Nothing is working

^ Pretty much that. How you were calorie counting matters. Were you weighing everything and measuring liquids? Or were you trying to eyeball it? Also how long did you give it?

The only way to accurately calorie count is with a digital kitchen scale. Even then, there is room for error, but with a scale you'll get close enough to see results.

I put your height and weight into a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator to get your stats.

On a completely lazy couch-potato day, your TDEE is 1560. Meaning - if you eat 1560 calories that day, you will maintain your current weight. So if you were sedentary and want to lose weight, you'd need to eat at a deficit of this number. To lose a pound a week, you'd need to subtract 500 calories from your TDEE - so you'd only be able to eat 1060 calories a day! As you can see, it's hard to lose when you're short and sedentary.

Now - you can set MyFitnessPal to your approximate activity level and NOT log your exercise, OR you can set it to Sedentary and manually log your exercise burnt calories. Up to you.

With method 2, it's a good idea to eat back 50% of the exercise calories that the machines/Fit Bit/whatever tells you that you burnt. They can be notoriously inaccurate, so 50% is a good rule.

So lets say you have your sedentary TDEE of 1560. You have a good workout at the gym and your Fit Bit tells you you burned 400 calories. To be safe, we'll say you actually burned 200 calories. So maintain your current weight, you could eat 1760 calories. To lose weight (a pound a week), you'd want to eat 1260.

Hope that all makes sense! It's definitely a math game. Think of your calorie allowance as your budget - and stick to your budget to see results!

stevencloser wrote: »

always_smilin_D wrote: »

@BeeMolo - research different ways - not one way it the right way - yes calories in vs calories out should give you the results you are seeking - the question is, are you fueling your body enough for it to function or is your body holding on to every calorie you consume because it isn't getting enough.

I base my eating on TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expense) - http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ - it wasn't until I discovered this tool that I had success. See MFP tells me I should only eat 1200 calories, 1200 calories doesn't even cover the energy expense even if I was just sitting doing nothing all day. so I calculated my TDEE - it says that I should be intaking about 1400 just if I was sitting around doing nothing - so when I exercise I eat back some of my calories and make sure that I eat no less than 1000 - 1200 calories NET - even if that means that I am downing 1500 calories... exercise doesn't have to be intense, it just has to be of quality - bringing your heart rate too high works on your endurance not your fatburn (research, you will find plenty of info that talks about this) -- Also, on the eating side, balance, balance, balance - your plate should always have balance protein, carbs, and fats -- the website above gives examples of what that can look like

This of course is what has worked for me - the best thing you can do for your success is research - try and fail until you find what works for you. You have to feel good and happy and comfortable which equates to feeling motivated and continue on the path of towards your goals.

Your body can't "hold on to every calorie". You WILL lose weight even if you're undereating, it's just not healthy because you're lacking nutrients or starting to lose muscle.

The calculator in MFP spits out exactly what you put in. I just tried both MFP and scooby and for the same projected weight loss they both tell me the same amount of calories.

You burn fat regardless of how high your heart rate is. You're misunderstanding what substrate utilization does.

Reason why, I always make sure I state "it is what has worked for me" - this journey is much more than calories in and calories out - it is about education - experimentation and finding out the best combination of things that work for each individual.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1