Why eat the extra calories you burn?

NaomiJFoster

Just weighed, after breakfast and lost 2lbs since yesterday! No sugar intake really makes a difference!

Sorry, but its impossible to lose 2 lbs of fat in one day. You would have had to burn 7000 cals. What you lost was water weight.
If you keep thinking this, you will be come disenchanted with the process and give up.

Unless you have more than 100 lbs to lose, you should probably change your goal to 1 lb a week loss and just ride it out. Eat back all or most of your exercise cals and in time, you will lose what you want to lose.

it really does work and its easier to lose slowly and keep it off than lose a lot being overly restrictive and eventually binging and giving up.

I can def see that being water weight. My goal is set to 85 lbs to lose, but I can stand to lose more than 100, to get me within my healthy range. My ideal weight, where I am not super skinny is 85 lbs. I have been here before and this is where I would like to be again. I don't feel that I am overly restricting myself, I feel fine. I am eating more of the foods that I like and am turning them into a convenience food. It is just a matter of me setting the time to prepare food in advance. I hope that it makes sense, but this is where I always fail. I am hungry and there is no quick food to grab, so I grab something bad.

Woah! If I read this correctly, this states that your ideal weight is 85lbs??!!!!
Is this a typo, did you mean you want to LOSE 85 lbs or want to BE 85lbs?
No woman at your age (unless you are shorter that 4'9) should be that small..! I'm only 5'0 and 34 and struggle to get below 115lbs.

OMG NOOOOO! That is def a typo! Lol, my ideal weight LOSS is 85lbs, but to get into the healthy range, I need to lose about 105.

You said it right. You said that you have 85 pounds to lose.

jzammetti

MFP works out how how many calories you burn in a day according the information you entered (age, weight, height, activity level, etc.). It then subtracts 500 calories a day for every pound a week you set it to lose (if you set it to lose 1/2 pound a week it will subtract 250 calories, for instance). That's your goal UNLESS that calculation gives a number under 1200, in which case your goal will be 1200 (because MFP sets that as a minimum.

Suppose you burn 1700 calories before exercise. You've set MFP to lose 1lb a week, so MFP subtracts 500 calories. Your goal is 1200. (1700 - 500 = 1200). Suppose you then do 200 calories of exercise. Instead of the 1700 calories you burn without exercise, you've now burnt 1900 calories. To keep the same deficit of 500 calories a day, your goal is now 1400 (1900 - 500 = 1400).

That's the way MFP is designed to work. If you eat back your exercise calories, you should have steady weight loss.

If you don't eat back your exercise calories you can end up with a bigger deficit than you intended (which will make the diet harder to stick to, amongst other things).

Yes. ^^ This
Too large of a deficit is counterproductive.

Darby7371

thank you for clarifying ... i was assuming that she is doing some kind of muscle building workout (maybe it's not?) when she said she burned 500 calories. my doctor was the one (and i researched it myself) who wanted me to gain some muscle and upped my calories, via high protein, combined with muscle building activities. i am continuing to loose weight, while my % of muscle increases EVER SO SLIGHTLY. LOL So, something like this ... Minimum 1200 calories per day + (additional high protein calories + muscle building activities) = lose of body fat + muscle gain.

sourmash1973

I don't. The problem with this is that too many people underestimate what they eat and over estimate what they burn. Set up a good 500 calorie deficit and eat that amount. If you burn more through activity, great, because you can safely run a 1000 deficit a day and be fine. I highly doubt you are burning 500 calories extra a day through exercise. If you are, you need to set your calories up a little higher.

TeaBea

Actually, if you ate 1242 but burned 500, then your NET intake was 742, which is WAY TOO LOW! Eat those exercise calories!

This!^

Think of it this way ......your body is using calories all the time (even while you sleep) .... and those 1200 calories are already spoken for (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc.).

When you deprive your body of enough calories to provide for basic functions ......your body will let less important things slide. This is why people on very low calorie diets experience muscle loss and hair loss....... these are deemed less important than lung function (for example).

A word of caution .... many machines & MFP can exagerate calorie burns. Start by eating a portion of your calories back ..... if you feel fatigued .... up the percent a bit. Hunger is not really a good indicator, high volume, high fiber foods often lead to "fullness" .... not the same thing as nourished.

TeaBea

You've already had good advice. Regardless, eat at least 1200 calories.

THEN ... if you are trying to GAIN muscle, eat at least 100+ more (high protein). If you don't work to gain muscle, you will simply be small ... but not toned. Also by building muscle your metabolism will increase ... you'll loose more fat, but need more calories to maintain the muscle.

Use mfp calories earned from exercise only as a guideline to eating ENOUGH (1200+100is) and as a guideline of what to stay UNDER to maintain the goal you inputted.

Also, consider going back to the goal setting and change it to reflect your newer activity level.

Maybe I misread your post but eating 100 calories more (so 1300 calories a day) will not allow for muscle gain. In a calorie deficit, you lose muscle mass unless you have a small deficit, lift heavy and consume enough protein.

Thank you .... I read this post the same way..... 1300 is no where near enough to gain muscle.

brandy911200

why do you doubt about burning 500 calories a day with my weight I go on my exercise bike for 20 minutes 2 times a day and burn 290 calories each time according to this program do you think that's wrong?