Lose 5 lbs in 5 weeks!

Thanks for posting this but I think most people know this already.

How I wish it was that simple. There are way too many other factors involved than just burning 3500 calories a week to lose one pound a week.

Fact: A pound is equal to 3,500 calories.

3,500 calories divided by 7 days a week: 3,500 / 7 = 500 calories need to be burned a day

If you want to lose 1 pound a week, then you need to burn 500 calories a day.

To do this you need to:

1. Consume your total calories given to you for the day but NOT go over.
2. Burn 500 calories each day with exercise.
3. IF you go over the calories given to you, then you need to burn those calories as well.

EXAMPLE: 1,400 Calories given to you for the day
1,450 Calories are eaten which means you went over by 50 calories

-550 Calories need to be burned off with exercise to meet the 3,500 calorie mark for the week.

If you do this for 5 weeks straight, you will have lost 5 pounds.

Keep track of those calories and lose those pounds!

This is not correct as the 1400 MFP gives you is a caloric intake to lose your goal amount of weight. If you signed up for MFP and chose 1 lb/week and it gave you 1400, it means that you burn 1900 calories/day without exercise and you will lose 1 lb/week eating 1400 as 1900-1400 = 500 cal deficit, if you only want to lose 1lb/week and you burn 500 from working out, you should actually eat that 500 back as you increased maintenance to 2400 (1900+500 burned from exercise) so now you must eat 1900 (2400-500) in order to lose your 1 lb/week.

To get your maintenance calories go to click goals, and look at the top right, calories burned from normal daily activity. That is maintenance and there are 3 ways to lose 1lb/week using this number.
1. eat that full amount and burn 500 from exercise
2. eat 500 calories less than that number and don't do any exercise, or
3. any combination of the 2 above i.e. eat 200 less than maintenance and burn 300 from exercise.

Fact: A pound is equal to 3,500 calories.

3,500 calories divided by 7 days a week: 3,500 / 7 = 500 calories need to be burned a day

If you want to lose 1 pound a week, then you need to burn 500 calories a day.

To do this you need to:

1. Consume your total calories given to you for the day but NOT go over.
2. Burn 500 calories each day with exercise.
3. IF you go over the calories given to you, then you need to burn those calories as well.

EXAMPLE: 1,400 Calories given to you for the day
1,450 Calories are eaten which means you went over by 50 calories

-550 Calories need to be burned off with exercise to meet the 3,500 calorie mark for the week.

If you do this for 5 weeks straight, you will have lost 5 pounds.

Keep track of those calories and lose those pounds!

I don't really think it is a "fact" that there are 3500 calories in a pound. See this video to understand what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/user/UndergroundWellness#p/u/43/djGCQ9b7mHo

And who is to say that those 3500 calories that are burned off are going to be made up entirely of fat. You could be burning muscle for example if you do not eat enough etc.

Also, are you saying that the number MFP gives you doesn't already include the 500 calories? (if you opted to lose 1lb a week)

So we should eat 1400 calories and burn off an additional 500? Leaving us with 900 calories net? This is far too low, MFP has already calculated the deficit.

I am always a little wary of over-simplified information about weight loss. I hope that people who follow this and then only lose, say, 4lbs in 5 weeks don't get disheartened.

Sorry for my stupidness I guess I was helping since this helped me :,(

No one said stupid, so don't take it that way. We were just clarifying to you and others that may read your post that MFP already factors in your 500 cal deficit with the calories it gives you, so you will lose 1 lb/week eating 100% of what the site suggests, if you burn more you should eat them back to ensure your caloric deficit is not too large, or you risk losing a large % of lean muscle, and not just body fat.