I am confused.

My calorie intake for the day is to be at 1200 and my activity level 1450 calories. Is that per day?  I actually have to work.  I can not even begin to imagine how to accomplish that. I went to the gym at lunch and that only used up 189 calories. So is this how it has to work, more exercise than calories?  If that is the case I am doomed before I get started and I will be forced back to Atkins and that I really dread! Any advice?

The amount of calories you burn is not solely based on exercise at a gym. Your basic metabolic rate burns a specific amount of calories even while you are inactive. Once you figure this rate out you can easily figure out how many extra calories you need to burn to lose weight. A good basic rule is that if you are at a stable weight, a 500 calorie deficit, be it food or exercise, should allow you to lose about a pound a week.

Thank you for your reply but how do I figure out what my inactive rate comes to?  I do appreciate your answer because I am starting to panic a little. 

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

That is a website that gives you a basic general analysis of your basal metabolic rate. Once you find out this rate, you must work with this number to create the deficit.

Thank you thank you thank you!!! That  makes so much sense!!!   It says it is at 1600.  So I need to be around 1100 per day.  That can be accomplished through diet and exercise.  For example if I create 200 used calories in exercise  and I eat 1200 calories then I finished the day off at 1000.  Am I on track?

Yes because to maintain weight you would need to eat around 1600 calories. Eating around 1200 is an automatic 400 calorie deficit, and the 200 with exercise is another 200 calorie deficit = 600 calorie deficit which should show results fairly quickly. However, make sure the 1200 calories are healthy calories and that you have enough to eat in order to make sure taht you do not put your body into starvation body, thus slowing your metabolic rate. I hope this helps.

Are you kidding me????  This helps me out big time.   I was getting really discouraged and now it makes total sense to me and seems really doable. Thank you for taking the time to help me with this.  Thank you also for mentioning the starvation mode.  I actually forgot about that!!!   This is exciting!!!  I did weight watchers before and that went no where.  I never grasped the concept and frankly it was never explained.   This, however,  can work. Thank you again

Hi Tuff n Nuff,

If you are working out and burning an extra 200 calories, you need to eat back those calories. On days you don't work out, it's ok to eat 1200. On days you go to the gym, like today, you need to eat more. If you burn 200 calories, you need to eat 1400 calories in order to keep your body fueled properly.

This will still result in a 400 calorie deficit.

oh wow this is an eye opener for me.  The site you provided said my bmr is 1498.  Now this is what I burn without working out.  Am I correct?  So if I am eating 1200 calories a day that means I only have 298 calorie deficit.  Now wonder why I am not losing any weight.  Am I correct or am I misunderstanding this?  If I am correct does that mean I have to make up the other 202 calories to burn during exercise?  If this is so it makes so much sense now.  Wow

Please can some1 get back to me.

ajtimes24u - no, BMR is how much your body burns in a coma. Typically, BMR x 1.2 will give you your sedentary burn (how much you burn without working out, just sitting around, desk job, etc). So you burn about 1800 sedentary, more with exercise.

If you exercise just an additional 200 calories, you can eat 1500 and lose a pound a week. If you exercise more than 200 calories, you can eat more than 1500. Trust me when I tell you, it's better to move more and eat more. For you, I'd recommend not going lower than 1500, even on days you can't exercise.

oh ok.  Thanks a bunch.  It kind of made some sense to me because I have been losing very slowly but the way you explained it makes a little more sense to me.  I usually eat anywhere from 1350-1500 a day depends on how hungry I get.

There are a couple of things to pay attention to.  Make sure you get at least your minimum calories 1200F/1500M +300teen +%exercise.  This will help keep your body healthy enough to function properly and to continue to allow you to lose weight.

Do not exceed a 1,000 calorie deficit.  Again, this keeps your body with enough calories to lose, but not so many as to change the function from weight loss to conservation (aka starvation mode).

I'm confused too! My BMR is 1521.95... Now what???

I don't understand the Calorie Counter for the activity portion either. Why dosent the activity calorie counter I start off at zero like the Food Calorie counter? When I input an activity, the burn meter increases.... what does all this mean!?!?

The activity calorie counter is also counting all the cals your body has been burning since midnight, even without exercise - it takes calories to live!

Amethyst girl was right. You were burning calories while you were asleep (this is how we stay alive, keep our hearts beating- by using energy i.e. calories!) and that is why the meter is not at zero in the morning. You continue to burn calories all day, and would do so even if you laid in bed the whole time. Think of yourself as like a car that is idling- even if you are not moving you are still burning fuel.

If you actually do some exercise, then you are burning extra calories on top of what you burn just to stay alive, so that is added to the meter. The combination of the usual calories burnt plus the extra burnt through exercise is your total burn. To lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you burn, very simply. Weight gain is caused by eating more calories than you burn, causing the extra to be stored as fat. Does that make sense?

I think this does make sense.  If my calorie counter is less than my activity meter then I am in good shape and loosing weight?

Lauri

Yep, just don't let the difference (deficit) between the totals be greater than 1000 calories (aim for 500 for now).

Right now after breakfast I am at a 464 deficit.  Before breakfast I was at a 656 deficit.  I'm not sure how it works during the day except that I know I need to keep my calories count around 1200 to 1350 and I need to make sure I so some sort of exercise.  I will pay closer attention to what happens when I enter my walk and other exercise. Thanks for the input. Lauri

It doesn't so much matter that you stay under the *at-the-moment count* during the day - just by the end of the day, you'll have a deficit of 500. Does that make sense?

Personally I think they should change that page, so that the main number is how many calories you'll burn by the end of the day (midnight) since that's the more important number. I mean, it's cool to watch the burn number go up, but that isn't the number you should focus on.

Agreed it would be nice to see at the end of the day what was accomplished in a report.  For example you consumed so many calories and burned so much for a total deficit for the day of??? Who know maybe some day!!!