This question makes no sense. You cannot calculate how many calories she needs to burn without knowing her resting energy expenditure. If she eats 2000 calories a day but if her body requires 4000 calories a day to maintain her current weight then she would already be at 2000 calorie deficit. Our bodies burn energy even when we don’t eat all day. Approximately 3500 calories is 1 pound.
So Nancy May eat 2000 calories burn 500 and another 1000 during her daily activities and she’s likely already losing weight because no ones resting energy expenditure is 500 calories. Terrible that they use these questions in school. But based on this logic your answer is A. She needs to burn more calories then she consumes and the only way to do that is to burn more then 500 calories since that’s what will bring her to energy balance.
Measurable goals allow you to judge your progress towards achieving them as well as to know for certain when you have done so. In psychological terms, measurable goals are more motivational than abstract goals