Why does it add exercise to food

Kath_George

i sort of get it but don't. Why does this app add calories you've burned through exercise to calories you've eaten. Shouldn't it minus them because you've burned them

loulamb7

Because MFP calculates your needed weight loss deficit without exercise. So if you eat what MFP tells you to eat and don't exercise you still lose weight. If you do exercise, MFP adds this back into calories you can eat in order to maintain the deficit you selected. Otherwise your deficit would be higher then intended.

MakePeasNotWar

It doesn't add to the calories you eat, it adds to your calorie requirement. Your food intake decreases the requirement, the exercise increases it. The formula is requirement-food+exercise, not requirement-(food+exercise)

mommyvudu

It's adding calories to what you are "allowed" to eat, not what you already have eaten. It adds them to your daily allowance because you burned that many calories off by working out, therefore you need to eat MORE. It's balancing how much you're putting in your body vs. calories you're burning out to keep it around 1200 or whatever daily starting goal you have. I'm using the term allowed loosely here just to explain it in different terms from other responses.