Should I be as close to 0 calories left as possible including the extra

blkandwhite77

ok so I'm confused. I was given 1200 calories a day. I work out for about an hour 4 days a week giving me around 250-350 calories burned on those days. So do I eat an extra 250-350 calories to bring my calories left to zero? Or is having the extra calories not used on work out days a good way to lose the goal of 2 pounds per week? I'm confused

yarwell

the idea is to eat the extra exercise calories so each day you have the same calorie deficit regardless of whether you (log) exercise or not.

blkandwhite77

Thank you!

KrisiAnnH

1200 already has a deficit built in so you will lose 2lbs a week if you stick to that. Exercise calories are a 'bonus', some decide not to eat them back but as youre on the lowest recommended cals thats a bad idea.
Most people eat back 25-75% of their exercise calories, as they find that the estimated for calories burned can be a little generous.

dhimaan

Folks here eat back 50% of their exercise calories.

earlnabby

Yes, eat back your exercise calories, but there is a caveat. How do you determine how many calories you burn? The method will tell you what the percentage you eat back should be. Generally, online calculators and the calculators built in to machines like treadmills are notoriously off, on the high side. If you use an HRM or a higher tech activity tracker like a Fitbit, the numbers you get will be closer to reality.

The best guide is to start by eating 50-75% for a few weeks and see what is happening. If your weight loss is slower than your target, eat less. If you are losing faster than your target, eat more. It takes a month or two for most people to find their "sweet spot".

Personally, I eat back almost all of my Fitbit calories earned (like 90-95%), but only 50% of the calories earned from swimming laps on the days I do that.

257_Lag

I lost 60 lbs trying to get that number within 100 (either way) every day and eating just about all of the calories from exercise. When I got the the final 15 I switched to only logging half of my exercise calories.

pegastarlight

I wouldn't ever eat less than 1,200. As for workouts, you're safe eating back 50 to 60% of the calories burned off, and you'll still experience weight loss if you eat back all of them, just at a slower pace than your goal. One of the reasons people perceive MFP's calorie calculator as broken is because of how many people have 1,200 calories as their daily goal. That's because it's been suggested by the health community that women should never eat less than 1,200 calories. Because of this, I'd suggest seeing what your maintain weight goal is to better track the actual deficit you're getting to figure out your weight loss more easily.

earlnabby

pegastarlight wrote: »

One of the reasons people perceive MFP's calorie calculator as broken is because of how many people have 1,200 calories as their daily goal. .

When you compare MFP's calculator to the calories burned according to other calculators, MFP is often high but sometimes ends up somewhere in the middle. These discrepancies are why many don't like to rely on it.
Case in point (using my stats):

Walking one hour at 3 mph

• Calorie Lab: 201
• Shapesense: 210
• MFP: 287
• Nutrition Data: 297
• Calories count: 305
• Health Status: 380
• exrx.net: 384

My Fitbit gives me a little over 200 calories when I walk an hour. Map My Run gives me 316. (I am most inclined to go with my Fitbit because it has 18 months of MY data to use in calculations)

Your best thing to do when first starting out is pick a number somewhere in the middle and let your actual results determine how to go forward.

blkandwhite77

Thank you all. I generally do 2.25 miles in treadmill with intermittent inclines at 3.3-3.5mph then 4 miles on exercise bike with varying tensions. Plus work on my arms. Sometimes I switch out bike for elliptical but I'm still working on building up more time on that lol. I have about 60 more lbs to lose. I've already lost 65 on Weight watchers but I can't seem to get past this plateau so trying a different program.