Please explain how many calories

Janeo0o
Janeo0o Posts: 3
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5"2 and weigh 12.5 and is 45. Now MFP said I should eat 1200 calories per day. I burn 500 calories off in my gym 4 times a week. I just can't get it in my head if I'm meant to eat another 500 calories on top of the 1200 which would then make it 1700 calories.

Surely if I eat all of these I'm going to put weight on. if I eat back those 500 calories I've burnt at gym then whats the point in doing the exercise. Now do I just eat the 1200 in order to lose weight.?? I'm only asking cos I hadn't been eating enough so I changed what I eat...2 weetabix. jacket potato with salad. yoghurts and fruit during day and fish and veg at 6pm.

prob is I started doing this and instead of losing I've gained 2 pound..what am I doing wrong. Please Help.

Replies

  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    you weigh 12.5?
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    Im going to ignore the weight cause it doesnt matter- go ahead and eat them back. You need 1200 to function. If you do more, you need more. Eat healthy ones and it wont cancel out your workout at all, ok?
  • BeLightYear
    BeLightYear Posts: 1,450 Member
    you weigh 12.5?

    She is from England, so 12.5 stone, which is around 175 pounds:bigsmile:
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I'm 5"2 and weigh 12.5 and is 45. Now MFP said I should eat 1200 calories per day. I burn 500 calories off in my gym 4 times a week. I just can't get it in my head if I'm meant to eat another 500 calories on top of the 1200 which would then make it 1700 calories.

    Surely if I eat all of these I'm going to put weight on. if I eat back those 500 calories I've burnt at gym then whats the point in doing the exercise. Now do I just eat the 1200 in order to lose weight.?? I'm only asking cos I hadn't been eating enough so I changed what I eat...2 weetabix. jacket potato with salad. yoghurts and fruit during day and fish and veg at 6pm.

    prob is I started doing this and instead of losing I've gained 2 pound..what am I doing wrong. Please Help.

    why would you put weight on if you eat 1700. MFP gave you 1200 to lose weight with no exercise 1200 and burning 0 = 1200, 1700 and burning 500 = 1200. So you need to eat more when you workout just to net your original goal 1200-0 = 1700-500 = 1200.

    Not if you usually burn 500 cals 4 days/week you can average that out over the week and eat 285 extra every day, 1485 (1200+285), that way you average the same amount/week.
  • ShaSimone
    ShaSimone Posts: 270 Member
    Fuel your body and it will thank you with loss of pounds.

    Don't go into too much of a deficit bacause your body will slow down.
  • kennie2
    kennie2 Posts: 1,170 Member
    eat 2/3 of them back :) and youre tonning while you exercise and burning fat, so you arent gonna put weight back on. also MFP sets it to 1200 automatically, you might want to calculate your BMR and set it to that instead
  • malins2
    malins2 Posts: 154 Member
    On 1200 calories you will lose weight if you do not exercise at all. If you workout and burn calories, then you can eat them back, but your net calorie intake will still only be at 1200 and that means you are going to lose weight. Just be careful and don't overestimated the calories burned during exercise.
    Some people eat all their exercise calories back and some chose not to. I am eating some of them back, but not all. You'll have to find what works for you.
  • Chris_acc_can
    Chris_acc_can Posts: 83
    Record your exercise and eat back your calories burned. Also your weekly goal is agressive if you calories before working out is 1200. You might want to adjust your overall goal to something more reasonable, so you actually have a chance of hitting your goal.

    In MFP when you record your activity it will add the calories burned which you are to replace. MFP already places you in a defecit so eating back your calories will not impact your weight loss (already factored in).
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    times like this I feel like my answer was entirely freaking wrong.
  • nnapieralski
    nnapieralski Posts: 132 Member
    To loose a pound a week, you need to be eating around 1650 calories a day (for your height/weight). If you work out ans burn 300 calories a day, you need to eat 1950 calories (1650 + 300). The 1650 calories a day alone will result in weight loss, no exercise needed. However, it won't be very healthy and you'll likely loose lean muscle.

    I know that eating back your exercise calories doesn't make sense at first glance, but MFP automatically has you set to lose 1 lbs (a 500 calorie a day deficit from what you usually eat). You need about 2100 calories a day to maintain your current weight. MFP automatically deducts 500 to give you a deficit. Try not to eat below this level (1650 for you). This is a safe weight loss level. If you drop below that (as in not eating back your exercise calories) your body may panic and think that it's starving. If it does that, you will stop losing weight because the body is trying to "protect" itself from starvation. It will horde fat instead of burning it.

    MFP tends to really low-ball the calories on here and I would advising using this site to calculate your caloric needs: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    If you find it confusing, message me and I can help you.
  • malins2
    malins2 Posts: 154 Member
    To loose a pound a week, you need to be eating around 1650 calories a day (for your height/weight). If you work out ans burn 300 calories a day, you need to eat 1950 calories (1650 + 300). The 1650 calories a day alone will result in weight loss, no exercise needed. However, it won't be very healthy and you'll likely loose lean muscle.

