HELP I nd ANSWERS!!!!

What did you use as your goals and settings when you signed up for MFP? MFP already creates a deficit for you based just on calories to live (BMR). Then if you exercise more they encourage you to eat all/most of those back so that your deficit isn't too low because that can mess up your metabolism. For me, I'm at 1380/day with a goal of losing 2 lbs/week. Therefore I should be netting around 1380 every day. Your net is calories in (what you eat) minus calories burned (via exercise). I hope that helps.

I am 41 and have dieted after each child I've had (3 for me ;-)
Each time - the ONLY thing that has worked for me is dropping my calorie intake down to 1200 calories.
Last year after joining this site -I worked out, jogged - and ate the xtra calories MFP said I was entitled - and the scale didn't move much.
I then dropped to 1200 calories no matter how much I worked out - and the scale moved down, down, down.
For most women trying to lose weight, my Dr says we should drop down to 1200 cal/day and no more than 30-40 G of fat per day.
Hope that helps!

I am 41 and have dieted after each child I've had (3 for me ;-)
Each time - the ONLY thing that has worked for me is dropping my calorie intake down to 1200 calories.
Last year after joining this site -I worked out, jogged - and ate the xtra calories MFP said I was entitled - and the scale didn't move much.
I then dropped to 1200 calories no matter how much I worked out - and the scale moved down, down, down.
For most women trying to lose weight, my Dr says we should drop down to 1200 cal/day and no more than 30-40 G of fat per day.
Hope that helps!

All women are not the same. I have to eat at least 1500 a day on days I don't exercise and more on days I do, if I go lower then I stop losing. I've noticed for me that it doesn't matter how much fat I eat as long as it's from natural sources (meats vs junk) but I lose better with my protein higher and my carbs lower. Every person is made different and your doctor can't generalize saying women should only eat 1200 cal/day to lose.

yez U want 2 eat dose calz

Hey how many of u eat the calories that u hv burned? Last night afta watching the BIGGEST LOSER, they said u hv 2 hv 500 calories remaining everyday in order 2 lose weight, Im sure that depends on the type of calories u r intakin...I eat sum of my burn sumtimes, cud that b the reason I havent lost anymore weight? My daily goal is 1380 & I burn at least 500 everyday, so what Im trying to figure out is should I only be eating 1380 or less daily or 1380 + the burned amount? HELP me undastand this?

i would like to help you but cannot understand what you wrote

I eat back at least 80% of my workout calories otherwise I don't lose weight as quickly because, not having much left to lose, it's harder to lose with a large deficit. So by eating my workout calories, I keep it to the deficit MFP gave me which has always worked. But if you have a lot of weight to lose (like 20+ lbs) then play around with what works best for you. That may be eating them all, not at all or somewhere in between. In other words, experiment with different levels (at least 1 week for each set of cal levels to get the best idea of whether it works or not - keep your workouts the same to minimize the variables) and then choose which one worked best.

Hope this helps! :flowerforyou:

I find that mixing it up works for me.

Some days I eat back nearly all of my calories, other days none, and other days half.

The thing that makes the MOST difference for ME is how much water I drink. I hate drinking water. Anytime I drink 10 or more cups worth, I lose. So, I force myself to do this every 2-3 days.

generally, if you feel hungry, eat back your exercise calories and if you dont feel hungry then dont. but another thing to note is that, really, you should only be eating back the exercise calories that you log if you selected your activity level as what your activity level is without any intentional exercise. So say you have a sedentary job, but you workout frequently. Instead of selecting "moderately active," select sedentary and log your exercise. If you were to select "moderately active" mfp calculates your calorie allowance to be higher because its factoring in a rough estimate of how many calories you burn on top of your bmr. then if you logged/ate back exercise calories. it'd be like double logging exercise!! i hope that made sense!!:happy: