Calories Burned Goal?

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rebeccamcdonald214
rebeccamcdonald214 Posts: 19 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm trying to figure out what a healthy, sustainable goal for daily calories burned would be. I'm having some trouble finding a reliable calculator, and 3500 just seems like a lot. Any suggestions ?

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    More than you eat if you're looking to lose weight. Remember that you burn plenty of calories just by living and going about your day, and MFP has already factored that in.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    I burn 2,400+ just by sitting in front of a computer most of the day. I've been adding a little over 1,000 to that by riding a bicycle. That puts me right at that 3,500 mark. But that's probably more than most people need or want. 500 calories for exercise might be a more reasonable number.
  • Angelorubino82
    Angelorubino82 Posts: 2 Member
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    Do you use the app "map my ride" when you ride? It links up to this app. Honestly, it's awesome. I ride about 15-20 miles a day in LA on a fixed gear and it nails my speed, heart rate and calories burned. Highly recommend you get that app if you don't already.
  • ChelleB27
    ChelleB27 Posts: 5 Member
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    Mine only tells me to consume 1600 and that's very hard to me, never realized I went over that limit so much and so easily
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    rebeccamcdonald214 wrote: »
    I'm trying to figure out what a healthy, sustainable goal for daily calories burned would be. I'm having some trouble finding a reliable calculator, and 3500 just seems like a lot. Any suggestions ?

    Nor do I understand what you are asking. There are two possibilities. One, are you asking for us to tell you what your TDEE should be? Two, are you asking us to tell you how much exercise to do?

    I'll offer an answer to both. First, As a beginner at weight loss, don't mess with TDEE. That's for sophisticated users.
    Simply use myfitnesspal. Set your activity level as "sedentary". Log your exercise accurately. Your food diary will tell you that you've earned some number of calories from exercise that day. Depending on how accurate your exercise logging is, and it is inherently inaccurate for most people and most exercises, you can eat some of the exercise calories so earned. For instance, 50% seems to be a popular number, although I understand many long-time satisfied users of myfitnesspal claim to eat 100%.

    Second, No. There's no need for you to spend more than 30 minutes on your exercises more than alternate days. There's really no need for you to do that much. I know most exercisers want to think they can sweat their way to slim but it doesn't work that way. Exercise is good for improving many health markers, and for other reasons you should exercise, but even then there's no need to raise your daily calorie burn so high. This weight loss project is about you learning to make small changes that can be permanent in your life. A super-high calorie burn isn't that sort of small change.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,102 Member
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    rebeccamcdonald214 wrote: »
    I'm trying to figure out what a healthy, sustainable goal for daily calories burned would be. I'm having some trouble finding a reliable calculator, and 3500 just seems like a lot. Any suggestions ?

    I also don't know what you're asking except ...

    3500 calories is usually the amount people think equals 1 lb.
    Many people aim to lose about 1 lb/week ... or approx. 3500 cal/week ... or approx. a 500 calorie per day deficit.

    How might you do that?

    Enter your information into MFP.
    Select sedentary as your activity level.
    Choose to lose 1 lb/week.

    MFP will give you your goal calories to consume each day.

    If you exercise, you can add that to the exercise section but be reasonable. Exercise doesn't burn as much as we think it does. Then eat 50-75% of your exercise calories back.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    rebeccamcdonald214 wrote: »
    I'm trying to figure out what a healthy, sustainable goal for daily calories burned would be. I'm having some trouble finding a reliable calculator, and 3500 just seems like a lot. Any suggestions ?

    You are using a reliable calculator!
    But my guess is you aren't understanding how it works.

    Suggestion:
    Have a read of the sticky threads pinned to the top of each forum to get to understand the basics and then ask specific questions along with some detail about you and your goals if anything isn't clear.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Exercise burn goal in MFP's diary= whatever you want

    I have mine set to 0. Why? Because my workouts aren't based on how many calories I can burn. I workout for strength, vanity, and how it makes me feel.

    MFP will give you a goal to eat at that will have you lose weight without exercise. Whatever goal you put for exercise burns will not change this. That is just to give you something to aim for. If you do workout, than you can eat 50% of the caloroes burned and still maintain the same rate of loss that you would have achieved without the workout.

    Hope that helps.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    A calories burned goal for exercise only really makes sense when you're training for an endurance event.

    For most people, losing weight is more about eating smaller portions then it is about exercise.
  • rebeccamcdonald214
    rebeccamcdonald214 Posts: 19 Member
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    Thank you very much, everyone :) I'm starting to understand more and more with each day and each thread.

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