Should I subtract the calories I burn exercising

58ttom

I have heard that you should eat at least 1200 calories per day. If I burn 700 calories exercising, should I then eat a minimum of 1900 calories? My maximum calorie intake according to MFP is 1660 so I don't want to go over that unless it's not enough to be adequately nourished.

diannethegeek

Yes, MFP is designed for you to eat the extra calories that you burn. That's why it adds them to your goal every day when you log exercise. 1200 is the bare minimum for a sedentary woman, and you seem to be neither.

Do you know your BMR and TDEE? That's usually a good place to start when deciding how much you need to eat. (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/)

AmyRhubarb

Follow MFP's set up - you have your daily goal, you enter your exercise and it adds those burned calories back into your goal - eat them.

Your daily goal before exercise already has you at a deficit to lose weight - meaning eat to goal every day and do zero exercise and you'll lose. Exercising and burning off cals leaves you with a much larger deficit, which is not good - food is fuel and you gotta fuel that furnace if you want it to burn. This is why exercise cals are added back in to your goal. Your net calories should be on target each day, or darn close to it.

bagge72

I have heard that you should eat at least 1200 calories per day. If I burn 700 calories exercising, should I then eat a minimum of 1900 calories? My maximum calorie intake according to MFP is 1660 so I don't want to go over that unless it's not enough to be adequately nourished.

That is usually a minimum for women, you should have a much higher calorie count you should eat. If you are using MFP to calculate how much you should eat then you should eat back probably 50-75% of the exercise calories, and leave the rest for miscalculations.

DonnaW_78

Thank you - I had the same question & now I understand