New to all this!! Help!

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Ivanmyheart
Ivanmyheart Posts: 6
in Introduce Yourself
Hey everyone, i'm new to Fitness pal. I love it though!! I'm just confused on a few things. I am recording all of my foods and exercises, just wondering exactly what im supposed to be doing. When I have remaining calories, am I to reach that amount daily? And if so, should I do the cardio to burn off MORE than that amt?? I walk at least 3 every times a day and do my sit ups and thigh exercises. So I don't know what else to do. I want my plan to be as effective as possible. Any pointers are welcome!! Thanks!

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  • Ivanmyheart
    Ivanmyheart Posts: 6
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    Hey everyone, i'm new to Fitness pal. I love it though!! I'm just confused on a few things. I am recording all of my foods and exercises, just wondering exactly what im supposed to be doing. When I have remaining calories, am I to reach that amount daily? And if so, should I do the cardio to burn off MORE than that amt?? I walk at least 3 every times a day and do my sit ups and thigh exercises. So I don't know what else to do. I want my plan to be as effective as possible. Any pointers are welcome!! Thanks!
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    Hey everyone, i'm new to Fitness pal. I love it though!! I'm just confused on a few things. I am recording all of my foods and exercises, just wondering exactly what im supposed to be doing. When I have remaining calories, am I to reach that amount daily? And if so, should I do the cardio to burn off MORE than that amt?? I walk at least 3 every times a day and do my sit ups and thigh exercises. So I don't know what else to do. I want my plan to be as effective as possible. Any pointers are welcome!! Thanks!

    You can exercise as much as you like, but if you set your goals correctly, you should eat what the sites says you should, or come close. The site has already calculated a deficite into the goal, eating under that will render your plan no longer valid, and can actually hinder weight loss in many cases. In other words, if you add 300 calories in exercise, you should probably eat those 300 calories (or very close).
  • Ivanmyheart
    Ivanmyheart Posts: 6
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    Okay, so when it says that I earned x amt of calories from exercise, I should then eat to meet those calories is what ur saying? It wont just add it back on and then I have to start all over exercising?? Like I said, i'm a little green! this is my first time dieting!! so i'm lost! Thanks though for the help...I appreciate it! :)
  • cutienikkiilynn
    cutienikkiilynn Posts: 7
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    Hey im new to this too! yeah you should try and meet the reccommened amount of calories like for example 1200 each day and then work out trying to burn as much as possible with out over doing it. Like by burning 300 by walking then you only have 900 left for your body to use up for you daily activities. This will mean more calories are being used up then being taking in and thus there will be weight loss.
    calories IN must be less than or equal to the calories OUT/ burned to get weight loss.
    Just know that you burn about half the calories you comsume just by doing what you do daily. So when you are working out try to burn about half to 3/4 of the calories than you consume.
  • MontanaGirl
    MontanaGirl Posts: 1,251 Member
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    There is a post in General Discussion called THE answers to THE questions - I just bumped it up so it should be toward the top of the first page - it will answer a lot of questions for you. Take a look :love:
  • Ivanmyheart
    Ivanmyheart Posts: 6
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    ok so example, if i take in my 1200 calories a day, and burned about 700, the other 500 are getting burned when I do my daily activities?? And always make sure my calorie intake is less than what i'm burning?
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    ok so example, if i take in my 1200 calories a day, and burned about 700, the other 500 are getting burned when I do my daily activities?? And always make sure my calorie intake is less than what i'm burning?

    Nope. That's wrong.
    See that calories remaining in RED (on your My Home tab), thats what you should eat. Don't add or subtract anything to that number. The only thing you need to do is add the food you eat, and the exercise you do. That red number will change all on it's own, if you follow that red number you should be fine.

    Trust me, your overthinking it a little. its just starting calories for the day, plus exercise calories for the day = total calories you should eat for the day.

    That's it. And since MFP already gives you a deficite based on your goals, your starting calories for the day is already minus what you want to loose, so no need to change anything.

