Calories In & Calories Out

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carrielofton
carrielofton Posts: 89 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can someone please explain to me about the whole calories in and calories out for weight loss? I have seen it mentioned on different message boards and people talking about it at work but I guess I don't clearly understand what it means. Thanks in advance for the info and help. MFP is the best thing so far for me in my weight loss journey and lifestyle change.

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  • Cam_
    Cam_ Posts: 515 Member
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    Easy. Calories in is what you eat. Calories out is energy you expend when you do physical activity.
    Then there is maintenance calories. That's the number of calories your body burns in a normal day.
    If you then eat 500 calories *less* than what you need (per day), you will lose weight. 1 pound is equal to 3,500 calories so if you eat 500 calories less than what you need per day (a calorie deficit) you will lose 1 pound in a week (7 x 500 = 3,500). That's the basics behind it. Your mileage may vary.:glasses:
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
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    Maybe someone can link the go to posts as there are some really cogent explanations here. Here's my clumsy attempt:

    3500 calories roughly equals one pound of fat. So if you want to lose one pound a week, you need to have a weekly deficit of 3500 calories. That means that [energy needed for you to live and exercise] - [calories ingested] = 3500 for the week. Mfp does all the calculations for you by finding your basal metabolic rate (the amount of energy it takes for you to live) multiplying that by a modifier because even sedentary people have some activity above just living (and more active people burn more calories in daily life) and then mfp subtracts (or adds) calories to this number that represents your average daily expenditure based on your goals (lose, maintain, gain).

    Basically, if you follow mfp suggestions and log everything you should be adequately adjusting your calorie intake and output for your goals. Good luck!
  • twimom03
    twimom03 Posts: 19
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    your body burns a certain number of calories a day...just to function...without you doing anything. So if your body burns around 1500 calories a day just to function and then you burn another 500 by exercising and going about your normal daily activites that equals 2000 calories burned a day..then ....if you eat 1500 calories a day...that gives you a deficit of 500 calories (2000 calories burned - 1500 calories eaten in food =500 calorie deficit) ...as mentioned above...you will lose about 1 lb a week if you follow that schedule.
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    A calorie is a unit of energy.

    You need energy to exercise and just to live. So first step is to figure out how much energy (how many calories) your body needs in a 24 period. So you take the calories you need to simply exist add the calories you need to go to work, eat, ect, then add the calories you burn exercising. Expended energy = burnt calories = calories out.

    To maintain your weight you'd eat exactly the same amount of calories you burn. So calories in = calories out.

    If your body burns a pound of fat it is equivalent to 3500 calories. To lose weight you want your body to burn stored fat instead of the calories you eat. So you need to eat less than you burn to force your body to use the stored fat as energy. A safe and recommended goal is a pound of weight loss per week. Since a pound is 3500 calories, divide that by 7 and you need to eat 500 calories less a day than you burn.

    Of course it gets a little more complicated because you can burn muscle instead of fat and that doesn't burn at the same rate. Additionally your body is smart and can adjust to diets so that it's functioning at the new lower level and still not using fat stores. And some other issues that may or may not exist involving your macro nutrients.

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