I need help on how many Calories I should Consume and how many calories i should burn

Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is a more important number. That's your current maintenance including exercise. Because exercise is included in this number you don't need to eat those calories back. If you want to lose 1.5 pounds a week take 750 off that number. If you want to lose 2 pounds a week take 1,000 off that number.

1200 is a minimum default BEFORE exercise. This number is based on meeting nutritional guidelines. Because it's a default it could be appropriate OR it could be your goal is too high. You have a ways to go so 2 pounds a week would be ok to start. If you start at 1200 then you should definitely eat calories back.

Pick something less than TDEE and something you can live with for awhile.

If BMR is 1821, next step is to estimate your normal activity level. If sedentary and no exercise then your TDEE would be about 2185. A safe & easy method is to take 500 off this number, aim to eat about 1685 per day. That's a 1 pound per week loss. Then make an effort to NOT be sedentary. Go for a walk. Ride a bike. Take a Zumba or dance class. Find things you like to do, and do them. The extra movement/activity/exercise (whatever you want to call it) will increase your TDEE so you're burning more than 2185 per day, meaning you'll create extra deficit based on moving more. But still eat around 1685 and not 'eat back' exercise calories.

michelleselmon wrote: »

Thanks so much for your help So If im exercising I don't need to eat The calories back correct? And I have looked up my BMR on Different sites and some say 1700-1821.75 so I am guessing It's somewhere in the middle if i want to lose 2 pounds a week do i take a 1,000 off? It's so confusing lol and also how many calories do i need to burn a day to lose the 2 pounds a week?

So If im exercising I don't need to eat The calories back correct? Correct when using the TDEE method less 750 (or whatever number). TDEE is maintenance and there for INCLUDES exercise already.

BMR is if you stayed in bed 24/7......unless you are bedridden do NOT take 750-1,000 off this number. You should not eat less than 1200 for nutritional purposes. Eating less than this over time.....brittle nails, hair loss (bad things happen).

MFP will not give a number below 1200....and then you should eat (intentional) exercise calories back. Calorie burn estimates provided by MFP are generous.....eat about 50-75% back

It really depends on how much you are going to stick to your plan.

A 500 calories or less is going to be much easier to deal with you have more room to make mistakes. The down side it will take longer to reach your goal.

600-1000 will be a bigger cut and you will have to find a way to stick it out through the hunger. The plus side is you will be on a diet for a shorter time.

Other important questions are you going to exercise and if so how much?
What is your diet plan going to look like and what are you going to do if you can't stick to it (date,trip,work)?

Ok, not trying to hijack but I also don't want to start a new thread. I have this same question.

I'm 38, 5'7", 205 lbs. I have a sedentary lifestyle. But I do go to the gym daily. MFP has my calorie goal at 1203. My calories earned from activity so far today is 869. This usually ends at around 950-1000. Should I be eating those back? Typically I eat between 1300-1500 total for the day. But I'm not seeing much downward movement on the scale this week, lost 3 pounds last week though.

Thanks for any advice. Again not trying to hijack.

Those activity calories are from my Fitbit syncing with MFP. I do not log my workouts as I track them in my Fitbit and don't want to duplicate those.

TeaBea wrote: »

mykidsrock76 wrote: »

Those activity calories are from my Fitbit syncing with MFP. I do not log my workouts as I track them in my Fitbit and don't want to duplicate those.

Do you have negative adjustments enabled? If yes, it's comparing your activity level (you set) in MFP against your actual activity level..........

Read up in here on your tracker, your type of exercise, etc......for many people FitBit is spot on

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Yes, I do have negative adjustments enabled. I set my activity level in MFP as sedentary because I'm not overly active throughout the day. After the gym I typically take my kids to the pool and lounge on a chair. (Please, no judgements )

Like for today it says I burnt 670 during my workout which is probably pretty darn close for what I did.

So I should or shouldn't eat any or all of those 869 calories?

Oh, and thank you!

michelleselmon wrote: »

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

If BMR is 1821, next step is to estimate your normal activity level. If sedentary and no exercise then your TDEE would be about 2185. A safe & easy method is to take 500 off this number, aim to eat about 1685 per day. That's a 1 pound per week loss. Then make an effort to NOT be sedentary. Go for a walk. Ride a bike. Take a Zumba or dance class. Find things you like to do, and do them. The extra movement/activity/exercise (whatever you want to call it) will increase your TDEE so you're burning more than 2185 per day, meaning you'll create extra deficit based on moving more. But still eat around 1685 and not 'eat back' exercise calories.

Thanks so much for the help So i eat the 1685 per day. but how much should i be burning a day i am going to do Leslie Sansone's Walk at home videos I did a 3 mile walk today the problem is i'm not sure how many calories i am even burning and i am going to start zumba tomorrow And again thanks so much for the help i have been so confused i have been driving my self crazy researching this stuff lol

You could just make it easy if you just started - plug your stats and goals into MFP. Eat what MFP tells you to eat. Log food accurately. Enter your exercise. Eat 50-75% of your exercise calories (because they're generally overestimated). Readjust after 4-6 weeks if necessary.

michelleselmon wrote: »

veganbaum
I have been logging since yesterday And do i need to be burning off more than 1685 calories a day? to lose a pound I'm still a little confused about that part of it There's no way i could burn that much off in a day with having 2 kids lol Again thanks so much for all your help

I second the suggestion to stick your stats in MFP, ask for 2 lbs (if that's what you want--at your weight it's fine, although if you want a few more calories as for 1.5), and eat what it says. Doing it that way you'd add in the exercise calories and eat back some of them (I'd say start with about 50-75%). For the Sansone videos you can either log walking or they are likely in the database.

Most of the 1685 you burn is what you burn just by being alive. In fact, the BMR number you quoted in the first post is how much you'd burn if in bed all day. So you burn more than that just doing your normal activities. Exercise is on top of that, and is going to be more like 200-300, probably.

You should aim to eat about 150-200 over your BMR.
Burn as many calories as you like. The more you burn, the more results you will see (body fat % and weight).

Try www.iifym.com to figure out your optimal calories and macros. Remember to set exercise to zero if you're using that calorie goal on MFP (so you can adjust total based on calories burned).

michelleselmon wrote: »

lemurcat12
ok Thanks I am going to move my stats down to 1.5 pound even though I want to burn 2 pounds i just don't think i can burn that much i have been reading i need to burn more than what i am eating so if i eat 1600 i can't burn that much in a day i am doing the 3 mile walks and it says i am burning 391 calories so if i do Zumba i think i could burn another 300-500 and i want to aim for burning 600-800 a day

You are seriously making this too complicated (I don't mean that in a harsh way - you're just making it harder on yourself!).

I'll repeat: plug your stats and goals into MFP. Eat what MFP tells you to eat. Log food accurately. Enter your exercise. Eat 50-75% of your exercise calories (because they're generally overestimated). Readjust after 4-6 weeks if necessary. That's it. So long as you are accurate with your food logging, you will have the deficit you tell MFP you wanted.

As lemurcat said, most of what your body burns is just from living - from keeping your body functioning. You don't have to eat 1600 and burn more than that (edited to add - you don't need to burn more than that through exercise). If you entered your stats into MFP, and told it you want to lose 1 or 2 pounds or whatever, that number ALREADY gives you the deficit you need. So eat the number of calories MFP tells you to eat. Enter your exercise, and eat 50-75% of those calories also.

Don't make it harder on yourself than it needs to be. That's often what leads people to quitting. Down the line, as you learn more, you can start caring more about TDEE and all that jazz.