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Old 10-02-2008, 11:04 AM   #1  
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Default got two questions.....any anwsers?

Thanks to the people who responded to my forum I now know my calorie intake is 1700.
My question is....am I suppost to burn off that 1700 or more than that?
Another thing...i've been reading some threads and getting pretty scared when people say they have hit their "plateau."
What do you do when you stop losing weight?
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Old 10-02-2008, 11:19 AM   #2  
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My gosh no on the calorie burning! An hour's worth of very hard exercise for me may burn 600-700 calories (according to my heart rate monitor). Your body needs a fair amount of those 1700 calories just for basic functions - so you're not shooting for a zero or negative calorie balance based on your food consumption.

The idea is that the 1700 already puts you into a calorie deficit, your body burns more through basic functions and that weight loss will result. Just for an example, if your BMR (the amount your body needs everyday to exist) is 2200, you consume 1700 and do nothing but lay in bed all day - by theory you'd lose a pound per week (-500 calories x 7 days, -3500 calories = 1 pound).

Just give it your best during your workouts, exercise often - make it a habit. Burn what you can, but also concentrate on your diet. I find for me, the nutrition contributes more to weight loss than exercise. The exercise contributes to my fitness, it's the reason I do it. Combined they've helped me to lose weight.

When I've stalled I just continue onwards, not changing my plan. Because, for me, stalls have never lasted more than a few weeks. If the stall were to change into a plateau, a true one - lasting a very long time - then I would reevaluate my diet and exercise. I believe a true plateau is one lasting for months on end. Stalls happen, it's part of the game, don't sweat it when it happens to you.

Last edited by FB; 10-02-2008 at 11:36 AM.
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Old 10-02-2008, 11:34 AM   #3  
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Oh my goodness! Let's see if I can help clear things up! No need to be scared - you've barely started, so don't buy trouble worrying about plateaus and stuff yet.

Here's the scoop:
Your body needs a minimum number of calories to survive just from your everyday activities. Everything you do burns calories, even if it's sitting on your butt in front of the TV. You'll see a lot of people refer to this as your BMR which stands for Basal Metabolic Rate.

So let's say that you figure out that your BMR is 2000 calories per day. That means that if you just live your life as normal and don't exercise, you burn 2000 calories just by being alive.

Now, keep in mind that 3500 calories = 1 lb of fat. So in order to lose 1 lb, you have to burn 3500 calories more than your BMR. In order to gain 1 lb, you have to eat 3500 calories over and above your BMR.

Make sense so far?

So let's say you cut your calories by 500 and only eat 1500 a day.
Then say you exercise every single day and burn another 300 calories by exercising.
That means you'll be 800 calories per day below what you need to *maintain* your weight.
At the end of the week you'll have burned 5600 calories (800 per day x 7 days).
That's 1.6 lbs of fat that you will have burned off.

Ok. NOW. That said.

Our bodies are not mathematical machines. There are other things that affect how much you weigh. Even though you're burning fat, you could be retaining water. It could be your period. You could have eaten too much salt. You could have exercised really hard and your muscles are swollen. There are dozens of variables that can affect what the scale reads.

If you are consistent with burning more calories than you consume, you WILL lose weight. It might not be in a straight line, but you will lose.

The trick is that you cannot let yourself get distracted by the blips in the scale from outside influences.

Eat within your calorie range, exercise, and be patient.

And *if* you hit a plateau (cause not everyone does), then deal with it at that time. Don't buy trouble that you don't have yet.

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Old 10-02-2008, 11:40 AM   #4  
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Ah Photochick! You explained everything so succintly as I was editing my original post to add a bit o' science. Thanks!
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Old 10-02-2008, 11:44 AM   #5  
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She's right on.

You might want to enter your info in a calorie calculator and figure up your BMR. The dr is the best to go, but for a general idea you can do it online.
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Old 10-02-2008, 11:47 AM   #6  
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FB & PhotoChick- Thanks for clearing that up...... there are just some questions that my friends and family can't anwser.....glad you girls are here!
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Old 10-02-2008, 12:08 PM   #7  
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So.. jumping in here. Cuze I'm a little confused...

I put my info in one of them calorie burner deals and it states that I burn about 1900 per day just being alive. If I want to be down to 140 by Jan 15th what should my daily calorie intake be? Lets not consider exercise for this number. That gives me exactly 15 weeks from today. 25 pounds to loose. So I want to strive for loosing 1.5 to 2 pounds per week which is a good weight loss goal, right?

If one pound equals 3500 calories and lets say I strive for 1500 calories per day, it would take me, on average, 9 days to loose just one pound. I have 105 days until Jan 15th so based on this, I would only loose 11.7 pounds by Jan 15th....but in everything else I've been reading, I don't want to make my calorie intake much lower then that...or do I? I'm so confused on what I should be striving for with a daily calorie count to loose this weight...
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Old 10-02-2008, 12:16 PM   #8  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JamieJo View Post
So.. jumping in here. Cuze I'm a little confused...

I put my info in one of them calorie burner deals and it states that I burn about 1900 per day just being alive. If I want to be down to 140 by Jan 15th what should my daily calorie intake be? Lets not consider exercise for this number. That gives me exactly 15 weeks from today. 25 pounds to loose. So I want to strive for loosing 1.5 to 2 pounds per week which is a good weight loss goal, right?

