What do I want to get exactly??

ancscott95

Ugh, Ive done some reading online, but still just a little confused by the math on here...what would be an ideal remaining calorie count at the end of a day? Where am I trying to get it to? I want to lose weight. Say my goal starts at 1500. Do I want to eat the full 1500 and gain say 500 more thru exercise and keep that 500 in my remaining, or is the idea to get the remaining to zero after the eaten and exercised combo? Appreciate any help.

csplatt

You want to end up at zero remaining when you go to bed. The way the math works here, you should eat back at least some of your exercise calories.

whmscll

If your goal is 1500 and you expend 500 exercising, you want to eat 2000 calories. Unless you know that later in the week you have a day where you will be eating a lot more than 1500 (special birthday celebration or something). Then you can “bank” some of the 500 calories you earned through exercise and eat them later in the week at your special event. But never eat less than 1200 calories a day.

tinkerbellang83

Eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories. Your weight loss trend over time will determine how accurate the exercise burns are and you can adjust after a few weeks.

sijomial

"Your weight loss trend over time will determine how accurate the exercise burns are and you can adjust after a few weeks."


Not really - your weight loss trend confirms how accurate your overall calorie balance is, it doesn't validate all the component parts that make up your calorie balance.

People can compensate for inaccurate exercise and food logging by adjusting their daily goal but food logging accuracy (for most) will have a far larger impact on the overall balance compared to exercise which somewhat unfairly seems to get blamed too often for results not matching expectation.

tinkerbellang83

sijomial wrote: »

"Your weight loss trend over time will determine how accurate the exercise burns are and you can adjust after a few weeks."


Not really - your weight loss trend confirms how accurate your overall calorie balance is, it doesn't validate all the component parts that make up your calorie balance.

People can compensate for inaccurate exercise and food logging by adjusting their daily goal but food logging accuracy (for most) will have a far larger impact on the overall balance compared to exercise which somewhat unfairly seems to get blamed too often for results not matching expectation.

That's true, but for those who don't/won't use a food scale it'll help more than not adjusting and assuming everything is accurate.

sijomial

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

"Your weight loss trend over time will determine how accurate the exercise burns are and you can adjust after a few weeks."


Not really - your weight loss trend confirms how accurate your overall calorie balance is, it doesn't validate all the component parts that make up your calorie balance.

People can compensate for inaccurate exercise and food logging by adjusting their daily goal but food logging accuracy (for most) will have a far larger impact on the overall balance compared to exercise which somewhat unfairly seems to get blamed too often for results not matching expectation.

That's true, but for those who don't/won't use a food scale it'll help more than not adjusting and assuming everything is accurate.

But food intake is the forest and for most people exercise is just a tree.

IMHO there's too much emphasis on what is a minor player in the equation. Accuracy in exercise calories isn't required for successful weight control - reasonable is a good enough standard.

MichelleWithMoxie

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

Eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories. Your weight loss trend over time will determine how accurate the exercise burns are and you can adjust after a few weeks.

This is a great graphic! Thank you!

texasredreb

Thanks for introducing us to Mildred! I love her, she's so smart!