Please help! How many calories??

red_lady
red_lady Posts: 7 Member
edited November 9 in Health and Weight Loss
Please help! I know this comes up a lot but I'm STILL confused on this....my calorie goal is 1200, based on a sedentary lifestyle (I knew when i started how much my workout routine varies when I'm working, so I wanted to be able to be able to enter it manually). If I then burn another 1000 calories a day, do I still need to net 1200 calories? That's 2200 calories! On the other hand I've been taking in between 1200 and 1500 calories a day and burning between 1700 and 2000 calories for over a month and that's sure not working.... Please help, I'm so confused!
Edited by red_lady on Tue 01/31/12 09:09 PM

Replies

  • iHEARTcardiacnurses
    iHEARTcardiacnurses Posts: 437 Member
    Eat 1200 NET calories a day. If you eat 1500, and burn 500, your net is only 1000 so you'll need to eat 200 more. 1200 net calories is the minimum (usually) your body needs to function (like breathe! LOL).
  • amyleehealey
    amyleehealey Posts: 9
    Yeah, right, good question. So @red_lady if I understand you correctly, if I have eaten 1200 calories, then burnt 200 calories, I would again need to eat another 200 calories? I actually didn't know what! Thank you.
  • EMarvie
    EMarvie Posts: 335 Member
    Some people eat all the calories they burn with exercise. see how your body responds to the 1200 cal's vs what you've been used to. if you're burning an extra 1000 cal/day - you may need more than the 1200 -
  • darlilama
    darlilama Posts: 794 Member
    Easiest way is to eat as many calories as your diary tells you is your daily goal. It adds your calories burned through exercise to your base goal… eat that!
  • bethdris
    bethdris Posts: 1,090 Member
    Please help! I know this comes up a lot but I'm STILL confused on this....my calorie goal is 1200, based on a sedentary lifestyle (I knew when i started how much my workout routine varies when I'm working, so I wanted to be able to be able to enter it manually). If I then burn another 1000 calories a day, do I still need to net 1200 calories? That's 2200 calories! On the other hand I've been taking in between 1200 and 1500 calories a day and burning between 1700 and 2000 calories for over a month and that's sure not working.... Please help, I'm so confused!
    Edited by red_lady on Tue 01/31/12 09:09 PM

    I hope your not using MFP's numbers for your cals burn..they are only estimates, and imy case when I was heavier, they OVER estimated by a LOT...Its really a good idea to buy a Heart Rate Monitor...that wil be your closest to being correct.
  • red_lady
    red_lady Posts: 7 Member
    @ darlilama, do you mean where it says "calories remaining"?
  • darlilama
    darlilama Posts: 794 Member
    Some people eat all the calories they burn with exercise. see how your body responds to the 1200 cal's vs what you've been used to. if you're burning an extra 1000 cal/day - you may need more than the 1200 -

    If you're burning more than 1000 a day exercising, you NEED to eat more than 1200. Otherwise, you're only giving your body 200 calories to live on… living as in breathing, digesting, pushing blood through your body. I actually, and accidentally, did this when I was in my 20s. I was exercising moderately, eating healthy and as much as I cared to, but found myself becoming more and more tired. I thought something was seriously wrong… doctor said I was super-healthy, though. Then some light bulb went off in my head and I decided to start counting my calories. Unfortunately, there was barely an internet at that time, so I had a sheet of paper, a pen, and a calorie book! LOL What I found out is that I was "living" on only 600 calories a day! I did a big ole happy dance in my kitchen when it actually dawned on me that I should eat MORE. Lord knows that has been the ONLY time in my life that was true!! I ate mor, felt tons better and didn't gain a single pound.
  • darlilama
    darlilama Posts: 794 Member
    @ darlilama, do you mean where it says "calories remaining"?

    Where it says "Your Daily Goal". That's the amount you have to eat in that day. Your base + exercise calories burned. Remaining is what you have left to eat for the day to meet "Your Daily Goal". So, either way you want to look at it… just keep eating until "Remaining" is at/near 0. Don't stress out too much about it. If one day you're under 100 and one day you're over… it's fine. Just try not to be consistently over unless you think you are burning more calories than you've logged.
  • red_lady
    red_lady Posts: 7 Member
    Huh. Thanks for the input guys. Not sure how I've been functioning running on a negative net of 500 calories a day for the past month lol. Will certainly make some adjustments now!
  • JBorg039
    JBorg039 Posts: 24
    As other have told you 1200 is the bare minimum you should eat. To calculate the exact amount, you should try using any online calculator. If you don't know which one to use, you can check out the one I use on http://www.fatcuda.com
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