at the top with a lot of great information. You really should start there. There are actually great stickies at the top of most of the forum pages.
  • acoppolo78
    acoppolo78 Posts: 13 Member
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    ndj1979 wrote: »
    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    I have my calorie goal for the day to be 1420, i add in what i do at the gym which is usually 30-40 minutes on an elliptical trainer. Which is more accurate in counting calories the equipment im using or this app. And should i add in what i walk throughout the day as calories burned? What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    only eat back half of your burned calories.

    I would not add in the walking calories..

    I assume you are doing MFP method, and not TDEE..yes?

    Yes im only using MFP
  • MakePeasNotWar
    MakePeasNotWar Posts: 1,329 Member
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    What is TDEE?

    Total daily energy expenditure, but you don't need to know that to use MFP. It will do the calculations for you. You may be overcomplicating things.

    Let MFP pick your target based on the goals and activity level you select.

    Add back some portion of your exercise calories for workouts or unusual activities (i.e. not included in your activity level)

    If your weight loss is too fast or too slow, adjust in a month or so.

    If you prefer to do your own math, a quick google search for "TDEE calculator" will help you do that.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    acoppolo78 wrote: »
    I have my calorie goal for the day to be 1420, i add in what i do at the gym which is usually 30-40 minutes on an elliptical trainer. Which is more accurate in counting calories the equipment im using or this app. And should i add in what i walk throughout the day as calories burned? What is a good amount of calories to burn per day to loose weight?

    only eat back half of your burned calories.

    I would not add in the walking calories..

    I assume you are doing MFP method, and not TDEE..yes?

    Yes im only using MFP

    then yes, only eat back half of exercise calories.
  • astralpictures
    astralpictures Posts: 218 Member
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    Think of TDEE as the total amount of fuel your body uses daily to carry out every bodily function including involuntary ones (beating heart, breathing, digesting food, reactions etc...) and voluntary ones (kinetic motion from moving muscles). We use daily measurements because it's convenient to go with an average, but your energy needs fluctuate all the time.

    If you spend the entire day lying on the couch, you'll burn less energy for that day. If you went to a museum and walked around a lot, you may burn more energy than normal. If you chewed a lot of gum and laughed a lot, maybe you burned 50 more calories than normal. That's what I mean about fluctuations, because every action requires energy. Some people also have medical conditions that will give them a slightly faster or slower metabolism, but it's not usually a crazy difference like some people think. But the calculators exist to pick a nice average that should be fairly close to your energy needs on a weekly basis.

    So if you needed 2000 calories for the day for all of these voluntary and involuntary activities and you only ate 1500 calories, your body will make up the difference because it must balance out and get those 2000 calories. It does that by taking it from your internal "store," which means mostly fat and some muscle (and eventually tissues, and organs and other bad things if you were truly starving). This is what leads to weight loss, since it converts fat and some muscle into fuel to get that extra 500 calories. So technically your body is still "eating" 2000 calories, it just eats 500 of them from yourself.

    Exercise really just ups the voluntary (and by connection, involuntary) side of the burn by consciously moving more, which leads to a faster heart rate, breathing, blood flow, muscle repair and a whole bunch of cool effects that require more calories.

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