Am I using this correctly??

dersarkissian

So I have my macros and calories set up to eat per day. When I exercise, it basically gives me back those calories. I feel like eating more than the original 1800 calories per day is going to cause me to gain weight even if I do cardio. Am I doing this right? What am I missing?

GreggC1968

It’s a common worry and has some truth depending on how effectively you’ve tuned your exercise to your actual metabolism. I found it’s generally about 75% to 85% accurate. People often only eat a portion of their exercise calories which seem to work best. Half is probably too few and I would recommend 2/3 or 3/4. Most importantly, listen to your body. MFP is a good gauge but you are your own magic

TavistockToad

what are your stats and what settings did you use to get to 1800 cals per day?

TavistockToad

GreggC1968 wrote: »

It’s a common worry and has some truth depending on how effectively you’ve tuned your exercise to your actual metabolism. I found it’s generally about 75% to 85% accurate. People often only eat a portion of their exercise calories which seem to work best. Half is probably too few and I would recommend 2/3 or 3/4. Most importantly, listen to your body. MFP is a good gauge but you are your own magic

please can you explain how you 'tune your exercise' to your metabolism? what does that actually mean?

tinkerbellang83

You just haven't quite got your head around it. The 1800 calories you are given by MFP already includes your deficit and doesn't account for your exercise.

Let's say for demonstration sake that you have set yourself to 1lb per week loss:

Your maintenance intake is calculated by using the stats that you gave when setting up your account to give your BMR (the amount of calories your body burns for basic functions like breathing, pumping your heart,etc) your BMR is then multiplied by your activity level chosen (this is your normal day-to-day activity for home/school/work life).

That will give you a NEAT (daily burn without exercise) of 2300 calories

If you chose to lose 1lb per week, that is a daily deficit of 500 calories (1lb of fat is roughly equivalent to 3500 calories, this is then divided by 7 days).

That gives you your daily calorie allowance of 1800.

If you then do some exercise that burns even more calories for example 200 calories:

Maintenance - 2300

less calorie deficit 500

less exercise 200

That would make your new burn for the day to 1600 calories.

If you eat back the 200 calories, that will take you back to your original calorie allowance of 1800 calories.

It is worth noting that exercise calories can be a little inaccurate in some cases, so it may be wise to start by eating 50% of them, reviewing your weight loss after 4-6 weeks and then adjusting accordingly.