Need Help!

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martyc91
martyc91 Posts: 55
in Food and Nutrition
I read in a men health magazine that in order to lose weight one has to burn more calories during the day than they consume - then can anyone explain to me why my calorie goal for the day is 1430 and if I work out and burn 500 calories per day; I am supposed to consume those calories in food consumption - making my daily caloric intake @ 1930 calories. If I burn 1500 calories per day, why would it not be the other way around in making sure that I eat around 1,200 calories; around 300 calories less than I am burning per day to lose weight? I am confused! Can anyone help me with this information? Thanks!

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  • skbruewer
    skbruewer Posts: 144 Member
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    You also burn calories all day by just being alive. I wear a BodyBugg which shows me how many calories I burn a day. I shoot for 2500 doing everything from working out to sleeping! Then I try to make sure that I have at LEAST a 500 calorie deficit based on food.
  • fancy_face35
    fancy_face35 Posts: 7
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    I do not eat my calories burned, seems to help me:smile:
  • natekorpusik
    natekorpusik Posts: 176 Member
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    MFP is setting a calorie goal that is already in a deficit for you so that you can lose weight. However, if you have too few calories you will enter starvation mode and slow your metabolism. For example, if MFP says 1500 calories per day is what you need to lose weight then you exercise and burn 500 calories it looks like this. 1500(recommended calories) minus 500(exercise) = 1000. This is too few calories to support the proper function. Since exercise uses calories, you need to add most of them back for fuel. There are a lot of factors to take into account. More than just calories in and calories out. Metabolism, quality of calories, sodium, protein, and the list goes on. It sounds like a lot, but you will get used to it. For now I would just trust that you should eat back your calories. If you have any doubt consider this. I have lost 50 lbs over the last few months using this method. Best of luck.
  • rea1980
    rea1980 Posts: 93 Member
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    First you need to find your BMR(Base Metabolic Rate) that is how many colories you would burn if you did nothing for an entire day, and I mean literally nothing. For example mine is 1,941. But under normal daily activity I figure I am going to burn an extra 500 calories, which is on the lower side because I work at a desk all day, if you have a very active job, like a deliverying mail it will be higher. So for me a normal day without exercising I need to consume 2441 calories a day and I will not loose weight nor will I gain weight, given I eat a balanced diet of course. For every pound you want to loose a week you need to have a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day (3500 calories = 1 lb). So if I want to loose 2 lbs a week I need to only consume 1441 calories a day. I should loose 2 lbs a week doing this. Now if I eat just like that but I also burn 600 calories working out, I actually have a deficit of 1600 calories which would mean that I would loose over 3 lbs in a week. This is NOT healthy. You should never loose more than 2 lbs a week. This is why I have to eat back those 600 calories that I burned.

    MFP will automatically figure what intake should be based on the information you have put in about yourself(weight, height, gender, etc.) and deduct based on your goal you set. MAke sure your goal is set how you want it and your information is in correct.

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