exercise and calorie deficit

flitterfoot

Hi all I'm new to MFP and healthy living in general so I'm looking for some advice.

For full disclosure I'm female 42 years old 5 foot 4 inches tall and weigh 300 pounds. My calorie goal is 1510 to lose 2 pounds a week.

Today I've eaten 1435 calories (including dinner which is all weighed out and just waiting to be heated.). I've gained 544 calories in exercise leaving me 619 to eat.

Since I've eaten over the minimum of 1200 calories do I need to eat the extra calories or will it just mean extra weight loss at the end of the week.

Thanks in advance for any help. X

galgenstrick

You don't need to eat the extra calories from exercise. I actually recommend you don't eat all of them back since the estimates are usually overestimate of how many calories you burn. You can definitely eat some of them back if you're hungry or doing enough exercise where you need the extra calories to fuel your exercise.

wolfsbayne

You don't HAVE to eat those calories.

malibu927

Since you're netting 900 calories, you should eat them back, but not all. Estimations for burns often go over what you actually do burn working out, so it's best to eat back at most 50-75% of those calories.

ElJefeChief

I appreciate this post! I'm 41, six foot three, 223 pounds, looking to drop an extra 25-30 pounds (to give me a normal BMI for the first time in probably 10 years). I'm still trying to figure out exactly where I set my calorie goal for the day, and how to figure my ideal deficit. This is my first time ever counting calories.

Anyways, my TDEE, WITHOUT exercise factored in (just factoring the mildly active nature of my job - I walk around about half the time I'm at work) looks to be about 2500. I have my caloric deficit set at 750 per day, giving me a goal of 1750. My general approach is to (if I'm hungry) eat back my exercise calories but give myself a buffer of around 100 calories.

I try to underestimate the amount of calories I burn and over-estimate the calories I eat, knowing that the tendency is to do the reverse in both cases. I think that's really the key - people have a tenacious tendency to underestimate how many calories they eat (often even when they are carefully counting calories as they consume!) - so the idea is to try and work against that tendency as much as is reasonably possible.

flitterfoot

Thanks to you all, it's good to know that I don't HAVE to eat them all back.

I was starting to panic that I might have to get the chocolate out to eat the extra calories and at that point I can't stop myself lol. It's nice to know I can have a biscuit with my coffee later though.