    Don't worry, this trips up a lot of people at the start. :tongue:
  • cutienikkiilynn
    cutienikkiilynn Posts: 7
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    lol man this is actually harder to explain that what i thought through typing. Ok well just dont consume more than your recommended value for the day before you enter your exercises . My calories intake for the day is 1200 when i jog i burn 520, im not going to go and eat an extra 520 calories just because I burn them off. Thats the point is to burn them off and at the end of the day to used up all of your calories. If everytime you work out you consume the same amount of calories back then i will take you alonger time to lose the weight. yes by me eating only 1200 calories a day i am cutting back from my calorie intake before. so i could just cut back on calories and lose weight slower or i could cut calories and exercise to lose weight normally. The point of the exercising is burn more calories that you would normally while consuming less than you normal would. Now if you are going to reduce you calories work out and then eat the amount of calories that you just burn from your work out, then whats the point of working out to being with. You could just eat less and not work out and still get the same results. Im not saying that any certain way is wrong but if your want to diet using reduced calories and exercise then you are not going to want to consume the calories burned back as extra calories. I f you are going to do that you might as well just stop working out and just cut your calories. Now if you are trying to maintain your weight and not gain or lose then consuming some of your calories back after a work out is ok. Just know that 3500 calories equals one pound. You will have to burn an extra 3500 to lose one pound.
  • cutienikkiilynn
    cutienikkiilynn Posts: 7
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    Correction to my earilier statement you dont have to burn all the calories that you consume in a day by working out becasue you are burning calories through your daily activities and you arent really keep tract for those. So dont try to burn 1200 calories by working out id you ate 1200 for the day. Just keep in mind that you do burn calories through the day while you are working out. So I always try to burn areoung 600 to 700 calories from my workout, which i do 5 to 6 times a week. Everyone is different with different plans and ideas or how they want to loose weight but just keep in mind that the text book way of weight loss is.....
    ***calories consumed must be less that calories burned***

    calories in/eatten - calories out/burn = 0 or -#
    **example**
    burned 1000 calories though out he entire day
    burned 650 calories while working out
    (those two add up = (1650) calories burn for the day)
    consumed (1200) calories for the day

    calories in/eatten - calories out/burn = 0 or -#
    1200 - 1650 = -450

    Now if you burn the same amount daily which is rare then they -450 would be multplied by the number of days it was met so for the example lets say 6/7 days of a week

    -450 x 6days = -2700 keep in mind -3500 calories = 1lbs of weight loss.

    take the -2700/ -3500 = .77 lbs lost in one week. rounding to 3/4 pounds lost in that week

    Times that by the number of weeks you are deiting and exercising and there is your weight loss.
    example you lose 3/4lbs a week times 12 weeks you will have lost nine pounds.

    * most people burn more than 1000 calories through out their day so just look it up to see the round about amount of calories you burn on an adverage day and round that number down to the nearest 100's place and then add the amount of calories that you burn to that number.
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    (OK I wrote this before your last post, so it's not as relevant anymore)

    ck, I'm not sure you're understanding what I am saying. If you set up your goals on this site, they already put in the deficite you asked for.

    I.E. when you work your goals out on the My Home tab. At the end, it give you a total number of calories to eat for the day. That number already includes the deficite that will bring you to your goal. So any calories you burn are over and above that deficite.

    here is how it works.

    you have your maintain calories; we will arbitrarily call this 2000 calories for ease of use.
    this is how many calories you would burn just to stay at your current weight on any given day.
    (this is a random number I pulled out of the air, everyone is different)

    Now,
    To average 1 lb per week loss is 500 calories a day, right?
    so
    if, in MFP you said that you wanted to loose 1 lb a week, it would give you a total calories for that day of
    1500 calories. This would be that red number you see in the box called "Your Daily Summary"

    Now, if you were to go and exercise for 500 calories, that would mean that the FIRST number now goes up to 2500 calories.
    Thus,
    The amount of calories you need to consume to get to 1 lb / week if you exercise on that day would be 2000 calories.

    Make sense?

