Confused

kateand5kids

Can anyone explain how come the more calories u burn the more your calorie intake goes up I thought u needed to burn more then what u take in

DemoraFairy

The calorie deficit (burning more than you take in) is already built into your calorie goal for the day, so that if you did no exercise you'd still be in a deficit. When you exercise you make that deficit bigger, and having too large a deficit is unhealthy, which is why MFP tells you to eat your exercise calories back.

kateand5kids

Ahhh ok thanks so if I don't eat my calorie intake for the day I'm not making progress ??

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DemoraFairy

Do you mean if you go over it or go under it? If you go too far over it you won't be in a deficit anymore and won't lose weight (and will possibly gain weight if you eat way over). If you eat under your goal you'll lose weight, but of course undereating isn't healthy and has its own set of side effects that you don't want!

Edit: Oh you mean if you don't eat back your exercise calories? Well the same logic still applies, so you're best off eating them back. But MFP tends to overestimate how many calories are burnt by exercise, so most people eat back 50-80% of their exercise calories.

kateand5kids

Thanks I think I understand it now lol

TiffanyR71

Honestly, I think this also depends on how hard/how much you work out, and also what your calorie allowance is to start with - also how tight your logging is... I only eat exercise calories back if I'm really hungry, or sometimes I "save" them for a weekend night out, or just figure that they may negate logging inaccuracies... But, then, I'm only walking or biking for ~45 minutes a day... My energy levels and rate of loss (1.5lbs/week) tell me I'm doing it right for me. Experiment to see what works for you- both how you feel and what the scale tells you.