Need help... Confused about calories!

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  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
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    First of all, don't worry about it too much. Undereating is bad, but at your weight it is not as harmful as at lower weights. So you have some time to figure this out.

    Your theoretical understanding is spot on (apart from the "starvation mode" thing, which a few people have already corrected you on). There are a few possibilities:

    1) you are underestimating your food. Getting a food scale will fix this.

    2) you are overestimating your exercise. You absolutely should eat back exercise calories, but you need to be very careful not to overestimate them. Conservative estimates all the way.

    3) you just need more time. 2 weeks is not much and water weight fluctuation could easily mask fat loss over that time frame, especially if you have started a new exercise regime. Tighten up your accuracy on food and exercise and then give it another two weeks and see what happens.
  • razzapool
    razzapool Posts: 89 Member
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    tbh I think weighing your portions although brilliant is more helpful when u don't need lose loads I mean when I started I eat what I thought was healthy ( rice, chicken breast, vegs) and just piled my plate high so I was full and didn't snack and I lost weight quite fast with exercise as well, but then as I lost weight and got closer to I guess a better weight then it got harder and I couldn't lose any that's when the weighing portions really helped me
  • Miribrown03
    Miribrown03 Posts: 5 Member
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    I'm trying to understand something here (I'm a newbie Feb 2017). Does it mean the calories you burned in exercise is also added as part of your calorie intake for the day? I thought it should rather be deducted ...just confused.
  • uninc57
    uninc57 Posts: 24 Member
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    @Makx2017 if you're trying to lose 1lb per week you need to be in a caloric deficit of 3500 calories a week. So if you need to eat 2000 calories a day to achieve this, and you exercise 500 calories per day, you in theory need to eat 2500 calories per day to achieve 1lb a week of loss. 2250 and you'd lose slightly more. 2750, slightly less. Hope that helps.
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I think you're underestimating your cals since you don't have a kitchen scale and overestimating your burns. First things first I'd only eat half of those exercise burns back max they both sound like very high estimates. Also do you have your MFP set to sedentary because if you have it at lightly active I wouldn't eat back cals from walking.

    Also remember to log everything including condiments, splash of milk in a cuppa, stock cubes, cooking oil and drinks.

    Good luck and welcome to MFP you'll get the hang of it, it always takes a bit of tweaking at the start. x

    Edit: if you want more detailed advice you could open your diary to public and some of the MFP veterans might be able to identify specific problems with your logging.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
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    Are you using a food scale? if not, get one and track your intake as accurately as possible.
    The rule of thumb is only eat back half your exercise calories as they are usually over estimated.

  • Miribrown03
    Miribrown03 Posts: 5 Member
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    uninc57 wrote: »
    @Makx2017 if you're trying to lose 1lb per week you need to be in a caloric deficit of 3500 calories a week. So if you need to eat 2000 calories a day to achieve this, and you exercise 500 calories per day, you in theory need to eat 2500 calories per day to achieve 1lb a week of loss. 2250 and you'd lose slightly more. 2750, slightly less. Hope that helps.

    Awesome. Yes it does help. Was trying to really figure it out.

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