Hi Everyone!!! After weeks of lurking I have decided to join A little bit of background info about me. I'm currently a grad student and after entering my second year I noticed that I was gaining weight rapidly. This comes as no surprise because of late night eating, loaded coffees, and my fast food addiction. However, I'm here to start fresh and feel better about myself.

I had a quick question about caloric intakes and deficits. I joined livestrong to track my calories. They determined in order for me to lose 2lbs a week (ambitious I know) I would have to consume 1350 calories a day. However, they calculate net carbs so if I worked out that day and burned 300 calories, they would subtract that from the total calories I ate and would then need to eat those 300. In total I would have eaten 1650 calories but my net caloric intake would be still be 1350 subtracting the calories from exercise. Does that make sense? I guess my question is...is this setting me up to lose weight? I was under the impression that once you have your total calorie count you eat that no matter how much exercise. However, if I did that I would only be taking in 1050 net calories. That seems awfully low.

Sorry this post ended up so long. But I'm happy to be here and I look forward to learning and sharing with everyone!

Hello & Welcome to 3FC =)

I'm one of those people who doesn't eat back burnt calories. It's very easy to miscalculate exactly how many calories are burned, and unless I feel like participating in some sort of scientific study I will only ever get a "best guess" which could still be 100 calories off.

Since it's all trial and error, you might be better starting off at like 1500 cal a day, and then not eating back your worked off calories. Try for a week. If you're ravenous and drained, then add in a few extra calories to see if you can still lose weight with more. If you're satisfied, then continue as planned.

Just a suggestion.

Whatever you end up doing, I wish you the best. Stick with it and the weight will come off in the end

Like Lovely, I also never eat back any exercise calories I supposedly burn during the day. I've never had a problem with loss of energy doing this, so it's clear it works for me.

I also second what Lovely said in terms of being willing to experiment. Start at 1350, 1200, 1500. Whatever. Pick a spot. Do it for a week and see what happens, then tinker. Some people are quite happy consuming 1400 calories a day and lose consistently. Others (like me) eat closer to 850 calories a day and are still happily losing. So it's really down to the individual body and lifestyle.

Good luck!

I do not eat back the calories burnt'm one of those people. It is exactly how many calories you burn is very easy to be confused with a kind of scientific study, I do not feel like it in the off-100 calories I just can not "best guess " will get.

Since it's all trial and error, you better, and the 1500 Carl worked in the same energy to the day and then start again you can not eat. Try for one week. Yes, ravenous and exhausted more and lose weight if you can still add a few extra calories. If you are satisfied, will continue as planned.

Thank you for your replies I've decided not to eat my burned calories, see how hungry I am and adjust as needed