Can someone please look at my diary to see if I am doing the Olivia method right? I started this method yesterday---and I have prelogged my meals and exercise up to Tuesday. Today is my day off of exercise but I did exercise yesterday and will again tomorrow.

I have my settings set to "lightly active, maintain weight" which MFP sets calorie goal to 1690.
BMR is 1252.

My goal is to lose .5 - 1 lb loss a week. I just want to lose these last 10-12 pesky pounds...So, I want to stick as close to 1252 as much as possible to lose weight, correct? Unless I exercise then I can eat more right? According to the Olivia method I don't need to eat any exercise calories unless my exercise calories go over 625...

Thanks so much for all the "newbie" help .

About the eating part, read her post "If you're hungry EAT" that was a really good post, about how to handle your calorie deficit too, so don't follow my suggestion to a "T" on the calories hehe.

Help please!

I'd like to give this a try. I'm 40 yrs old, 5'3" and I've been yoyo-ing b/t 160-162 for the past couple weeks. I'm wondering if this will work for me if. I'm pretty sedentary at work, but I work out 4-5 days a week and I try to average 1000 calories burned/workout. I don't usually eat over 1500 calories a day and on days that I don't work out I try not to exceed the 1200 calories given by MFP.

I've done the calculations, but what do I do with them? Should I make any other adjustments due to my exercise? Also does this mean that on days that I don't work out I should be at/around 786 calories?

Here are my numbers:
BMR: 1374
Maintainance: 1786
Exercise Calories: 588

Thanks in advance!

Forgive me for jumping in LOL

You want to eat at least 1374 calories, no less than 1374 - this is the amount of food you need to fuel your body. It is your choice if you want to eat more than this up to your maintenance calories if you choose (see if you're hungry EAT). However, your accumulative deficit calories determines how many pounds you lose. so if you eat 1374 calories alone, you will have a deficit of 412. If you exercise on top of that and burn for instance 200 calories, your deficit is now 612. The goal is to have a combined total deficit (let's say in a week) of 3000 to lose 1 pound or 6000 to lose 2 pounds. If you exercise and burn more than 588 calories (your excercise calories), you need to eat those calories back. So if you burned 688 calories, you need to eat 100 calories back. You don't want to exceed 1000 total deficit in a day.