Confused about how calories work...

impudentputz
impudentputz Posts: 479 Member
edited October 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I have been reading different blogs and message boards that tell you that you should be eating back whatever calories you exercised off... how does that make sense? Say im supposed to be eating 1500calories a day... i go walking and burn 500calories am i really supposed to eat 2000 calories that day? If so, how does weight loss happen if you are replacing the calories you burn? Any information would be helpful, thanks

Replies

  • whatwentwrong
    whatwentwrong Posts: 228
    ok, so: let's start with your BMR: that's how many calories your body would burn if you stayed in bed all day. for the sake of argument, let's say it's 2500. MFP is gonna add calories to that depending on your activity level: mine personally is sedentary, which adds about 500 calories a day. so a sedentary person with a BMR of 2500 will burn 3000 calories a day just going about their daily business. to maintain your weight, you need to eat 3000 calories a day.

    MFP says that a deficit of 3500 calories will cause one pound to be lost. so, if you want to lose the max MFP allows, 2 pounds a week, you need a 7000 calorie deficit every week, or 1000 calories a day. therefore would you be eating 2000 calories a day to lose 2 pounds per week.

    if you exercise, you are burning more calories. if you burn 500 calories a day thru exercising, you will have a deficit of 1500 calories a day, and 10,500 calories a week, causing you to lose 3 pounds a week. MFP does not recommended this, and that's why it has you eat your exercise calories.

    hope that helps :)
  • impudentputz
    impudentputz Posts: 479 Member
    Why, yes, that did help alot. I think i kinda understand how this works now, I dont know why 2lbs is the max you can lose per week on this site, i understand that losing weight too fast is bad, but if you start at the weight im starting from you want it off now and you wont care how fast you do it... but i guess ill stick with 2lbs per week


    Side note, in my first 10 days of dieting i lost 10lbs... not sure how healthy that is.
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