If one pound equals 3500 calories and lets say I strive for 1500 calories per day, it would take me, on average, 9 days to loose just one pound. I have 105 days until Jan 15th so based on this, I would only loose 11.7 pounds by Jan 15th....but in everything else I've been reading, I don't want to make my calorie intake much lower then that...or do I? I'm so confused on what I should be striving for with a daily calorie count to loose this weight...
... which is why you HAVE to take exercise into account.
There are so many factors involved. You could just eat less but it will take you longer to get to your goal. Exercise it what really helps get you there.
Another thing, like PhotoChick said, our bodies are not mathmatical beings. Our body doesn't know about all this math we're doing to get it to burn fat. Bodies change and adapt.
Just keep at 1500 calories and exercise!
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Old 10-02-2008, 01:02 PM   #9  
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Quote:
I put my info in one of them calorie burner deals and it states that I burn about 1900 per day just being alive. If I want to be down to 140 by Jan 15th what should my daily calorie intake be? Lets not consider exercise for this number. That gives me exactly 15 weeks from today. 25 pounds to loose. So I want to strive for loosing 1.5 to 2 pounds per week which is a good weight loss goal, right?
Ok, so to lose the weight you want in the timeline you want, you have to lose 1.66 lbs per week. That means you have to have a calorie deficit of 5810 a week, or 830 a day.

You could, conceivably eat 1070 calories per day and achieve that goal. But there are a few of problems with that.

1 - Eating below 1200 calories a day, it will be very hard for you to get all the nutrition you need to properly fuel your body. Even if you don't go into a stall because of a decreased metabolism, you might suffer from other health related issues due to not getting enough nutrition - everything from fatigue to an increased susceptibility to things like colds and flu, to bad skin and hair and nails from not enough fat in your diet.

2 - If you reduce your nutrition that much, you will be burning muscle as well as fat. Burning muscle is bad for two reasons: One is obviously you're losing lean muscle which is simply not a good thing. The other is that when you lose muscle you further slow your metabolism, because muscle burns calories and fat doesn't. Even resting muscle burns more calories than an equal weight of fat does. So it's a vicious cycle - you burn muscle, which reduces your metabolism, which causes you to burn more muscle, which ... etc., etc.

3 - If you burn muscle and reduce your metabolism, when you begin eating normally again, you will put on fat really quickly. Eating doesn't rebuild lost muscle. Only working out builds lost muscle. So even if your metabolism re-stabilizes when you begin eating normally again, you'll have gained back fat where you had muscle before. You may still be within your weight guidelines, but you'll be "skinny fat" - in other words, within your weight range, but out of shape and jiggly.

4 - Continually eating below a reasonable level for proper nutrition can, eventually, permanently damage your metabolism, as many people here will tell you. You can read all the studies and so forth, but the truth is that the medical community (and everyone else for that matter) is WOEFULLY undereducated on nutrition. There is so little funding for nutritional studies and most doctors can only tell you the basics - and sometimes not even that.

------

Now, if you consider exercise for your number you can lower your calories by 500 day, which means you'd eat 1400 calories a day, which is a reasonable number. And you'd plan to exercise off 300 calories a day, which can be done fairly easily with 30-40 mins of med to high intensity cardio or a combination of weight lifting and cardio.

The advantage to doing it this way is:

1 - You are eating enough to maintain proper nutrition. At 1400 calories, you have room to get all the protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals that you need to be healthy.

2 - You are building or at least maintaining your muscle volume when you exercise, which means you'll burn more fat than muscle, which means you won't be "skinny fat" when you lose the weight you want to lose.

3 - You're building or maintaining muscle volume by exercising which means you'll be maintaining or even increasing your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism, which means the more calories you burn when you're not exercising, which makes weight loss and maintenance easier.

Make sense?

.

Last edited by PhotoChick; 10-02-2008 at 01:03 PM.
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Old 10-02-2008, 03:11 PM   #10  
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Wow PhotoChick - Do you want to move in with me? It's cold up here in Wisconsin but I could sure use you!!! haha!

Thats what I needed to know. I think I am going to aim for 1500 and exercise 400 off per day!
Thanks again!
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Old 10-02-2008, 03:26 PM   #11  
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Hee hee. Do I get to eat beer cheese soup if I come up?

I used to have a friend in Wauwatosa and I would go visit her all the time and absolutely pig out on beer cheese soup.

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Old 10-02-2008, 03:30 PM   #12  
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PhotoChick - Just read your blog. Gave me some laughs!

I don't think I have ever had beer cheese soup but batter-fried cheeze is one of my favs!! No wonder I can't break the 160 mark!!!
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Old 10-04-2008, 10:07 AM   #13  
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PHOTOCHICK your pretty smart! love your knowledge! im glad your here!!!
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Old 10-04-2008, 10:45 AM   #14  
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*blush* Thanks Eliz. Mostly it's been trial and error and having to learn the hard way myself.

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Old 10-04-2008, 11:27 AM   #15  
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photochick - you are an inspiriation to me. I thank you for your imput.
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