    bottom line is, if your using the goals calculator on MFP, eat your exercise calories.
  • cutienikkiilynn
    cutienikkiilynn Posts: 7
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    lol omgosh. i just dont see what is the point to eating the caloies your just burned plus the recommended calories. lol sorry im not trying to sound rude if im coming off to be. i just think that that part is weird. lol but im not saying your wrong or this site is, it just weird to me. But hey thanks for the conversation lol. congrats on your weight loss.
  • MontanaGirl
    MontanaGirl Posts: 1,251 Member
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    The point is to not send your body into starvation mode. It takes a while, but if you consume too few calories your body will eventually slow waaaaay down and begin trying to conserve and you're weight loss will stall out, slow way down or stop altogether. Then it begins using muscle tissue for energy and you get weak. If you keep going like that you will eventually lose weight again, but at the cost of your health and strength and then when you begin eating regularly, you will gain weight very fast and it will be fat and not muscle. The idea is to lose slowly - 1 - 2 lbs per week so that it is fat you lose and not muscle. HTH! Plus you don't want to burn more calories than you eat by exercising because your body needs fuel to function. You really don't want your body to start metabolising muscle for energy.
  • cutienikkiilynn
    cutienikkiilynn Posts: 7
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    i know thats the point is to cut caloires and exercize by consuming the calories you just ate by exercizing then what was the point of exercising to being with. I know losing one to two pounds a week is the health way to do it nd thats what im doing. i cant see how any one can lose weight by just cuting caloies because that what you are doing if you exercise and then eat it canceling itself amount by doing it like that. Ypu wont send yourself in to stravation mode either becasue your body fat will cover it. You have to burn up all your CHO'S stored energy and then you get the fat energy. Yes if you dont eat enough you body will start to store more nutrients as fat your right but that why you eat like 1200 calories and work out. Trust me if you can lose 2lbs a week while just cuting calories then wow. But for most people you have exercise and cut calories. Thats the misconception to the whole weight loss idea. And thats why it takes people soo long to lose weight, and thats why they get discougared and give up becasue they dont understand why they are not losing weight because of misconception like this.
  • MontanaGirl
    MontanaGirl Posts: 1,251 Member
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    OK - if you say so. I won't argue, but if you read the post "THE answers to THE questions" you would see there is a lot of people with a different experience here. Plus - the point of exercising is to strengthen your body, build muscle (which will then burn more calories) and tone your body. Do it your way, though and good luck!! Hope it works for you in the long term.
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    i know thats the point is to cut caloires and exercize by consuming the calories you just ate by exercizing then what was the point of exercising to being with. I know losing one to two pounds a week is the health way to do it nd thats what im doing. i cant see how any one can lose weight by just cuting caloies because that what you are doing if you exercise and then eat it canceling itself amount by doing it like that. Ypu wont send yourself in to stravation mode either becasue your body fat will cover it. You have to burn up all your CHO'S stored energy and then you get the fat energy. Yes if you dont eat enough you body will start to store more nutrients as fat your right but that why you eat like 1200 calories and work out. Trust me if you can lose 2lbs a week while just cuting calories then wow. But for most people you have exercise and cut calories. Thats the misconception to the whole weight loss idea. And thats why it takes people soo long to lose weight, and thats why they get discougared and give up becasue they dont understand why they are not losing weight because of misconception like this.

    cutie where did you get that information about the body not going into starvation mode if there is still fat around? I have never herd that before, well, let me restate that, outside of the special case of morbid obesity, I have never herd that before.
    Now, after lots and lots of research that I have done over the last six months, I have learned a few things about the metabolic process. Here is the breakdown of how the body metabolizes food.

    It takes in food and processes it to become energy and building blocks for tissue. Any energy it can't use immediately, it stores as fat.
    Now, when the body doesn't have energy it will start grabbing calories from fat stores. This is all true. BUT (and this is why morbid obesity is a special case) when the body starts to become starved of energy (I.E. it consistantly starts receiving less input then is required to run itself daily) it will start slowing down processes, mainly your metabolic processes first. It does this because not all fat stores are readilly accessable by the metabolism, because the "older" fat gets, the further away from the blood vessels that carry away energy are from that fat, and the body realizes that it is easier to break down muscle then the deep stored fat and thus you start losing muscle, which further slows the metabolism. As the metabolism slows down, any food you do eat starts the process of storing as fat again because the metabolism has no more need for the extra energy.
    Morbidly obese people have lots and lots of readily available fat, and as such can survive on minimal calories for a very long time, people that have already lost the first few % or aren't that far out of normal no longer have that "ready to use fat" I.E. the stomach for a guy is usually older fat and harder to get rid of, the same as the Butt and Thighs for ladies. The reality is you need exercise to keep your muscles up to par, because as we move closer to our maintenance weight, muscle will give your body a consistanly higher resting metabolism, and your body can now access the deep fat it needs because the need is not as pronounced. That's why people who calorie count but don't exercise tend to become "flabby". This is all a very simplistic, watered down version of what happens, but it is close enough for our needs. If you want a more detailed explaination, ask your doctor.

    This is my last try at this post, after this one, I give up.

    here are some links to back up my facts:
    http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/0698metabolism.htm
    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/increase-your-metabolism-start-losing-fat?page=3
    http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2797.asp

    if these aren't enough, then I'm at a loss.

    I really hope this helps, we are all just trying to be healthy here. :flowerforyou:
  • elliott062907
    elliott062907 Posts: 1,508 Member
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    :drinker: welcome
  • sindyb9
    sindyb9 Posts: 1,248 Member
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    This is my second try at calorie counting. the first time I lost 65lbs in a couple of months I thought that was great but, and there is always a but. I was only eating my 1200 calories never included in calories for exercise and I was so run down I could hardly function. So you can either do it slowly and shape your body as you loose weight or you can take it off and feel week and not have a toned body. Just something I went through. I have just started again this time I eat my exercise calories and feel alot better and lost my 3lbs in my first week.

    Good luck

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