1300 calories a day, but if i lose 600 during workout... Does this mean I have to eat 600 more?

laghari24
laghari24 Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi there, I'm pretty new to counting calories, but not new to fitness, because I've lost 40 kilos in total... from 120 kilos to 80kgs, but I am not losing weight anymore. Sometime's I think I'm under eating, sometime's I think I'm over. However, I thought I'll give my fitness pal a shot, and I made my meal plan for the day and how many calories I'm going to burn. So according to MyFitnessPal, I should be consuming 1300 calories, but if I burn 600 during a workout, should i be consuming those calories too? Or should I just eat 1300 calories, regardless of how much I burn for the day.

1900 calories (Food) - 600 calories (workout) = 1300 calories
Or
1300 calories (Food) - 600 calories (workout) = 700 calories.

Please help,
Thanks!

Replies

  • kaspatore
    kaspatore Posts: 95 Member
    follow my fitness pal's suggestion and look at the NET calories of 1300 (so eat them back). Happy snacking!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Well, 1300 calories seems low for a man. What are your stats?

    If you're using the MFP method you should eat back your calories-not all of them, because it over estimates your burn. How do you know you burned 600 calories? In this case since you're already eating so little I'd say definitely eat them back, but if you decide to find a more realistic daily intake, you'll want to be careful how much you eat back in order to keep your deficit.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    If you aren't losing weight (and it's been longer than a couple weeks), then you're going to be overeating rather than undereating. However, netting 700 calories is not good for almost any adult.

    How do you keep track of calories eaten/burned?
  • corinic91
    corinic91 Posts: 148 Member
    Most people on here tend to agree that MFP way overestimates calorie burn, so if you're going by their auto-calculations, I would eat back about half of your exercise cals.
  • Lasmartchika
    Lasmartchika Posts: 3,440 Member
    Yes, you eat back the exercise calories.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    If you're using MFP as they intend it? you eat back those calories. If MFP gives you 1900 eat 1900. If you exercise and burn 600, eat back most of those to get near 1900.If you lose too much up your number of calories. If you lose nothing, lower the "eating back".

    Or, alternately, figure out your TDEE and BMR and eat between the two and don't eat back.
    Have a look at this:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    The way myfitnesspal is designed, you are supposed to Net your goal. However depending on how you determine your calories burned, you might only want to eat 50-75% back (MFP/Exercise machines tend to overestimate calories burned).

    Example:
    My MFP goal is 1410.

    However with exercise/fitbit adjustments I average a total intake of around 1920 calories per day.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    You should eat part of them back, but not all. If your maintenance calories are 2400, then you expect to burn 100 per hour with no exercise. If you then put in an hour of exercise and determine that you burned 600 calories during that time, then 100 calories are counted twice. So, even if the calories count is accurate, you shouldn't eat more than 500 of the 600 back. If the calorie count is 10% or 20% optimistic, you're looking at another 100 calories. But the only way you will know the accuracy is to compare you weight loss to what you expect from your calorie deficit.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    If, and it's a big if, that 600 calorie burn was accurately estimated, you should eat them back. MFP operates on the assumption that your calorie deficit is based on your daily activities without exercise, so if you add exercise, you've increased your deficit beyond your goal.

    However, MFP's database and many machines and HRMs overestimate calories burned, sometimes by huge amounts. I'm a 152-pound man, and to burn 600 calories I need to bicycle at 17 mph for about 72 minutes, or run 5.5 miles at an 8:00 pace (according to my Garmin HRMs, which take into account terrain and speed as well as my heart rate, weight, height, and age, and which correlate closely with my actual weight loss).

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