for all of you who still just dont get it

I realize after reading this site that some of you are still totally lost about how losing weight is done properly.  Ok. Ill try and help you out.

Figure out your BMR. If you were to sit down all day and do NOTHINGGGG this is how many calories your body would burn just to keep you alive.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.htm l.

Go to this link and click BMR/RMR calculator.
Put in your info (age, sex, height, weight) and click calculate.
There will be 5 types of activity levels. 
Pick a level that describes your daily routines and write down that BMR number. I go to school and not much else, therefore im sedentary.
Say my BMR is 2500.
My body burns off 2500 calories a day to maintain functions and to fuel the walking i do at school etc.

Example:
     In my case, on days that I do not exercise (body burns 2500) I should eat 1500 to 2000 calories.  The minimum a male should eat is 1500. Minimum a female should eat is 1200.
So on days I do not exercise there are 2500 calories burnt from living and walking around at school and I eat 1500 calories I will have lost 1000 calories IN FAT.

     On days that I do exercise I add the calories burnt to 2500. Say I burn 500 on the treadmill...so on the day I burnt 3000. Therefore I should eat 2000-2500. If i eat 2000 my body will have burnt off 1000calories in fat.  I've found that a good deficit for me is about 700. Dont aim for 1000cals burnt everyday. 500+ is progress.

Step 2. Once you have that magic number youre set. Theres a couple formulas to help you out.

BMR+Calories burnt through exercise = TOTAL BURNT FOR THE DAY.
Example: 2500BMR+300calories on the treadmill = 2800cals burnt today.

Figure out your intake. Use this site's search, a Google search, or look on the food labels of what you're eating. Add this all up and this is your intake.

Calories of Fat Burnt (CALORIE DEFICIT) = TOTAL BURNT FOR THE DAY - INTAKE

EXAMPLE:

Monday
BMR: 2500
Exercise: 500
Calories of Fat Burnt = 3000-2300 >> 700 cals burnt. (CALORIE DEFICIT)

Tuesday
BMR: 2500
Exercise: 200
Calories of Fat Burnt = 2700-1900 >>> 800 cals burnt

Wednesday
BMR: 2500
Exercise: 0
Calories of Fat Burnt = 2500-2000 >>> 500cals burnt

You add up your calorie deficits for a week.
There are 3500 cals in a pound of fat. (some say 4000 im not sure).
So when your calorie deficit for the week = 3500. you lost ONE lbs.

Losing 1-2lbs per week is a healthy weight loss. More than 2lbs your body might not be to happy later on.
Lots of WATER, lots of fruits, lots of whole wheat.

for those who are wondering. 10lbs in 5weeks or so.

this is useful :]

I'm eating 1400-1500 a day... i was eating 3500-4000 a day(estimated) .... i have lost 5 pounds in 5 days. From 270 lbs to 265. Some say that its too much... But i am eating the minimum amount per day thats alright isn't it? I dont excersize except walking about 30 min a day.
Thanks,
Cory Fisher

ssj. 5lbs in 5days is way to much.
(BMR+Exercise) - Food Eaten = deficit.
Your deficit should be in between 500-1000. 1000 being extreme.
I try to keep mine around 600. I feel full, dont feel tired, and still lose about 1 to 2lbs per week.
aburningflame@hotmail.com << u can add me to messenger n ill try to help you out.

weird... my deficit, if i'm adding right (i think i am... i used the calculator... lol) is about 1900.

Cory & Caprices, there are 2 bare minimum guidelines ~ do whichever is higher:

for men: keep your deficit between 500 - 1,000 which is considered a safe rate of weight loss of 1 - 2 lbs per week, unless you are under the supervision of a doctor ~ who would do periodic testing to make sure you are not hurting your body.

but don't drop below 1,500 cals a day for men or 1,200 cals a day for women....

Teenagers, age 19 and younger, have different guidelines.  Check this calculator for teenagers and calorie information for teens...

http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.h tml 

caprice ur deficit of 1900 for today means you should eat AT LEAST another 900 calories...preferably about 1200cals leavin u with a 700cal deficit which is decent progress.

aburningflame, it's not a one-day type of thing... i exercise like crazy and live mostly on fruit and veggies.

is it a problem that i burn that many calories more than i eat??

i should probably start another topic... lol... :-P

caprice you take it day by day. burning more calories than you eat is what the deficit is.

your bmr is X. (lets say 2000)
so today you were on the treadmill for 1hour n thats 500 calories burnt.
okie dokie..so MONDAY you burnt 2500.
if you eat 1500...
burnt 2500-1500 <<< your burning more than you eat here right? your deficit is 1000
say you ate 2000..then 2500-2000<<still burning more than you eat here right?
your deficit FOR MONDAY is 500.

TUESDAY you burn 3000 (BMR+1000 in exercising)
you eat 2000
your deficit FOR TUESDAY is 3000-2000 so thats 1000 deficit

do this for the whole week..then add up all the deficits
500 for monday
1000 for tuesday
500 for wednesday
800 for thursday
200 for friday
300 for saturday
200 for sunday
= 3,500 for this week..you would have lost 1 lbs.

this is, though, i have a deficit usually from 1900-2200 daily, and i'm not losing weight. why is that???

b/c if it's 2000 a day (example), and that's 7 days a week, it should be a 14000 cal deficit by the end of the week, and that's several pounds off. but i'm plateau-ing. so that confuses me.

