Help me please.. I don't think I get it.

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how many calories I should be eating to lose weight but I am confused on what the calorie burn tool is telling me.

I'm 29- 5'4" at 135lbs. I want to lose 10lbs. Here are my questions:

What would my activity level be? I work out 5 times a week. I usually do 45 min of cardio 3x/wk, 2 total body weight days. I also walk 3-5 times a week for 30-45 min for exercise. I'm not very active outside of my workouts since i have a desk job and usually just chill at home. My thinking is that this would make me moderately active. Is this true?

That being said... When my activity level is set to moderate, it says I burn 2040 calories in a day. This is where I am thrown. I understand that I should subtract 500ish calories from my total burn to lose weight right? So does the calorie burn tool assume a certain amount is burned when exercising and count the exercise or do I log the exercise on top of this?

Please help... I want to make sure I am eating an appropriate number of calories but can't quite understand how to figure it out. Thanks

You can go one of two ways: either set your activity level lower and log your workouts, otherwise if you set your activity level to moderate you probably do not want log each work out (unless it is particularly long or grueling) since CC already assumes your daily activity includes some amount of exercise.

Personally I prefer to log my workouts because it makes me feel accomplished, but it could also be a hassle if you are exercising often. I think it is just personal preference.

And yes, for whichever way you choose you want to subtract 500ish cals from your daily total and that is what you should eat to lose weight.

Good luck!!!

agree completely

You could try setting activity level to light (i think?) and log your exercise and see how your burn meter reacts and maybe take the light+exercise amount and the moderate amount, and use the average as your burned amount.

Like the bethym said - I do it the same way. I don't work, so mine is sedentary and I log time at the gym and I run a calorie deficit of 1000-1200/day.

Use the CC calculator.  Set your current weight and your target weight, a 'moderate' activity level and leave the goal date empty.  The number that comes back will be your weight-loss calorie intake.  In your case I would estimate it will be around 1500 cals a day.

Thanks everyone. I got it now. I was trying around 1500 so looks like I am on the right track.