Food vs Exercise Calories

BranMuffin86

I'm sure this is a frequent question, but is it better to eat back the calories you gain from exercise or just stick to the original limit? I've always been told you needed to create a deficit in order to lose weight. Maybe I'm not completing understanding what that means. Just curious.

ladynocturne

The number that is your goal already contains your Deficit for the day. If you exercise, you'd be creating a huge unhealthy deficit on top of that MFP already gives you.

Eat your goal calories + exercise calories to lose weight.

Your Net should say whatever your goal calories are and your calories remaining should say 0.

To find out how many calories you maintain your current weight on, change your MFP to say you want to lose zero pounds a week. That number is what you have to create the deficit from.

Pearsquared

It can be personal preference, but I recommend that the more you burn through exercise, the more you should eat back.

MyFitnessPal has a deficit already built-in to your calorie count. It recommends you eat exercise calories back because you don't want too much of a deficit - you need to give your body calories for regular daily functions too (like repairing skin cells, digestion, being a brain, etc.). When you have too much of a deficit through lots of exercising and not enough calories to make up for it, you can sometimes suffer from symptoms like fatigue, lightheaded-ness, headaches, aches, etc. The bigger the deficit and the longer it continues, the more likely you'll suffer from those symptoms.

BranMuffin86

Awww thank you! That make a lot of sense. I appreciate your help!