Hello everyone

Sorry but i have a question i am very confused about "net" calories i guess.
I am trying desperately to lose 40 pounds overall, but would very much like to lose as much fat and weight before christmas comes (so about 1 month!)

i have been trying to eat an estimate of 1,200 calories (estimated because it is very difficult for me to count accurately ) and plus that i have been doing fasted cardio in the morning (so i run for 20-30 minutes on an empty stomach) and then at the evening/night i do the insanity dvds - which, according to my heart monitor, burns a total of 600 calories or so.

so does this mean that i should actually be eating 1,800 calories, to account for that burn, and be down at 1,200? or do i purely eat 1,200, and the burn would take me down to a "net" of 600 and help? i am a little confused. the insanity health nutrition guide told me to eat alot and i feel like it is too much and i want to lose weight not get fatter

Hello, good luck on your weight plan, I'm sure that with exercise and being mindful of calories you will surely lose weight. Try not to worry too much about "net" calories and worry more about eating enough calories to support the vigorous exercise you are doing. Think of your body as a car, you need to put gas in your car in order for it to run properly, you wouldn't dream of starving your car of gas would you? I'll be honest, 1200 calories is a very small amount of calories, in fact the lowest amount of calories one can safely eat and still lose weight. It it were me I wouldn't do it, especially not with a rigorous exercise program like yours. It's very likely you will veer off course.

You may want to try to calculate your basic metabolic rate at a site like this http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ Your BMR is how many calories your body burns on it own just by being alive, without having to lift a finger. You can eat this many calories and not gain a pound. My metabolic rate is around 1600cal and I think of it like this - if I eat 1600cal per day I'm going to lose weight just by living my life (walking to the car, lifting the baby, doing dishes etc.) Any kind of exercise I do above that will burn even more calories. That's how I figure it anyway.

The best way to count calories is with a food scale. It's tedious when you first start using it but gets super fast and easy to use once you get the hang of it. It's easy to underestimate the calories we eat without it. If you are going to be mathematical about burning calories and eating calories you'll need the scale to do it accurately.