Matt's advice column

Hello.

I pretty much understand the whole weight loss thing. My question is about calories.

Now everyone (including myself) always says that you need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. This seems pretty straight forward, but does that actually mean:

You eat 2500 calories a day
You need to burn AT LEAST 2501 calories to start to lose anything?

Because one day, I walked constantly for 7 hours. It wasn't planned: me and a friend walked to the city, browsed shops, then just took a long walk as the sun set, and then walked home. I used to have an app on my iPod Touch. You put in how much exercise you've done, and what you've eaten. I put "brisk walking, 7 hours" in, and it only said I burned 1600 calories?! So I would have had to burn 900 more calories (assuming I consume 2500 calories a day) ? Because that seems crazy. My body felt like jelly after all that walking, and I still needed to do MORE just to lose weight?

Any guidance?

Thanks!

No, fuck calorie counting. You need calories to survive. Just avoid eating foods high in fat -- primarily saturated fat -- and exercise and you'll lose weight.

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(Rating: 4) Of course you need calories to survive. But you also need fat to survive. All in moderation I say. But calories are just a method of measuring energy, so I think there is some merit in calorie counting.

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