Confused about a how I should track calories

svgordon

sorry, I am new and confused.

So if my food goal is 1500 cal per day. I workout and burn say 800 cal. I eat 1700 cal that day. MFP shows me a "green" colored "remaining" of 600 is that good or bad? (since I am eating more than what I should?)

I have also noticed that if my goal is 1500 cal, burn 800 cal, eat 1300 that day - it shows me a remaining of 1000. In this scenario MFP projects my 5-week weight loss to be higher.

I am sure I am missing something. What do you guys do? Do you log your workouts on MFP?
Do you try and remain under your goal-calories and not count the "positive" from working out?

no_pink_skirts

Weight loss is all about calories in vs calories out. So if your body takes in more than it need for the activities of your day it will store those "extra" for use at a later time, causing weight gain. Conversely if you eat less than needed, it will tap into that "storage" to meet it's needs allowing you to lose weight.
Your calorie "goal" from MFP is based on what you answered as your activity level and the amount of weight you want to lose per week when you set up your profile. Think of it as a baseline of what you would need to eat to maintain your current weight.You pretty much always want to be at a deficit in order to lose weight(so always see the green numbers).The bigger the deficit the faster the weight comes off.
People have different views on whether to eat back exercise calories. If you feel like it encourages you to binge or make unhealthy choices, I would avoid it. Personally, I log all my workouts because it makes me feel accomplished

no_pink_skirts

Ugh. So apparently you can't use emojis or it will erase everything you posted after that!!

Anyway: sometimes I eat calories back and sometimes I don't. I try and ask myself if I'm bored or really hungry, have a glass of water and decide from there. For me, as long as I'm at a deficit, I'm happy for the day.

momo_t90

I think no_pink_skirts explained it really well, but I'd like to give it a try too.

Green is good. It means you'll burn more calories than the goal you set. A balance of 0 is good too. That means you didn't go over your calorie limit and will burn stored calories at the rate you set when you made your goals. Red is not so good. It means you're taking in too many calories to meet the weight-loss goal you set for yourself.

Whether or not you eat back the calories you burn from exercise is up to you. Either option is okay.

I like to log my exercise in MFP and not eat back the calories I burned from said exercising. However, I don't beat myself up if I do eat back some of those calories. As long as I'm at 0 or under (in the green) at the end of the day, I'm happy.

alifer

MFP creates a deficit depending on what you set as your goal. Therefore once you tell it your weight, activity level and weight loss (or gain) goals it creates the deficit (or surplus if you are trying to gain) when it determines your calorie goals for the day.
I personally eat most of my exercise calories. Beware of eating too few calories, as if your body thinks you are starving you won't lose. I lost about 35 pounds a few years ago on here. I had hit a plateau for over a month and started getting frustrated because I was doing everything right and the scale wasn't moving. I was also tired, grouchy and hungry all the time. Then I read something about starvation mode and upped my calories about 300 each day and the weight started coming off right away. When I came back to it this time I set my goal to lose 1 pound per week which keeps me at the level that I need to lose weight. (For me 1500 is a good number, but if I tell MFP that I want to lose 2 pounds per week it sets my daily calorie allowance at 1200 which is too few for me) Even though I told it I want to lose 1 pound per week I have been losing about around 2 a week.
Be careful that you are paying attention to serving sizes and measuring your food to make sure you are logging accurately.
I would also strongly recommending taking measurements or waist, hips, thighs, chest, etc.
I find that I'll have a couple weeks here and there when the scale won't move, but I will lose inches.
Good luck on your journey!