How many calories to eat? Explained in message further.

vesh17

Hi all. I've been thinking about this for awhile, and it might be an obvious answer, but I'm still curious what ppl think. I was talking about it again last night, so I thought I'd ask.

General background. I'm generally doing a maintain weight, and do a cut once and awhile. Since summer just happened, I'm doing a short cut to get back to my preferred weight.

Anyway, my current daily calories are 2250. I work out most days, and it varies, but let's say I burn 500 calories working out.

Clearly that totals 2750. So, do you guys think that eating to 2750 makes sense to get to my goal, or do you just eat to 2250 if you're not hungry? I realize this depends on your goal, but what I'm curious about is the following summary (as explained above)

Goal 2250
Workout 500
Total 2750

Eat to 2250 or 2750?

Hope that makes sense. Thanks

TeaBea

A couple questions first..........

Did you use MFP to get your 2250 calorie goal?

How did you come up with 500 calories?

If you used MFP to get your calories & your calorie burn estimate is reliable you should eat 2750. That's because MFP gives you a calorie goal with zero exercise factored in.

Heart rate monitors are pretty decent estimators for steady state cardio, other forms of exercise....not so much. Machines & MFP tend to be generous with estimates. Many MFP users eat back just 50-75% of exercise calories. You can start here, and adjust the % up or down (over time) as weight loss progresses.

If you used a TDEE calculator to get your calorie goal, that should have included exercise up front. Then you just eat your goal. This is great when exercise is consistent & you don't want up / down calorie goal days.

RoxieDawn

To NET your calorie goal in MFP, you would eat 2750 - burn 500 = 2250 NET CALORIE GOAL.

You can certainly use the TDEE method and not use MFP method. Many people do that.

vesh17

I use mfp to get my calories, and I'm diligent with it. I believe it's very accurate. As for my exercise,I just use the ones that come up in the exercise category.

Usually I do 20 mins of hard cardio, and then 45 mins of circuit weights (keep heart rate up). So I think 500 is fair.

I like the idea of eating back 50% of exercise calories though. This week I've been eating just above, or equal to, my calories without considering exercise.

I'm only going to do a loss goal for about 4 weeks, cause then I'll be back to my ideal weight. Then I'll be back at a maintain goal.

vesh17

Bumpy

Any other opinions or thoughts?

Muscleflex79

vesh17 wrote: »

I use mfp to get my calories, and I'm diligent with it. I believe it's very accurate. As for my exercise,I just use the ones that come up in the exercise category.

Usually I do 20 mins of hard cardio, and then 45 mins of circuit weights (keep heart rate up). So I think 500 is fair.

I like the idea of eating back 50% of exercise calories though. This week I've been eating just above, or equal to, my calories without considering exercise.

I'm only going to do a loss goal for about 4 weeks, cause then I'll be back to my ideal weight. Then I'll be back at a maintain goal.

20 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weights is very unlikely to burn 500 calories!!

AliceDark

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

vesh17 wrote: »

I use mfp to get my calories, and I'm diligent with it. I believe it's very accurate. As for my exercise,I just use the ones that come up in the exercise category.

Usually I do 20 mins of hard cardio, and then 45 mins of circuit weights (keep heart rate up). So I think 500 is fair.

I like the idea of eating back 50% of exercise calories though. This week I've been eating just above, or equal to, my calories without considering exercise.

I'm only going to do a loss goal for about 4 weeks, cause then I'll be back to my ideal weight. Then I'll be back at a maintain goal.

20 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weights is very unlikely to burn 500 calories!!

This, unfortunately. It does depend on your current weight, but 500 sounds really high for what you're doing.

vesh17

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

vesh17 wrote: »

I use mfp to get my calories, and I'm diligent with it. I believe it's very accurate. As for my exercise,I just use the ones that come up in the exercise category.

Usually I do 20 mins of hard cardio, and then 45 mins of circuit weights (keep heart rate up). So I think 500 is fair.

I like the idea of eating back 50% of exercise calories though. This week I've been eating just above, or equal to, my calories without considering exercise.

I'm only going to do a loss goal for about 4 weeks, cause then I'll be back to my ideal weight. Then I'll be back at a maintain goal.

20 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weights is very unlikely to burn 500 calories!!

Well the weights are more like cardio. I don't stop. But regardless,I'm not too worried about that cause I'm losing anyway.

I'm more just wondering if I should eat back 0% or 100%, or somewhere in between.