New and not sure if I'm doing this right.... can you help.

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Loaa
Loaa Posts: 12 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hello all.

I have been tracking food since sunday so I am new here but absolutely loving this site, so far. My goal it to lose weight and a lot off it :).
There are a few things that I'm not sure off so if anyone could take the time and help me out it would be very much appreciated.

1. When I put in my for the day exercise my food goal for the day bumps up, am I to eat that much more that day or? Do i eat the exercise calories i burn?

2. The calories that MFP gives me up per day should I eat that amount if i want to lose weight or less? I have been short like 300 cal per day..... is that ok?

3. I have pcos and it has always been very difficult for me to lose weight, is there anyone out there dealing with the same?

4. When I look for food on here to track are they all correct nutritionally?

I have been looking and reading success stories on here and its such a motivation, good job to you all!!

Thanks,
Loaa

Replies

  • Loaa
    Loaa Posts: 12 Member
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    anyone?
  • pinkminy
    pinkminy Posts: 286
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    Hi
    I hope I can help
    I don't eat back my exercise calories but some people do.
    I think mostly MFP recommends about 1200 cals per day which is usually about 500 less than your Basal metabolic rate (BMR)
    however I eat way less than that as per my Dr recommendation
    I have a slow metabolism because of my age and being post menopausal.
    happy to have you as a support friend if you want,
  • cartea01
    cartea01 Posts: 156 Member
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    It depends how you set up your account. Your diary is closed so I can't see what your calorie goal is. If when you set up your account you said you want to lose 2 pounds a week, then the number of calories it tells you to eat is what you should eat to lose 2 pounds (i.e. MFP has already included a calorie deficit). As for your exercise calories, some people say you should, some say you shouldn't eat them. I'm in the "eat them" category. Particularly if you are on a bigger calorie deficit (i.e. you have your daily calorie goal set at 1200-1400) and you're exercising daily.

    As for whether the foods are correct, it really depends. It's worth having a look at a few different listings and see if they are similar. Where possible, check the calorie listings on your own food packaging.
  • Clarevmb
    Clarevmb Posts: 211 Member
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    Hello all.

    I have been tracking food since sunday so I am new here but absolutely loving this site, so far. My goal it to lose weight and a lot off it :).
    There are a few things that I'm not sure off so if anyone could take the time and help me out it would be very much appreciated.

    1. When I put in my for the day exercise my food goal for the day bumps up, am I to eat that much more that day or? Do i eat the exercise calories i burn?

    2. The calories that MFP gives me up per day should I eat that amount if i want to lose weight or less? I have been short like 300 cal per day..... is that ok?

    3. I have pcos and it has always been very difficult for me to lose weight, is there anyone out there dealing with the same?

    4. When I look for food on here to track are they all correct nutritionally?

    I have been looking and reading success stories on here and its such a motivation, good job to you all!!

    Thanks,
    Loaa
    congratulations on joining!
    1. the general consensus seems to be that you should eat your extra exercise calories or the majority of them
    2. the calories MFP gives you should allow you to loose weight. Lot of stuff on forum re people not loosing weight through not eating enough calories
    3. have seen quite a lot of discussions on this on forum
    4. much of the food values are put on by other members so it depends how accurate they are. I sometimes check if I think anything is much more/less than expected, but on the whole yes they are accurate.

    your questions are quite frequently discussed so if you want to know more use 'search' especially for PCOs and you'll find plenty.
  • cflec1
    cflec1 Posts: 60 Member
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    I try to not use my exercise calories, but some days I do go over a little bit and dip into them.

    ,.
  • j77r68
    j77r68 Posts: 271 Member
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    Welcome, you will enjoy this website greatly

    Don't expect my answers to go into great detail I just follow the basics and learn as I go along from other MFPers.

    1) when you exercise that expends calories and takes away energy that your body needs to fuel itself. From what I understand if you don't at least eat some of them back your body will eventually fight back and hold onto everything- meaning no weight loss.

    2) the calories that MFP helped you set up is already at a 500cal deficit. So even if you did nothing at all exercise wise you should lose a pound a week. 7days times 500cals= 3500 cals/ 1lb.

    3) For your PCOS if you go onto the message boards and search for PCOS I'm sure there would be a thread discussing it or you can do another post highlighting PCOS and I'm sure you would get plenty of responses.

    4) Food is put on here by MFP or people on the site. I am not sure how to double check someone else's submissions but if you are unsure you can enter it in yourself. I usually search a food first than compare it to the container it came in to see if it is accurate.

    I find MFP awesome. To me this is my Facebook. I can easily be on here for a couple of hours commenting to friends ,looking at threads and responding.

    I hope if you need more detailed info that someone else responds. Just remember everyone will not have the same opinion as you might have noticed on the message boards so take all info with a grain of salt.
    Have a great day and good luck on your journey.

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