I NEED major help with Calories!!

leratoseh

So I want to lose weight effectively, but don't know how calories work when it comes to exercise.

Let's say I'm instructed to eat 1200 calories a day, does that mean I must lose more than 1200 a day to lose weight? At the gym its very hard for me to exercise 500 calories off easily, so now imagine more than 1200. Can somebody please help? I'm afraid of how calories work and I don't want to result to binge eating

rachelr1116

If MFP has given you 1200 calories then you should eat 1200 calories. If you exercise then you should eat at least a portion of the "earned" calories so that you can continue to fuel your workouts. The way MFP works is that you tell it how much per week you'd like to lose and what your activity level is before exercise. You could lose weight eating just the calories that MFP gives you even if you don't exercise at all.

TeaBea

1200 is your daily calorie goal BEFORE exercise. So when you log exercise you earn additional calories. That's because you are burning calories 24/7. 1200 covers the basics; heart, lungs, kidneys, etc.

Calorie burns from exercise are estimates. Some estimates are better than others. So many people here eat back 50-75% of exercise calories for a time, then compare against actual results & tweak that number.

Keep in mind 1200 is a default minimum. So it's possible that you may not reach your weekly weight loss goal because it's too aggressive (or perhaps you are very petite and 1200 is fine).

livingleanlivingclean

No - your body uses calories just to survive. If you lay in bed 24/7 you'd require food to maintain your weight.
When you move around just doing every day stuff, your body uses more calories. When you exercise, you use more.

1200 calories is what your body needs to lose Xlbs a week at the activity level you inputted. When you exercise this goes on top - exercise cals are generally overestimates, so eating back a portion is the recommendation by people in the forum.

sarraheclark

The calorie number provided to you is the NET calories recommended for you per day. So with no exercise logged in a day, eat 1200 calories. For days that you do exercise, eat the 1200 calories plus the calories you burned. So if you burned 300 calories at the gym that day, you would want to eat a total of 1500 calories on that day (1200 + 300 workout cals).

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/12031-what-are-net-calories-

Jirachii

If MFP gave you a goal of 1200 to coincide with your goal per week, it's already at a deficit, and you will lose weight at that amount regardless of if you exercise or not.