Calorie tracking

oilers14

Hi everyone so I recently started using MyFitnessPal to track my caloric intake! So for my goals I put lose 1 pound per week and I put not very active (as I only workout 3 times a week) and so myfitnesspal gave me the goal of 1,300 calories! So my question is to make a deficit do I eat less then this or is this approximately how much I should be eating in a day? Thanks

cmriverside

Eat the entire 1300.

On days you exercise, put that exercise into the Exercise tab, and eat more on those days - that's how this site is designed.

Your 1300 is just to cover your regular daily activity like work, school, housework. Exercise is separate and "earns" you more calories.

Cassandraw3

If you set your goal to lose 1 lb/week, then the 1300 calories already includes a 500 calorie deficit. You should eat all 1300 calories, plus any additional calories from working out.

AnnPT77

But you shouldn't count exercise as part of your activity level. Actuvuty level is just work/home/nonexercise hobby stuff.

sarabushby

Like @AnnPT77 says, you may need to revisit your activity level setting and then make sure that you do indeed eat back all the calories that you’re given and including those for purposeful exercise as long as you are confident these aren’t exaggerated eg like on exercise machines etc.

I’ve seen the following ROUGH guide to setting your activity level, remember this is EXCLUDING purposeful exercise - you’ll log that separately.

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Sub 3,500 = less than sedentary

3500 to 5000 = sedentary

5500 to 8500 = lightly active.

8500 to 12500 = active

12,500 to 15,500 = very active.
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