Trying to lose weight

Any help would appreciate. Trying to lose weight. This app says to eat 1,200 calories a day. I’m burning about 1,000 a day with cardio and weight training. Shouldn’t I be eating less calories to drop the weight??

Replies

  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,756 Member
    no. If you are burning 1000 calories a day because of exercise and weight training you have earned another 1000 calories to eat (if you so wish). Where did you arrive at 1200 calories as recommended? That is usually considered the minimum and doesn't include extra calories burned through exercise. It may be right for you nut I can't tell without more information.






  • thatgirl0131
    thatgirl0131 Posts: 5 Member
    I’m 5’2 183lbs 36 years old. Trying to get back down to my weight of 130. I burn about 800 calories in the gym with cardio and weight training. The other 2-300 is from finishing my daily activities. So I should stay at 1,200 or eat less since I’m only burning max 1,000?
  • thatgirl0131
    thatgirl0131 Posts: 5 Member
    I do 40min cardio and weight training usually takes anywhere from 30-50min.
  • Cat_A_89
    Cat_A_89 Posts: 93 Member
    Im also 5'2 and currently around 172/174 from a starting weight of 225. I workout 40ish mins 6 days a week and eat no less than 1350 on a low day. Normally I eat around 1400/1500 a day and have been losing steadily. I wouldnt recommend eating 1200 especially if you workout for long periods of time. You shouldn't be trying to burn all the calories you eat. Your body needs fuel just to be alive.
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    I do 40min cardio and weight training usually takes anywhere from 30-50min.

    just about impossible that you are burning 800 calories doing this! where are you getting these numbers???
  • thatgirl0131
    thatgirl0131 Posts: 5 Member
    @Nony_Mouse I’m going off my Apple Watch to get the amount of calories burned at the gym. Thought it was supposed to be pretty accurate. My heart rate usually stays at a consistent above 160 when I’m weight training. My partner usually has me doing high reps with no rest in between the different sets of exercises. So yeah I burn around 600 during my weight training and the rest I burn in my cardio after.
  • Shortgirlrunning
    Shortgirlrunning Posts: 1,020 Member
    If you are actually doing what you say you are: eating 1200 calories and burning 1000 at the gym. It’s dangerously unhealthy. You need to eat back those exercise calories because 1200 is the absolute bare minimum you should be eating and that’s if you were just laying around on the couch all day. So with these numbers (assuming they are true) you need at be eating at least 2200 calories.
  • Shortgirlrunning
    Shortgirlrunning Posts: 1,020 Member
    Also a quick google search shows that, no, the Apple Watch is not all that accurate at tracking calorie burn. It seems can be up to 40% off. So start by eating back half the number of calories it’s telling you that you burned. (That’s what I do with my Garmin Forerunner and it seems to work well).
  • thatgirl0131
    thatgirl0131 Posts: 5 Member
    Ahhh thank you all for the helpful tips and advice. Yeah I use my Apple Watch. That sucks it’s not accurate. The only time I’m really moving is in the gym. The remainder of the day I’m literally sitting or just small house stuff. Thank u all for the tips!!!!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,837 Member
    Ahhh thank you all for the helpful tips and advice. Yeah I use my Apple Watch. That sucks it’s not accurate. The only time I’m really moving is in the gym. The remainder of the day I’m literally sitting or just small house stuff. Thank u all for the tips!!!!

    The key factor is that heart rate is not a measure of calorie burn, but a thing that's loosely correlated to it in certain circumstances (where oxygen demand is the main reason for heart rate increase, and intensity is fairly consistent).

    But heart rate increases for various reasons: Warm environment, dehydration, strong emotion (like fear), physical strain, and internal body pressure. As I understand it, the latter two come into play big time during strength training, and account for the majority of the heart rate increase. In that scenario, heart rate doesn't correlate with work performed (in pretty much the physics sense of "work"), so is a poor basis for estimating calorie expenditure.

    I believe that some trackers that know what activity you're doing may be getting better about ignoring HR when you tell them the activity is strength training, and reverting to METS-based estimating, which is likely to be a bit more reliable in this case.

    One option you have is to believe your tracker for steady-state cardio (maybe back out BMR for long duration sessions, which 40 minutes isn't), but use the MFP estimate for strength training (which is METS-based**, not something MFP just made up ;) ). Classic strength training (reps/sets with rests between) would be the strength training entry under cardio in the MFP exercise database. What you describe (sounds like high-rep, less-resistance) would probably be closer to MFP's circuit training entry.

    The other big deal as I understand it, not so relevant to weight training, is that HR lags oxygen demand and drifts upward over the course of a workout. When doing intense intervals, the peak heart rate is likely to occur during the rest/easy intervals after peak work; and for intervals of consistent activity (watts-verified, for example), the early intervals bring a lower HR than the later ones. In my understanding, the magnitude of this problem (for intervals) differs somewhat by fitness level, i.e., a highly-trained person's HR drops fast during the "easy" phase of the intervals, and a minimally-trained person's HR stays high - it's part of what being more highly trained means. A single tracker model is likely to give different calorie estimates for each of those people, even if they're the same size, and working at the same intensity.

    This is an oldie but goodie (and if it differs from what I just typed, believe it, not me):

    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698

    For those who don't know what METS-based estimating is, but are curious, read here:

    https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Ahhh thank you all for the helpful tips and advice. Yeah I use my Apple Watch. That sucks it’s not accurate. The only time I’m really moving is in the gym. The remainder of the day I’m literally sitting or just small house stuff. Thank u all for the tips!!!!

    Well, it may or may not be accurate, it varies from person to person. Yours sounds like it may well be inflated, particularly for your strength training. The way to test it is against your weight loss data, using the method I suggested above (track meticulously for 4-6 weeks, see how expected results compare to real world results). You can do that either eating back or the exercise cals, or just some of them, up to you. But the upshot either way is that you need to be eating more than 1200 cals a day.
  • Lobsterboxtops
    Lobsterboxtops Posts: 92 Member
    If it helps...5’4 currently 159 44yo. I chose the 1lb per week sedentary (office job + being a self proclaimed slug) and my base calories are 1200. I exercise daily and burn ~200 calories. I’ve been averaging ~1400/1500 calories consumed per week. I’ve lost 7 lbs since the end of July at a nice steady rate.

    I think your exercise calories are a bit high like others have said, I like to overestimate my calories consumed (if I can’t get an accurate weight) and underestimate my calories burned.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I’m going off my Apple Watch
    Which when synced directly with MyFitnessPal sends incorrect data.

    to get the amount of calories burned at the gym. Thought it was supposed to be pretty accurate.
    Watches can tell time accurately, some can count heartbeats accurately - but they do not directly measure energy (calories).

    My heart rate usually stays at a consistent above 160 when I’m weight training.
    Which is a really poor indication of actual calories when doing weight training.

    My partner usually has me doing high reps with no rest in between the different sets of exercises.
    Why? Does that match your fitness goals?

    So yeah I burn around 600 during my weight training
    No way.

    and the rest I burn in my cardio after.
    Maybe. Cardio is a huge range of different activities and intensities.