Adding Calories for Exercise? ?

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jennie83211
jennie83211 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey! I just started using this app today. It gave me a base of 1200 calories per day. However, after logging my exercise it added back in the calories I had burned. Wouldn't that just slow down my progress? If weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out, I'd think the number should stay at 1200.

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  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    jennie83211 wrote: »
    Hey! I just started using this app today. It gave me a base of 1200 calories per day. However, after logging my exercise it added back in the calories I had burned. Wouldn't that just slow down my progress? If weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out, I'd think the number should stay at 1200.

    Doing exercise increases the calories out part of the equation so you can increase the calories in if you want. You don't have to and the general consensus is that exercise calories are usually overstated so if you want to eat them back eat back about half of them.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    MFP already has the deficit to lose your goal pounds per week built into your calorie goal for each day. It's set this way so you can figure out what to eat to lose weight without extra exercise (not everyone can). When you do exercise and add that into the tool, MFP gives you those extra calories to eat to maintain the the goal deficit. It's your choice to eat the extra calories but keep in mind that most people will recommend that you keep your net calories at 1200 per day. Plus many of us find on heavy exercise days that the exercise makes us more hungry and 1200 is not enough.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    Sigh, this just goes to show that MFP needs to actually make new users UNDERSTAND how the method works so they aren't undereating.

    What the other two above said.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited March 2015
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    MFP gave you your calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't exercise....still lose weight.

    1200 is MFPs lowest default minimum. So feel free to eat back your calories and fuel your workouts. Keeping a moderate deficit will help you keep more lean muscle. Part of the benefit of strength training is to KEEP the muscle you have....you can't do that if you eat far too little day in and day out.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    You have a base, you earn more. Most eat half, to accommodate miscalculations in logging and overestimations of burns.

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