Food & Exercise

kathie_blunt
kathie_blunt Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started
I am on a 1200 calories program. When adding my exercise to the system, it added extra calories. I am not understanding if I should stay with 1200 or if I should add those extra calories to my daily intake. Please, Please Help

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    kathie_blunt wrote: »
    I am on a 1200 calories program. When adding my exercise to the system, it added extra calories. I am not understanding if I should stay with 1200 or if I should add those extra calories to my daily intake. Please, Please Help

    MFP isn't trying to trick you...it's adding calories because that's how this tool is designed to work. Exercise activity isn't included in your activity level, only your day to day humdrum. Therefore, exercise is unaccounted for activity...suffice it to say, the more active you are, the more calories your body requires. MFP accounts for exercise activity after the fact when you do it and log it and increases your calories. You just have to be somewhat careful of calorie burn estimates.

    Looking at the numbers...without any exercise I maintain on right around 2500 calories which means to lose 1 Lb per week I would need to eat 2000 calories. When I exercise, I typically burn 300-500 calories depending on what I'm doing and the duration...so that would bump my maintenance calories to 2800-3000 and I could thus lose that same 1 Lb per week eating 2300-2500 calories per day.

    Also, watch this...

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    Add them. MFP calculates your calories without exercise. (When you put in your activity level, it's meant to be how active you are in the course of the day without purposeful exercise. So, if you're stuck behind a desk all day, even if you hit the gym for an hour every morning before work, you're sedentary. If you're a bike courier, pedaling for 6-8 hours daily, even if you go home and veg out in front of the TV, you're very active.)

    When you exercise, your body needs more calories to fuel your workouts. It's not such a big deal if you don't exercise much and you have a lot to lose. But otherwise, if you don't eat back calories, you run the risk of too aggressive a deficit. And what can happen is that because you don't have enough fuel for your workout, you're not getting the burn you think you are. You're a bit slower, a bit more sluggish, and you aren't working at the intensity you think. Plus, your hunger cues can get worse, because your body signals to you that it needs more. It makes it harder to stick to the plan. And finally, there's a limit to how much fat you can burn in a day. If you're netting too few calories, your body will start to burn muscle too.

    Caveat: MFP can overestimate (or, more rarely, underestimate) your calories burned. It's okay to start by eating a portion of them back; I usually do 50% myself and check your weight-loss for the next 3-6 weeks. If you're losing right around where you should be, keep doing what you're doing. If you're losing faster or slower, adjust.

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