New & Confused

Hi there!
The idea is that based on your current weight, age, activity level and other information you provided in your profile, it is determined that a daily calorie amount of 1200 calories a day will allow you to lose weight at a rate of 1-2 lbs a week. By adding exercise to your day, you do earn more calories that you can consume - and you will still lose weight at a steady and safe pace. This method helps make sure you are getting enough calories in a day to keep your metabolism up, and to help you with good habits even after you have reached your goal weight. Eventually you will find that you will make food choices that are more satisfying and stay with you longer and will balance your caloric intake with your caloric burn.
After only a couple of weeks of being on this site, I am starting to think a little differently about my food choices and activity levels. If I want to splurge on some calories, I need to earn them. ;-)
Hope this helps!

I'm not really a health expert or anything, but the general idea is that it calculates what the best calorie consumption is for your goals. When you work out (mainly cardio), it burns calories, so it allows added calories into your daily intake. What you keep an I on I suppose are the "net" calories. Meaning that if you burn 300 calories in exercise and consume 1400 throughout the day, you have a 1100 net calorie intake for the day.

It is my general understanding that you don't HAVE to consume extra calories you burn, but the system allows you those calories if you choose. In any case, the best bet is to use calories with proteins, and when eating fats, try and stick to "health" fats, fats that come from nuts, vegetables, and fish, as opposed to fats that come from meats. I'm not sure about dairy fats, I've been meaning to ask someone about that... I have also read that carbs are best to obtain through grains, fruits, and the like, (oatmeal, rice, etc) rather than breads and pastas, because those are more processed.

This is just information I have read, heard, or guessed at as I go along. Research is a great tool. One great tip I have found for healthy eating (and read in health magazines as well) - experiment with herbs and spices to make plain meals more flavorful... otherwise a healthy diet gets mundane very quickly. :-)


I wish you the best of luck!!

: What it means is that you have burned calories so it adds them to you calories for the day that you can utilize without going over your goal. The more you workout then the more you can use towards your goal without being in the red. But the down side of it is if you utlize all the calories that you are putting in after working out makes it harder to loose weight. So what I do is I ignore the added calories from the workout and use my regular calories as a guide that way you loose the weight. I know it is confusing but I do it this way so by the end of the week I am way below my average so I do not count calories on the weekends thats me time and I do splurge but burn it off the next week. Hope this makes sense

Good job with quitting smoking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I agree with most of what has been said already. However, I do not necesarily agree with eating back all of your exercise calories. You will not starve yourself but you will produce better results. The only time I would eat them back is is you are exercising over an hour a day every day. That would be hard core training and not include taking hour walks every day. I would be more concerned with the types of foods you are eating and switching up some different types of exercises (weight training and cardio). Eat clean, whole foods and keep moving. Simple...wish it was just as easy to stick to the equation!

You will find all the support you need to lose the weight on this site. Everyone is on it for the same reason and if you want to add me, I'll be glad to provide all the help I can! And if you need support with staying tobacco free, let me know as I quit a little over 9 years ago. You obviously have willpower if you could quit smoking. Now use it to lose the weight you want to, you can do it! Good luck for everything!