gainer39911 Member

Get a heart rate monitor, measure your average HR over your exercise period, and use any of the online calculators to determine your calorie expenditure.

If cardiovascular exercise expends energy about your normal metabolic rate, it will cause your body to consume more calories than if you were at rest. In that sense, exercise "burns" calories, which may but do not necessarily come from fat. That's why MFP adds calories to your daily diet if you exercise. However, if you do…

One of the most significant challenges using MFP is to get accurate nutritional information for your food diary. The database is full of inaccurate and conflicting information. For example, search the database for "pork chop". You will find a listing for Walmart that gives 140 calories for a 4 oz chop. It also lists a Stop…

WW and MFP are both calorie counting programs. It's just that WW uses the gimmick of "free foods" to make it appear that you can eat more. In reality, the "free foods" are taken into account by their assumption of how much them you will eat. MFP is more transparent, and makes it easy to also account for exercise calories.…

I should clarify that the 38 calorie/point ratio is based on the WW plan as it existed 3 years ago. It may not still be valid for newer versions.

It is quite simple. A WW point is about 38 calories. WW really is a calorie counting system, but they gimmick it up with things like “free” foods. If it works for you, go with it. My wife used it and lost weight. I used mfp at the same time and also lost weight with us eating mostly the same foods. I did most of the…

That's exactly what I said: You will eat less calories than your body needs. That is the definition of a calorie deficit. If you continued that indefinitely, you would starve. Presumably the original poster would stop eating a calorie deficit diet when he/she reached a desired weight. How is that confusing?

You also need to input your activity level when you use the MFP calorie goal setup. MFP gives you the choices below. These refer to your normal day-to-day level of activity, like the examples given illustrate. They do not include an additional exercise you might do, which should be logged separately. Unless you are in an…

You said "1250 seems like WAY too little! Isn't that a starvation diet?", and in fact it is. That's the point. You are going to eat less calories than you body needs. But instead of starving, you body will replace those food calories with body fat and you will lose weight. You can exercise or not, but exercising has…

To lose 25 lb in three months would require a calorie deficit of almost 1000 per day. Given your height and weight, your BMR is around 1400-1500 calories. That means you would have to limit yourself to 400-500 calories a day (net of exercise). The generally recommended minimum calorie intake is 1200/day.

5-7 pounds would make me suspect the scale. I weighed myself every day for about 16 months (while losing 55 lb) and the average daily variation was less than one pound. The maximum daily difference was 3.6 lb. Be sure your scale is on a solid floor (no carpet).

It is not possible to reconcile the Aquastar nutrition label with the entries for salmon in the USDA database. The lowest calorie salmon in the USDA data base, wild or farmed, is "salmon, chum, raw" at 120 calories/100g, or about 136 calories for 4 oz, so it's hard to reconcile that with 80 calories. A look at the Aquastar…

Steaming is a surprisingly good way to cook chicken and it avoids oil. Here's a recipe for steamed chicken thighs with Asian flavors: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/steamed-chicken-with-black-mushrooms-and-bok-choy-230450 You can use this technique with any combination of vegetables and flavors you like. It…

What's your average heart rate while exercising?

Plain greek yogurt and mix in fresh fruits

Endorphins. Here's a link: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-connection-between-chocolate-and-endorphins.htm#didyouknowout. If you search for "chocolate" and "endorphins" you will find many more.

The diversity in menu varies considerably by meal. Breakfast is almost always the same: Fiber One cereal with berries and skim milk and a cup of tomato juice. Lunch is somewhat more varied, but most often a green or spinach salad with ham and a low cal dressing (I like Bolthouse products), and some fruit (grapes,…