Mfp is telling me to eat more!

ysossi

Thanks everyone for your time and advice! I just had miso soup, but that only has 46 calories lol. Every little helps :-)

shadow2soul

ysossi wrote: »

Sometimes I'm not under 1000 but if I burn calories at the gym, they get added and I'd have something like 600 outstanding at the end of the day. MFP doesn't want to let me off.

@ysossi - That is how MFP is designed to work.

MFP bases your calorie goal off an estimate of what you would burn without exercise. When you exercise, your calorie burn for the day increases and you can safely eat a bit more to still lose the same amount of weight you would have without the exercise.

An example of the math breakdown for you:

My MFP calories burned at lightly active setting (exercise not included): 1870
Lose 1 lb per week: -500
Calorie goal BEFORE exercise: 1370

So on days I don't workout, I should eat 1370 to lose 1 lb per week.
Now lets look at what happens when I workout (I'll use my Sunday for this):

MFP calories burned at lightly active (exercise not included): 1870
Calories burned through exercise + extra daily activity (fitbit adjustment): 644
Total estimated calories burned for the day: 2514
Lose 1 lb per week: -500
Calorie goal WITH exercise: 2014 (or NET 1370)

So on Sunday to maintain my current weight, I would need to eat around 2514 calories and to lose 1 lb per week I would eat around 2014.

So no exercise/light active day, I maintain at a lower calorie level and have to eat less, but on a workout/high activity day, I need to eat more to properly full my body for the activity I do. Yesterday my adjustment was over 1000, but if I look at the break down of my day it was extremely active (12,607 steps during intentional exercise and 18,393 steps during normal daily activity) and I ate every one of my available calories.

ysossi

Ok I get the picture. Makes sense I guess. But eating more after a workout feels like it defeats the purpose. I understand tho, so will try it. Thanks all :-)

kk_inprogress

ysossi wrote: »

Ok I get the picture. Makes sense I guess. But eating more after a workout feels like it defeats the purpose. I understand tho, so will try it. Thanks all :-)

You need to be eating back at least half of those exercise calories or you're not giving yourself enough energy to even workout.

Liftng4Lis

Serah87 wrote: »

Because you are not eating enough. MFP is set up so that you eat most or all your exercise calories, MFP has you already in a deficit.

This