    I know that eating back your exercise calories doesn't make sense at first glance, but MFP automatically has you set to lose 1 lbs (a 500 calorie a day deficit from what you usually eat). You need about 2100 calories a day to maintain your current weight. MFP automatically deducts 500 to give you a deficit. Try not to eat below this level (1650 for you). This is a safe weight loss level. If you drop below that (as in not eating back your exercise calories) your body may panic and think that it's starving. If it does that, you will stop losing weight because the body is trying to "protect" itself from starvation. It will horde fat instead of burning it.

    MFP tends to really low-ball the calories on here and I would advising using this site to calculate your caloric needs: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    If you find it confusing, message me and I can help you.
    I checked out the link to the BMR page and I got a bit confused because it says that my BMR is 1352. Isn't that very low? Does that mean that I without doing any physical exercise could only eat 850 cals a day in order to lose a pound a week (which I'm not going to do so don't worry :) ? (OP sorry about using your thread to ask a question)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    To loose a pound a week, you need to be eating around 1650 calories a day (for your height/weight). If you work out ans burn 300 calories a day, you need to eat 1950 calories (1650 + 300). The 1650 calories a day alone will result in weight loss, no exercise needed. However, it won't be very healthy and you'll likely loose lean muscle.

    I know that eating back your exercise calories doesn't make sense at first glance, but MFP automatically has you set to lose 1 lbs (a 500 calorie a day deficit from what you usually eat). You need about 2100 calories a day to maintain your current weight. MFP automatically deducts 500 to give you a deficit. Try not to eat below this level (1650 for you). This is a safe weight loss level. If you drop below that (as in not eating back your exercise calories) your body may panic and think that it's starving. If it does that, you will stop losing weight because the body is trying to "protect" itself from starvation. It will horde fat instead of burning it.

    MFP tends to really low-ball the calories on here and I would advising using this site to calculate your caloric needs: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    If you find it confusing, message me and I can help you.
    I checked out the link to the BMR page and I got a bit confused because it says that my BMR is 1352. Isn't that very low? Does that mean that I without doing any physical exercise could only eat 850 cals a day in order to lose a pound a week (which I'm not going to do so don't worry :) ? (OP sorry about using your thread to ask a question)

    No as you burn more then BMR all day everyday. That is what you burn in a coma like state. If you are sedentary, only get up to eat and washroom, and don't do much you would burn BMR *1.2 so your maintenance would be 1622 (1352*1.2), and to lose 1 lb/week you would have to eat 1122, now if you burn 400 cals you would have to eat 1522 to lose that 1 lb. That being said, if 1lb/week puts you lower then 1200 cals, then most likely your weight loss goal of 1 lb/week is too aggressive given your stats and should look at changing the goal to 0.5lbs/week which would give you 1372Net (1122+250).

    Here is a guide for setting weekly weight loss goals:
    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.
  • malins2
    malins2 Posts: 154 Member
    To loose a pound a week, you need to be eating around 1650 calories a day (for your height/weight). If you work out ans burn 300 calories a day, you need to eat 1950 calories (1650 + 300). The 1650 calories a day alone will result in weight loss, no exercise needed. However, it won't be very healthy and you'll likely loose lean muscle.

    I know that eating back your exercise calories doesn't make sense at first glance, but MFP automatically has you set to lose 1 lbs (a 500 calorie a day deficit from what you usually eat). You need about 2100 calories a day to maintain your current weight. MFP automatically deducts 500 to give you a deficit. Try not to eat below this level (1650 for you). This is a safe weight loss level. If you drop below that (as in not eating back your exercise calories) your body may panic and think that it's starving. If it does that, you will stop losing weight because the body is trying to "protect" itself from starvation. It will horde fat instead of burning it.

    MFP tends to really low-ball the calories on here and I would advising using this site to calculate your caloric needs: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    If you find it confusing, message me and I can help you.
    I checked out the link to the BMR page and I got a bit confused because it says that my BMR is 1352. Isn't that very low? Does that mean that I without doing any physical exercise could only eat 850 cals a day in order to lose a pound a week (which I'm not going to do so don't worry :) ? (OP sorry about using your thread to ask a question)

    No as you burn more then BMR all day everyday. That is what you burn in a coma like state. If you are sedentary, only get up to eat and washroom, and don't do much you would burn BMR *1.2 so your maintenance would be 1622 (1352*1.2), and to lose 1 lb/week you would have to eat 1122, now if you burn 400 cals you would have to eat 1522 to lose that 1 lb. That being said, if 1lb/week puts you lower then 1200 cals, then most likely your weight loss goal of 1 lb/week is too aggressive given your stats and should look at changing the goal to 0.5lbs/week which would give you 1372Net (1122+250).

    Here is a guide for setting weekly weight loss goals:
    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.
    Thanks now I understand!
  • Janeo0o
    Janeo0o Posts: 3
    Yeah I get it now also..:) just so weird that you eat your calories that you burnt. but yeah I see that I'm not really eating them back as I'll still only consume the 1200.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories