Calories

Jayj180894

I have always been confused when it comes to calorie counting! Can you eat back your calories you burn in exercise and still lose weight. So say if I eat 1500kcal the go and burn 1500kcal running will it be like I haven't eaten anything (not that I will do that) but for instance my goal is 1500kcal I've eaten 700 and burned 1300, so instead for just eating 200 more calories I can eat roughy 1300 more?? Also I tend to have a bad meal on a weekend if I knock my calories down slightly during the week will it even out?? Thanks

WinoGelato

Start with reading the Stickied Most Helpful Forum Posts at the top of each section, particularly the Getting Started Section. Most of the answers you are looking for will be in there. In particular, this thread has a lot of great information to help:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

In short, your body is burning calories all day long, just by being alive (that's your BMR) and through your daily activities like working, running errands, etc (that is your NEAT) and then through any purposeful exercise on top of the being alive and daily activity - the sum of all this is called your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

MFP is a NEAT system - when you enter your stats, a goal weight and a goal rate of loss, it provides you a calorie target with a deficit built in to help you achieve your goal, even if you do no purposeful exercise. If you do exercise, then using the MFP approach, you should be eating back some of those calories so that you NET your goal. A lot of people find the calorie burn estimates overinflated so they start with eating back 50-75% of those exercise calories until they get into a more predictable pattern of calorie intake and output and the associated results.

To your question about averaging out calories over the week - that is what many of us do. Your body doesn't measure weight loss from meal to meal or even day to day - it is the long term habits that impact the scale weight.

Good luck.

TeaBea

MFP uses NEAT method. Exercise is not included in the initial equation. You DO eat exercise calories back (and get back to your original deficit).

TDEE methods includes exercise up front. You don't eat exercise calories back because they are already accounted for. http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Exercise calorie burns are estimates. Most people eat back 50-75%, then adjust based on actual results.

NorthCascades

chloehallam180894 wrote: »

I have always been confused when it comes to calorie counting! Can you eat back your calories you burn in exercise and still lose weight. So say if I eat 1500kcal the go and burn 1500kcal running will it be like I haven't eaten anything (not that I will do that) but for instance my goal is 1500kcal I've eaten 700 and burned 1300, so instead for just eating 200 more calories I can eat roughy 1300 more?? Also I tend to have a bad meal on a weekend if I knock my calories down slightly during the week will it even out?? Thanks

Yes. That's how it's supposed to work. This shouldn't be confusing at all, it's a very simple concept, there's just a lot of bad advice out there.

Calories are a way to measure energy. They're a lot like gallons of gasoline in your car. If you usually need 1 tank of gas a week to commute to and from work, but you do a long scenic drive one day, that will burn more gas, and you'll need to fill your tank to keep your car going. When you go for a run, that takes/uses energy; you get energy from food, and you use it through the day on things like having a heart beat, breathing, thinking, walking around, etc. Running takes energy away from all of that. Difference is the car and the gas station have a pretty accurate gauge and you don't.

Jayj180894

NorthCascades wrote: »

chloehallam180894 wrote: »

I have always been confused when it comes to calorie counting! Can you eat back your calories you burn in exercise and still lose weight. So say if I eat 1500kcal the go and burn 1500kcal running will it be like I haven't eaten anything (not that I will do that) but for instance my goal is 1500kcal I've eaten 700 and burned 1300, so instead for just eating 200 more calories I can eat roughy 1300 more?? Also I tend to have a bad meal on a weekend if I knock my calories down slightly during the week will it even out?? Thanks

Yes. That's how it's supposed to work. This shouldn't be confusing at all, it's a very simple concept, there's just a lot of bad advice out there.

Calories are a way to measure energy. They're a lot like gallons of gasoline in your car. If you usually need 1 tank of gas a week to commute to and from work, but you do a long scenic drive one day, that will burn more gas, and you'll need to fill your tank to keep your car going. When you go for a run, that takes/uses energy; you get energy from food, and you use it through the day on things like having a heart beat, breathing, thinking, walking around, etc. Running takes energy away from all of that. Difference is the car and the gas station have a pretty accurate gauge and you don't.

That makes a lot more sense to me! I have always found it confusing, I do with alcohol percentages as well

Jayj180894

Thanks everyone