Caprices, You are probably in starvation mode (from eating so much less than you burn on a regular basis) and will not likely get through the plateau without changing your eating habits.

a deficit of 1900-2200 is unhealthy. your body needs energy to function properly. try eatin an extra 1000calories a day.
eat 2 bananas in the morning..thats an extra 300 cals
have a bowl of cereal at night an extra 300 cals..bring your deficit under 1000.

post your height, weight, sex, age. and ill try n help u out a lil more if i can

caprices ~ the closer you get to your goal, the body may begin to resist weigt loss.  the last 10 - 20 lbs are the hardest to lose, and during this time, you should also be focusing on converting bodyfat to muscles.  You will begin to see more change from toning and exercise than maybe on the scale.

if you run too large of deficits, you can suffer malnutrition and go into the process called starvation mode.  It is important that you double check how you are calculating your calories burned and your calories eaten.  If you are still having large deficits, then you need to eat more.

If you continue plateauing, then you should consider alternative steps to break the plateau, like eating at maintenance for awhile so that your body will quit resisting the weight loss.

For calories burned:

use the expenditure calculator here and log your activity.

check for the total each day on your account home page

you should see your "normal calorie expenditure" amount change downward as you log in your exercise (to adjust for the difference between the exercise and the cals you would have burned anyway while you were living even if you had not been exercising).  this total is only available for today, so write it down somewhere at the end of each day if you want it for prior days.

subtract what you eat to get your deficit and keep your deficits in the safe range of 500 - 1,000 calories for a safe rate of 1 - 2 lbs a week unless under the supervision of a doctor.

Again, if you are a teenager, you should be using the calculator and information for teenagers instead:

http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.h tml

Starvation Mode:
Caprice you might find this informative
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories /burning_calories/starvation.htm

I still feel people are being misled here.  Isnt' BMR the BASAL rate for absolutely nothing?  2500 in the first post is the TDE = total daily expenditure.  I feel they are different.  I also feel it's wrong for people to keep aiming for 1200.  Everybody is different.  1200 for me = starvation.    My current BMR = 1800.  My TDE is around 3200.  With exercise I have to eat around 2100-2300.  I hate it, but I can't lose otherwise.   We need to be clearer about the BMR vs deficit.  It's not just 'eat at least 1200 + exercise'.  At least not for all, is it?  

if you look at my above post. the monday 2700-1900
bmr+exercise = 2700
intake = 900
the exercise calories on that day was 200.
so 1500(a males minimum cal intake) + 200 = 1700
but i said i ate 1900

if your bmr is 1800 and you are male you should be eatin 1500.
thats a 300 deficit..the only way to increase this would be to exercise.
so 500 cals in exercise is 1800+500 ..and tahts 2300
2300-1500 = 800 deficit...
but say you exercised for 1000...thats 2800 burnt for the day
if you ate 1500 thats a 1300deficit...which is over 1000..which is unhealthy.
what you guys are interested in is DEFICIT.
keep that at 500-1000 and your well on your way to losing 1-2lbs per week the healthy way

zeebi in the very first post the 2500 isnt total expenditure..thats my BMR
185lbs Male 5'7 18yrs old.(its actually 2400 but i did 2500 for simplicity).
If you do not exercise on a day, your total daily expenditure and your bmr will be the same number for that particular day.

if you also look in the very first post i say
BMR+daily exercise = total burnt for the day << this is what you refer to as TDE

Not sure ifyou were talking to me but - pink = girl, usually.  Sexist yes but...

1800 is BMR.  I'm not sure you understand the phrase!  It's BASAL = BASIC.  That's just breathing and being alive.  That's not including daily activities or exercise.  It therefore makes no sense to me, and clearly my body, to eat 1200!  I need 1800 + exercise at my current weight.  There's a big difference between BMR and what one uses daily in walking, talking, working etc.  My OVERALL TDE is around 2700.  Plus 500 exercise = 3200.  If I were to eat 1800, or god forbid 1200, my deficit would be too high.  That's my point.  1200 is not the magic number for everyone. 

aburningflame ~ the calculators on this site use AMR ~ active metabolism rate, based on what people enter as their activity level.

zeebi ~ a burningflame is doing a good job explaining how to calculate deficits, and the example he used is based on a calculator from another website that starts with basal metabolism rate, but it gives calories burned at different activity levels ~ so it provides a nice illustration of how people need to eat more at different activity levels.

and yes, strictly speaking, bmr = basal metabolism rate at rest without other activity.

so it depends on the calculators being used because there are bmr calculators out there, not adjusted at all for activity.  The expenditure calculator here at calorie-count is more than basal metabolism rate ~ it also adjusts for what a person enters as their number of sleep hours and their activity level.

then the normal calorie expenditure amount (found on your account home page) also auto adjusts on their account home page as they log in additional exercise.

ya thanks for the help...the lil blurb i gave was just showing a method that worked for me. i have never heard of AMR..i use BMR
BMR+ your exercise = the calories youd need to eat to maintain your weight.
therefore eatin 500-1000 less results in deficit