Calorie Recimmendation and activity calories

beckylpifer

hello! I just started tracking Saturday and set goal to lose 2 pounds per week. The daily calorie goal I was given was 1200. I see that calories are added back in for activity. I'm confused about whether I should be eating those activity calories or not. Should I really only eat 1200 per day and ignore the activity calories? Or are the activity calories really the deficit calories I need to lose the 2 per week? or will I still lose the 2 pounds even after eating the activity calories? I really want to reach my goal and get off to a good start since I want to lose almost 45 pounds. Please help.

missiontofitness

Eat back 1/3 to 1/2 if you are relying on MFP's numbers for calorie burns. MFP is designed with your deficit already built in to your calorie goal. Since your goal is the bare minimum women should be netting per day, you need to eat some activity calories back.

malibu927

The goal MFP gives you already has a deficit taken out. But as 1200 is the lowest it will give you, 2 pounds per week is going to be too aggressive of a goal for you. Change your goal to 1-1.5 pounds per week.

The goal also does not include exercise in your day, so when you do exercise you're expected to eat those calories back. It's recommended to only do 50-75% maximum of those, though, to account for overestimation of burnss.

Liftng4Lis

MFP is designed to eat back exercise calories. Most eat back a portion, to accommodate miscalculations both in logging and overestimations in burns.

SueInAz

1200 calories is the minimum MFP will set for you. If you are given a 1200 calorie goal it's usually a pretty good indicator that your weight loss goal is too aggressive.

Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range (-1000 calories per day)
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range (-750 calories per day)
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range (-500 calories per day)
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range (-500 to -250 calories per day)
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range (-250 calories per day)

As far as the exercise calories, MFP is set up so that you can lose weight without exercise (not everyone can, after all!). So, when you do exercise, it gives you those calories to eat to maintain the deficit you asked for with your weight loss goals. Many people don't eat all of them back to give themselves a cushion in case the numbers are a bit off.

Christine_72

If you're stuck on the torturous 1200 calorie plan, then I would be eating my exercise calories back. As said above, It will depend where you're getting your exercise calorie numbers from... I've got a fitbit and trust it's numbers 100%, but if I was relying on the numbers mfp gave me, I would slash those in half.

It's also trial and error, you may be able to eat most or all of them back. Keep a close eye on your scales to see if you're gaining or losing, then adjust from there if you need to.

When I first started exercising I was terrified to eat my calories back, but I had to bite the bullet and experiment with it until I found my correct numbers

beckylpifer

Thanks all! Time for a snack then!