This fact confuses me..........

How is it possible that the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you eat.?

If you are supposed to consume 1200 calories a day, there is no way to burn 1200 calories per day, I burn that much in about a week.

If I only eat 500 calories a day, I think I'd die.........

it is true and very possible. Don't forget all the calories your body expends just living.

Multiply body weight by 10; add the body weight to this value.
[i.e., for a 120 lb female, 1,200 + 120=1,320 cal/day BMR]


This is the amount of calories you burn just by being alive – even when you are lying down, doing nothing. BMR accounts for approximately 60% of the calories burned for an average person.


So, if you eat this exact amount of calories a day, and do no exercise you will stay the same. If you eat this and exercise,you will lose!

So per day, what should be the average calorie burn that is done 'working out'....on a 120 lb. woman?

And thats also not taking into consideration some days not working out. Most will work out 4-5 days, so are we screwing ourselves by not working out for those 2-3 days?

Hi! Start a profile at www.fitday.com - it is totally free and based on your weight/age/type of work (sedentary/desk, etc), it will tell you the basal and lifestyle calories you burn per day! You can add in workouts and it will tell you your total calories burned.

OH OK, thank you.

Looks like I definitely NEED some guidance in this area.

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Posted by tray831



So per day, what should be the average calorie burn that is done 'working out'....on a 120 lb. woman?

And thats also not taking into consideration some days not working out. Most will work out 4-5 days, so are we screwing ourselves by not working out for those 2-3 days?

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no, you aren't screwing yourself by not working out 7 days a week. Your body needs to rest and repair the damage caused by working out.
Also, if you do too much cardio, like most girls do while trying to lose weight, your body gets wise to it, and finds a more efficient way to hold on to the calories and fat to live, which in turn is a big watse of time.

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Posted by Snowboardgirl

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Posted by tray831



So per day, what should be the average calorie burn that is done 'working out'....on a 120 lb. woman?

And thats also not taking into consideration some days not working out. Most will work out 4-5 days, so are we screwing ourselves by not working out for those 2-3 days?

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no, you aren't screwing yourself by not working out 7 days a week. Your body needs to rest and repair the damage caused by working out.
Also, if you do too much cardio, like most girls do while trying to lose weight, your body gets wise to it, and finds a more efficient way to hold on to the calories and fat to live, which in turn is a big watse of time.

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Then I think thats what happening to me but I'm only doing cardio 4x a week. But I feel like Im wasting my time.......how do we re-trick it?

Do another form of cardio (even though it may not burn as much as the regular)?

First of all, what else are you doing besides cardio?

I hope you are doing weight training as well.
any way, High intensity intervals (HIIT ) are awsome for fat burning.

on treadmill-
1. warm up buy joging for 5 minutes.
2. run AS FAST AS YOU CAN, as hard as possible for 30 seconds
3. then jog slowly or walk fast for 60 seconds.
4. repeat steps 2 and 3 for a total of 8 times.
5. rest for 5 mins.

that is all. it is very intense, you will not need to do any more cardio that day. you should be too tired to anyway. if you aren't then you didn't run fast enough. you should not do this on an empty stomach! not good on the elliptical, but ok on a bike. I recommend the treadmill.

do this 2x per week, plus one more day of steady state cardio for 30 mins. regular cardio done right after you wake up on an empty stomache will help you lose fat as well.
good luck!

ps. running outside is even better for the HIIT