Should people on Low calorie diet exercise?

tohyidrive

If I am on a low calorie diet (1200), should I be exercising? How do I know whether exercising will help me prevent muscles loss, or will exercising cause my existing muscles to be used for energy burn (thus decreasing my BMR)?
-- Confused

lauragreenbaum

Yes, of course. But if you start exercising rigorously (tons of cardio, etc) then you'll need to add some calories back in. You can also do low impact stuff- yoga, Pilates, long walks. The body needs exercise no matter what.

apullum

If you are following MFP’s calorie goal, then you eat back all exercise calories assuming they are calculated accurately. You aren’t required to exercise to lose weight, but if you do exercise, you are intended to eat those calories back.

JenniferM1234

What everybody else said. Think about it this way: you get very few calories per day on your 1200 cal weight loss plan, and you don't technically need to exercise to lose weight, you do it for health and fitness. BUT, if you take a nice long walk, and burn 250 calories, now you get to eat 1450 calories, which, in my opinion, is MUCH more sustainable and manageable amount for a day. Plus, your heart and lungs benefit too, and possibly peace of mind from a nice walk in nature. Win win!

Shortgirlrunning

I aim for 1200-1300 calories a day. And I exercise every day. I eat back my exercise calories. I still lose weight and (hopefully) am retaining more muscle while I do.

kshama2001

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

jhanleybrown

kshama2001 wrote: »

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

I eat back 100% of exercise cals.

But, I've found MFP to significantly over estimate cals used for my main forms of exercise.

But those also had generally accepted formulas for more accurate estimates. Once i fixed that and used those (you can just overwright the calories when you input the exercise), everything worked great. So, point is eat back your cals, but I'd caution you that MFP is more accurate on food calories than exercise. In my case it was often off 50-100% for main forms of exercise. It sucked to be counting plus exercising and not losing.

I also strongly agree with previous poster, its 5x harder for me to reach goal on days I don't exercise. I'm typically burning 600-700/day so that's like an extra meal.

Itmustbu

If you’re only eating 1200 calories I hope you are already a small woman...if not you should eat more

Katmary71

Exercise will help with muscles as long as you're eating some calories back. I was at 1200 not eating exercise calories back and didn't realize how weak I was until I started eating some. My workouts are a lot better now too with the extra fuel. I do feel my exercise calories are overblown so I don't eat more than half back.

NorthCascades

Yes. Find a type of exercise you enjoy, not just something you tolerate but something you look forward to. And then eat more because of it. Win/win.

fitnessguy266

Highly individualized based on many factors (height, weight, age, TDEE, BMR) there is no "universal" calorie mark. I have personally dieted utilizing a 1200 calorie, high protein diet....I retained a surprising amount lean mass while dieting to 7%.

NovusDies

tohyidrive wrote: »

If I am on a low calorie diet (1200), should I be exercising? How do I know whether exercising will help me prevent muscles loss, or will exercising cause my existing muscles to be used for energy burn (thus decreasing my BMR)?
-- Confused

Did someone put you on a 1200 calorie diet? If so, who?

LivingtheLeanDream

Yes of course - then not only will you improve your fitness, you get some more calories to eat back.

nighthawk584

jhanleybrown wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

I eat back 100% of exercise cals.

But, I've found MFP to significantly over estimate cals used for my main forms of exercise.

But those also had generally accepted formulas for more accurate estimates. Once i fixed that and used those (you can just overwright the calories when you input the exercise), everything worked great. So, point is eat back your cals, but I'd caution you that MFP is more accurate on food calories than exercise. In my case it was often off 50-100% for main forms of exercise. It sucked to be counting plus exercising and not losing.

I also strongly agree with previous poster, its 5x harder for me to reach goal on days I don't exercise. I'm typically burning 600-700/day so that's like an extra meal.

For me, MFP is pretty accurate with exercise calories, give or take 50-100 calories. I actually find strength training under cardio to be UNDER in calorie estimates. I have experimented with eating no exercise calories back, 1/2 and all back. I am eating MOST of the calories back if I am hungry (which is usually always the case) and still losing weight as I should.

Luke_rabbit

NorthCascades wrote: »

Yes. Find a type of exercise you enjoy, not just something you tolerate but something you look forward to. And then eat more because of it. Win/win.

This assumes there exists an exercise that one would enjoy. Obviously that isn't always true. Some of us have to find the exercise we dislike the least! 😀

Theoldguy1

NorthCascades wrote: »

Yes. Find a type of exercise you enjoy, not just something you tolerate but something you look forward to. And then eat more because of it. Win/win.

This 1000%. Everyone should exercise.