Question about burn meter & eat meter

Hi guys, I have some questions and I feel kinda stupid asking them but I'd rather ask and get some insight instead of not asking at all. I'm about 128 pounds, 5'2, female and 24. I'm trying to love a few pounds, hopefully get down to about 115, and my question is about the activity meter, I'm relatively sedentary meaning I sit a lot and I don't have an active job. However I do work out five times a week and I run a little under 6 miles everytime I work out. What should I set my meter to? I set it at highly active and I felt that it gave me too many calories (I felt) but at sedentary I was only given about 1200. I really don't want to do the whole trial and error thing, but I will as a last resort. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 Megan

I have the same question! I work out pretty thoroughly, though not as much as you :) and my activity level, besides the workouts, is pretty low. I put in "moderately active" and think the calories are more than enough for me daily.

Hopefully we'll get some good responses!

So glad someone else is in my shoes! Thanks for replying. Do you have about the same stats? I need a workout/motivation buddy!

I'm about the same height and age, and that's it, lol. I have WAAAAY more weight to lose - I'm 169 right now. (I used to blame it on post-pregnancy weight, but now that he's saying the alphabet I have no excuses.)

 How many calories are you eating now?

Hey atleast you had a kid! I just have a little extra from eating extra. Honestly, I yo yo a little, it's been a while since I've counted my calories and when I did I first tried 1600, then 1300 and then I tried 1200 and ate back the calories I burned off at the gym so to be honest I'm clueless and just hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I've been a CC memeber for a while, but just today moved over to CC plus, and figured I'd try all the cool tools, which is when I got confused. Do you have a goal weight or just hoping to tone up and lose a little?

I sent you a "message" that should be in your mailbox.

A popular method is to set you activity level to sedentary, and then to add workouts to the activity log.

so, you may have 1200 for the day, but if you add a 5 mile run, it will add about 600-700 calories to your daily burn level (depending on weight).  you can that eat back some or all of those calories to keep your deficit where it was, or increase it a little.

I think calorie counting is great, however to listen to your body is way more important. What I mean is - if you only consumed 700 calories and are not hungry by the end of the day - just don't try to stick in the remainder calories.

The counter gave me 1800& nbsp;cc at sedentary lifestyle and&nbs p;low activity level. If I start to blindly adghere to it - I will double my weight in a month. Not to say I just can't consume this much food. Especially considering we have to eay a lot of fruits and vegies - not much calories here.

Conscious eating - try to  google this. 

 

 

 

I set mine at "light activity" (1400 calories, sigh) and then I report my exercise activity. Even when I'm not riding horses or doing work around the farm or house, I figure I'm not completely sedentary. Generally I'm in the 1400 range, but I try (and pretty much succeed) at keeping a 500 or greater calorie credit.

So far, so good, a little over 2 weeks and 7 pounds off. I was prepared to knock it back down to 1400 calories, but if I keep losing 2 pounds per week (I'm assuming we won't keep up this pace - the first 5 are always the easiest) then I'm going to assume this system targets my metabolism fairly effectively.