Please help!! I'm new and really confused??

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fatnomo100
fatnomo100 Posts: 59
in Food and Nutrition
Hi! I'm fairly new to MFP and noticed that every time I exercise (4x a week) it tells me I have more calories to eat.(700+). I lost 30lbs before on my own and never tracked what ate. Now, that I am tracking, (1250 calories a day) it seems too much food for me and have only lost 5 lbs. I thought we lose weight with calorie deficit? Should I be eating my burned calories?? Please help!!!!!!!!

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  • MMAsac
    MMAsac Posts: 191
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    Yes, you should be eating atleast some of the burned calories, too much of a deficit and your body goes into a starvation mode.
  • MrsBlobs
    MrsBlobs Posts: 310 Member
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    The thing with MFP is that the calories it gives you to eat already has the deficit built in it, depending on what your goal is (whatever weightloss per week you put in when signing up). So what you are burning is pushing your deficit up higher than MFP likes so you are encouraged to eat some of your exercise calories. Maybe you are used to more weight loss but losing 1 to 2 lbs a week is considered healthy, anything more isn't.
    If you don't eat some of your calories it can push your net caloric intake well below 1200 and that isn't good for most people.
  • bbbgamer
    bbbgamer Posts: 582 Member
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    if i eat my calories back I will not lose any weight. Do what works for you.
  • oneIT
    oneIT Posts: 388 Member
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    Don't use just the scale. It never tells the whole story. Take measurements too if you need to see progress.
  • BobbyClerici
    BobbyClerici Posts: 813 Member
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    Yes, your goal each day is to hit that target in an effort to lose weight safely and slowly.

    But BEWARE!

    We all have our little ways of tweaking the numbers to reflect exaggerated calories burned from our activities while under-reporting calories consumed.

    "Bobby burned 200 calories taking out the trash" or calling a home made pecan pie slice 50 calories. It's not always this obvious, but again, just beware, and try to get your numbers in that zone that would reflect a 1 or 2 lb weekly weight loss.

    It took me a few days of fine tuning, but my numbers are spot on.

    You are doing GREAT - good luck!
  • nukie19
    nukie19 Posts: 16
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    I would guess that you are possibly under your calorie goal to start with. 1250 calories is very little food, espeically for someone who is overweight (you do have to fuel yourself). Also, 700 calories in one workout is a LOT! You'd have to be doing some serious workouts to see that kind of calorie burn. And if you are doing that much, your weight loss probably isn't as high because you are building muscle to replace fat, so your weight loss will be slow until your body starts to even out a little bit. Hang with it - but double check your numbers to see what you are looking at.

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