Question about calorie intake

mrsgoss

Hi all, I have been back at MFP going strong the past two weeks. I have stayed in my calorie intake or under every day and not used my exercise calories at all. I have pretty much only lost water weight? I am exercising 3 x a week (lighlty). Do people eat their exercise calories as well in a day? I thought the point was to stay under the calories alloted to lose weight? I don't want to eat more? But some suggested I was not losing because I was eating to little? Thoughts anyone? I am trying to learn a bit more about nutrition this time around to set myself up for success. Thanks

PaytraB

How are you determining your food allowance? By weighing your food?
What makes you think you're losing only water weight?
Two weeks isn't really enough time to see much results yet.

MFP is designed for you to eat up to your calorie limit. You can do this in a daily way or average your calories over the week (ie: "save" some calories in the week to use on the weekends).

Exercise calories are meant to be eaten back (meaning: added to your regular daily calorie limit). However, many find that the posted burned calories for exercise are high and only eat back about 50% of the posted calories (you can manually half the calories that MFP says you burned when you enter your exercise so you won't accidently go over).
Some people don't eat back any exercise calories, some "save" these calories for the weekend, some eat back all the calories, some eat back 50-75%.
You'll have to see what works for you. Pick a method and try it for at least a month to see how it works.

malibu927

MFP already gives you a deficit when you set your goals, so you can (and should) eat to your goal, including exercise calories. However, as exercise calories are often overestimated, it's suggested to only eat back 50-75% of them.

How do you know you aren't losing fat with the water?

mrsgoss

I guess I see people dropping 3-5 a week and assumed I was doing something wrong. 5 didn't seem like a lot and it goes back up depending on the day

malibu927

That 3-5 pounds is only good in the initial weeks (and that's if you're lucky and don't gain like I did). It slows down dramatically after that. But weight loss is not linear also. There will always be days or weeks where yo go up instead of down. As long as you're logging everything with as close to 100% accuracy as possible, you'll start to see it trend downward over time.

mrsgoss

I am glad I asked, I have been eating under my calories to give wiggle room in case my logging is off and never eating exercise calories but I have been getting major headaches I think from not eating?

malibu927

Yeah, definitely start eating back some of your exercise calories. And if you don't have one yet, purchase a food scale to weigh your foods for the best accuracy in your logging.

mrsgoss

Thank you! I am really trying to learn this time around to be more successful so I can understand and not just give up like in the past.

WalkingQueen1979

I don't really eat my exercise calories and if I do it's only like 30% I like that I stayed under my calorie goal which I made for 1700 bc 1200-1500 for me is not enough. I walk alot and do gym 1-3 times a week. Do what is best for you and keep up the good work. Feel free to add me

ACSL3

If you have a smart phone apps like Happy Scale (apple) or Libra (android) can be helpful to smooth out and see trends in your weight loss. Since you've just started it'll take a few more weeks for it to be able to calculate an accurate trend, but you can still see if you're moving in the right direction. I weigh daily but don't get upset with weight gains or too happy with larger losses. I put my daily weight in Happy Scale and it tells me what my "true" weight is - its an estimation, but better than watching the ups and downs on the scale and feeling frustrated

cwang125

mrsgoss wrote: »

I am glad I asked, I have been eating under my calories to give wiggle room in case my logging is off and never eating exercise calories but I have been getting major headaches I think from not eating?

Make sure you're drinking enough water and getting enough electrolytes.

Other than that, 2 weeks is too short of a time frame. There are plenty of things going on that could explain the unmoving scale. Water retention, hormones, inaccurate tracking etc.

Continue to maintain your deficit and the weight will come off.