Eating back activity calories.

bembo1980

Just looking for advice. I have so far lost 7lb in 4 weeks. I stayed the same this week. I am 5'4" 172lb with a goal of 154lb.

My calorie goal is 1200 which I have stuck to religiously all week - weighing and measuring everything I eat and drink.

I have my activity set to sedentary then get exercise calories from my garmin. I run 3 times per week. Usually a couple of 5kms and a longer run. Today for example I ran 5 miles and garmin said i had burned 540 calories. Usually I wouldn't eat these back. Should I be? Is that where I am going wrong????

Lillymoo01

I try to eat back half. This gives that little bit of leeway with misjudgement of calories burned and consumed. Just keep an eye on your weight loss to determine how much you should eat back. If you aren't loosing weight eat back less, if you are loosing too quickly eat back more. Just remember that MFP does not include calories burned during exercise so the expectation would be to eat it back but do what works for you.

momofamadhouse

How are you going wrong? You've lost 7lbs in 4 weeks! That's almost 2 pounds a week! From what I've read the expectation to lose 2 pounds per week is if you have a LOT of weight to lose. You're experiencing a normal loss rate. If you want to lose faster increase your activity levels, although the rate may only increase slightly. I have similar stats as you (at the moment, I started at 277 a year ago) and my loss has slowed from 2 pounds to 1 pound a week so IMO, whatever you're doing is working. Don't rush it, you'll get there.

suruda

You are doing great! You don't have a ton to lose so 1 pound a week or less is probably going to be your standard. I'm 5'4" and started at 189 1/1 and am down to 181 in 6 weeks just to give you some perspective. I am also pretty sedentary but work out around 5 days a week doing a variety of things for at least an hour...probably don't burn as many calories as you since I'm not a runner!

I only eat back activity calories if I feel starving...haven't since 1/1 though.

malibu927

This video does an excellent job telling you why you should eat some back: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

As for not losing weight this week, that's also normal. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear

TimothyFish

If your overall calorie deficit is more than 1,000 calories per day then you should eat at least some of them. If it is less than that then there's no reason to change what you are doing.