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2007/08/11, 12:02 AM
There's been something that has been bugging me and thats how weight loss exactly works. If I burn around 500-600 calories 5-6 times a week on my elliptical strider but I eat more than that in calories then I will not lose weight? I have read some articles and it seems that the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you eat but this seems impossible? Can somebody please clarify :(.
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2007/08/11, 08:37 AM
Your body has a base amountof calories it burns a day. Yes just breathing, keeping your heart beating, and your body temperature where it needs to be takes energy. Then on top of this, you have to add your activities to find out what your total caloric expenditure is for a day.
Once you find that out, you should eat about 250-500 calories a day less than that. It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound. Therefore you should be losing about a pound a week at a 500 deficit. Do not go crazy and think if I have a 1500 deficit I'll lose a pound about every other day, because without enough nutrients and calories, your body will start eating away at your muscle, which you don't want to happen.
Make sense?
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2007/08/11, 01:29 PM
Swimfreak1214, as an example to clarify what tpg said, MY BMR is around 1400 calories. So, if I just lay in bed all day my body needs that many calories to function properly.
When I figure in my daily activity, I burn approximately 2100 calories a day. To lose weight, I need to then consume LESS than 2100 calories. So then a reduction of 500 calories per day adds up to 3500 per week, which is the deficit needed to lost a pound of body fat. I can lose weight eating 1600 calories per day as long as I keep up my current activity level.
If you have been eating at a maintenance level, and you are now burning 500-600 calories 5-6 times/week, you will lose weight. If you cut your calories a bit, you will lose a little faster.
I hope I didn't just confuse you more.
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