net calories

Question
QUESTION: I weight 145lbs and would like to be 125lbs.  I am confused on how many calories I should eat. If i burn 1600 calories doing nothing and i work out burning anywhere from 350-800 calories depending on the excercise how many calories should I eat to lose 2lbs a week?  I eat about 1600 calories a day and when I incorporate work outs, I am wondering if I am eating enough.  I am thinking I need to increase my daily calories.

ANSWER: Christina,

Number of calories burned is very individual and varies from person to person.
Depending on your height, your age, and your body mass (e.g., are you muscular?) you may burn about 1450 calories doing nothing.  If you want to lose 2 pounds per week you would have to eat 1000 calories PER DAY less than you burn, so you'll definitely want to keep up the work-outs.

Let's say you burn an average of 2100 calories per day including your work out: Then 1600 calories per day will allow one pound per week weight loss, which is highly advisable for a female (it's too difficult to lose two pounds per week when you are close to your ideal weight).

You are eating enough and eating more will not allow for any more weight loss than a pound every few weeks.  Be sure you are eating nutrient-dense and filling foods so you aren't going around hungry!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I had my metobolic rate tested and it said that I burn 1600 in a sedatary state and an additional 400 based on my life style and plus my calories burned during workouts.  What caused my confusion is that I log in my food and my workouts on dailyplate.com and it told me to eat 1600 cals and when I log my calories burn it subtracts from my calories eaten for example 1600 cals minus 350 cals burned leaving me at net cals 1250 and than it tells me to eat more eventhough I ate 1600 already.  So do I want my net cals to be 1600?

ANSWER: OK, so you were measured to burn 1600 a day being sedentary--that is quite a nice amount!
Plus 400 for moving around means you burn a total of 2000 calories a day.  Add a 500 calorie work out and you burn 2500 per day.
Now, you really can lose nearly 2 pounds per week by eating 1600 per day (because you do have nearly a 1000 calorie daily deficit from 2500--which will promote 2 pounds weight loss per week).

Perhaps it will be helpful for me to interject here, that it takes 3500 calories to make one pound.  In order to lose one pound per week, we recommend eating 500 fewer calories per day (x 7 days in a week yields exactly 3500 calories, or one pound lost).

If you follow the net cals on the daily plate and continue to eat as many calories as you burn exercising, you won't lose more.  I know it's confusing (I use that site). What it's helpful for is to show you that the more you work out, the more you can eat.  This is great to know once you are on maintenance--want to eat more?  Just work out more and you don't have to worry about gaining the weight back.
What is also true is, the more you work out, the more weight you can lose.

It's up to you to decide: The Daily Plate says "eat 1600 calories to lose weight" (and you can lose nearly one pound per week if you are burning 2000 per day).  Then it says, "you just burned 500 calories by working out--so EAT 500 MORE".
Do you want to eat 500 more calories, or would you rather lose another pound at the end of the week?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I want to lose.  So, is it ok to have my net cals be under 1200?  Thank you, sorry for all my questions.  I just discoverd this site and I am so thankful I have this tool to ask questions and get answers from professionals educated in this topic.  I appreciate this.

Answer
Oh, yes, I see how that is sooo confusing, because a 1200 calorie "diet" would be not a good idea!  
As long as you have actually eaten 1600 calories I think you will get the nutrition you need, a good calorie level, and a good rate of weight loss while you keep up your great exercise program!

Hope I've finally been able to answer your original question--sometimes we need to go back and forth a few times to make sure we're on the same page--sorry for the lengthy time it took you to get me to understand your question!

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