Calorie/Water Question

My doctor said to eat 1400 calories a day and that's exactly what I try to eat everyday. Some days I'm shy of the total or some days I go over but I try to stay in that range. I do NOT eat my exercise calories, the fat I'm trying to burn off my body.

I hope you're successful in your goals.

Hi there :-) I'd say stick to reaching your 1800 Cals per day as your doc said. If you do eat back exercise Cals then only eat 25-50% of them. Most machines will overestimate what you burn.
Also, just drink water when you're thirsty. Some days I'll drink 2L while others I'll drink more like 4L. Your body is pretty good at letting you know what it needs.

It kind of depends on how your doctor came up with your 1800 calorie goal. I would check with your doctor's office, if you are going to follow their calorie advice. Until then, I'd say eat the 1800 and if you are still hungry on days you exercise, eat a little extra.

But if your goal is 1800, you should generally eat 1800, not less than 1800. Your doctor should have figured the deficit you need into that number. Hope I'm understanding your question, and hope that makes sense!

You don't really need to stress about exact numbers. Just pick one, MFP or your doctor's, and stick to it for a while and see how your weight loss goes. After a month re-evaluate and see if you need to increase/decrease your calories or tighten up your logging. Keep in mind if you use your doctor's value you would need to re-evaluate your number every time you lose a good amount of weight. As you lose weight your body gets smaller and requires fewer calories to operate, causing your weight loss to slow down. If you go with MFP's suggestion it will adjust your calories based on you logged weight automatically. Make sure your activity level is set to sedentary unless your daily job or non-exercise lifestyle is physically demanding.

As for exercise, same thing. Pick a number between 0%-100% to eat back and stick to it for a while then see how if you are losing the expected amount you are supposed to be losing a month. If not, adjust up/down accordingly.

Personally, I drink water when I'm thirsty and I don't count it. It has little to do with weight loss unless you use calorific drinks to quench your thirst.

Simplify as the process as much as possible and don't get lost in details because the easier the process feels the more likely you are to stick to it. All you need to know for now is that it's best to log every single thing you eat, and that weighing solid foods is more accurate than measuring.

Your activity level doesn't take into account your meaningful exercise. It has more to do with your job, home life etc, etc.

Losingweight1983 wrote: »

Another question: For calories, if I go by what MFP says, for activity level and working out 5 days a week for 45-60 minutes a day, what should I put...not very active, lightly active, active, or very active?

Exercise is not included in your activity level, it gets added separately. I walk around 15kms a day 7 days a week, but I've set mfp to sedentary, because it's all intentional exercise. Plus I have my fitbit synced with mfp which adds those exercise calories automatically.

If you have a sit down office job, you'd be sedentary. If you have a job that requires lots of walking around or lifting etc, you'd be lightly active.

yes

Losingweight1983 wrote: »

singingflutelady wrote: »

yes

How do figure out the serving part?

The serving depends upon how many calories you have left and/or are willing to spend, on that particular food. Think of your calories, as a daily bank account & if you want more calories/money, then you have to earn it; via exercise/job.