How many more calories must I burn vs take in to lose weight - daily basis

[mrlarson59]

Bought Fitbit Force week ago.  Using My Fitness Pal (MFP) to record food & exercise.  Using Run Keeper to record running. 

I'm 55 yrs old, so losing weight seems to be more difficult for me than my younger coworkers which is discouraging. 

My goal is to lose 10 lbs, losing 1 lb/week.  Put this into MFP & Fitbit Dashboard.  MFP has daily goal of 1200 calories.  I'm consitently staying under 1200 calories/daily but only by about 50-100 calories/day. So when someone says you have to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 lb, not sure how this works out with only 50-100 daily of fewer calories in vs out.

I run 30 min 3 times a week. 

I do a combination of 20 min elliptical & circuit training (50 min total) 2/week

I've been working out for 1 yr consistently and haven't lost anything!  The calorie counting has only been going on now for 1 week (since I got my fitbit force).  I have been eating healthier for 1 yr now.

Am I doing things right?  When should I expect results?  Any suggestions that can help will be greatly appreciated!!!

[gerrymcd]

Losing weight is mostly down to what you eat, rather than being primarily due to exercise (at least at the level of exercise most of us can do and still hold down a job, etc).  Even though you workout regularly its all to easy to eat the same amount of calories you burn in the gym - running for 30 mins burns ~350 calories (about the same as the calories in a bagel or candy bar).  Consequently, unless you are really careful about logging calories its easy to replace all the calories burned in the gym and see no fat loss.....ever.  I know when I started working out I actually gained weight for a while, until it dawned on me exercise was making me hungry and I was burning 500 calories in the gym, but going home and eating 900! 

The 1200 calories you eat a day is the amount you should eat to give you a deficit of 500 calories a day.  Thats is, your base metabolic rate (the amount of calories you burn just 'being alive') plus your workouts must amount to 1,700 calories?  In which case, if you only eat 1,200 you will endup at a deficit of 500 a day, or 3,500 calories per week.  

It may take more than a week of calorie counting to start to see some results.....but....as to your final queston, its sounds like you are doing everything 'right'.

[Maverick494]

There are several factors missing here:

1. how tall are you?

2. How much do you weigh?

BMI is supposed to be between 18.5 and 24.9 for a normal healthy person.

BMI = weight (lb) / [height (in)]2 x 703

do you fall into the normal BMI range? if you do you might be at a point where your body just won't lose any more weight.  It does happen and you probably don't want to because then it is unhealthy.

How much you eat is one thing, but like the previous poster said sometimes it's what you eat.  Consider everything that enters your body as a spot for potentially having an affect on your weight, espcially if you are on a plateau for losing weight.  Try some things, eat more protien or less, etc.  Do it for more than just a couple days.

Also exercise plateau's can happen, your body gets used to what you are doing.  Change your routine, find new things your body is not used to doing to throw it out of it's comfort zone.  I try to change my exercise routine about every 4 weeks for about a week.  So if I am on an elliptical cycle I will make myself go swim laps for 2 weeks and then go back to routine.

Edit:

also to add in 2004 I got down from 240 to 186 in 13 weeks on Weight Watchers and 2 a days, the first 6 weeks I rocketed down from 240 to 198, the remaining 7 weeks I lost 12 pounds.  I just couldn't exercise enough (more than 2 hours a day) or eat little enough without feeling super hungry to lost weight any faster and once I hit 186 I never lost another pound.  My profile should be all public so you can see where I am back at now, I have a long road at 35 with arthritic knees to hope to get back to 186, but I will do it.  I have been where you are before.  Be willing to accept, if you are at a healthy BMI, Blood Pressure, Cholestorol, etc. that you might just be where you are supposed to be.

[VirginiaC]

First off congratulations on eating better consistently for over a year, yay you . 

Secondly, it does take a deficit of 3500 calories to drop a pound but if you're on medications or steroids or something like that you may not be actually burning as many calories as the average would indicate for the Fitbit or MFP or any other application.  We're all different in subtle ways.

Now for the easy part, if you have been consistently eating the same amount of calories and doing the same level of exercise (intensity and duration being the same) and you have maintained your weight, then all you have to do is cut out an additional 200 calories a day and do an additional workout worth 300 calories. Then see if you lose a pound in a week.  Make sure you use a scale that has tenths of a pound as well so you can see if you lost .4lbs or .7lbs.  Once you have that number you'll know how much longer it will take you to lose the weight you desire with those changes or how much more you need to exercise.  Also consult your doctor to see your metabolism is slowing down too much or something, they can do blood tests to check your thyroid levels and such.

Examples: 

Meals:  If the calories for your your meals average 400cal 3x a day you just need to:  make that sandwich for lunch 1/2 a sandwich by losing a slice of bread... keep the middle stuff and stack it higher... bread ranges from 60-100 calories a slice) or omit the cheese (100 calories an ounce).  Eat sides that have little to no calories but are big on nutritional value like field greens or green beans instead of corn or carrots for a meal. 

Exercise:  Add a walk in the morning or afternoon to your routine... A friend of mine and I work at a place that provides employees with a 15 minute break in the morning and afternoon and an unpaid lunch period.  We also are blessed to have a gym in our facility so we'll go down to the gym and do the elliptical for 10 minutes on breaks to get us over a plateau or do a round of stairs on break, or even walk out to the car and back briskly.

Regardless of what you decide to know be proud of yourself for making some positive changes that will help your body beyond your initial goal of losing weight.

Congrats,

VirginiaC

[Jabrat]

i had to burn at least 2500 calories per day to budge this weight i am 58 but i lost 45 pounds now