Calorie deficit

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mgonyer123
mgonyer123 Posts: 74 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How much (if any?) Calories Can/should be left over at the end of the day on MFP? Should you eat back the calories lost from exercising?

I have a deficit of 200-600 usually and I can't decide if that's ok or not.

Also when you start and you put that you're not active then you become active daily do you go back and change it?

Sorry for so many Qs!

Replies

  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    That depends on what you put for stats and loss per week?
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    Generally, you probably want to eat 25-75% of the exercise calories. In a world in which the caloric burns were accurate, you'd want to eat back 100%.

    I think the calories left over should reflect only those calories you didn't eat so as to account for inaccurate burn numbers.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Ideally, you should have zero calories left over, after consuming exercise calories. But since those burns are often overestimated, lots of people try to leave 25-50% of their exercise calories (which are there to fuel your body). Having too many calories left can be harmful in the long run...a bigger deficit can lead to more muscle loss, and if you're consuming less than 1200 net calories you may be depriving yourself of nutrients.

    This thread is a great assistance for people starting out: https://community.myfitnesspal.de/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • sianyreeny
    sianyreeny Posts: 4 Member
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    Hey I'm a newbie but I thought for weight loss you should always have a deficit?
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    sianyreeny wrote: »
    Hey I'm a newbie but I thought for weight loss you should always have a deficit?
    Your calorie target already includes a deficit if you've told MFP you want to lose weight.

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    sianyreeny wrote: »
    Hey I'm a newbie but I thought for weight loss you should always have a deficit?

    MFP has already taken out 250-1000 calories dependent on the target loss per week you chose
  • mgonyer123
    mgonyer123 Posts: 74 Member
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    I think MFP calculates you calories in a way that if you eat all of the calories without exercising you will still lose. I'm not sure though sorry!
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    mgonyer123 wrote: »
    I think MFP calculates you calories in a way that if you eat all of the calories without exercising you will still lose. I'm not sure though sorry!

    Yes depending on your loss per week you eat up to that number and still lose whatever your rate that you put is.

    Exercise calories are difficult because of the inaccuracy so just go with eating half for now. Don't use the machine calorie burns either because those are really wrong. You might want to invest in a good HRM.

  • sianyreeny
    sianyreeny Posts: 4 Member
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    Ah cool! Thank you :)
  • sianyreeny
    sianyreeny Posts: 4 Member
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    Yeah I use a polar hrm hopefully it's pretty accurate
  • mgonyer123
    mgonyer123 Posts: 74 Member
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    I'm doing 30 day shred so I just use circuit training on MFP.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited June 2015
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    This exact question about eating calories back is being discussed on another forum right now, so I will chime in.

    To echo what others are saying, calorie deficit is already figured in. The best thing is to tell MFP you are sedentary and then eat back a portion of your calorie burns/execise calories.

    The tricky part is how are these calories calculated? If you use MFP calorie estimation then they are way over estimated (there is a sticky in MFP about how this works).. If you use for example the calories from a cardio machines computer, these too can be over estimated or even not enough.

    There is never a 100% to get an exact calorie burn... the best advice is eat back a small portion or what you ned in order to stay in your deficit and more over be able to exercise the next day.

    Increasing your activity level in MFP will give you more calories to eat yes, but configuring the sedentary level and eat back a small portion is the best avenue.... Read the sticky written by MFP... This explains it really well.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    sianyreeny wrote: »
    Yeah I use a polar hrm hopefully it's pretty accurate
    However accurate or inaccurate it is, the real answer is going to come from whether you gain, lose, or maintain at a particular level of caloric intake, regardless of what your HRM says. It's a reasonable starting point and it might be good for trying to keep your exercise consistent, but the actual number it spits out isn't necessarily important.

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