Eat my calorie goal or shoot for a deficit?

randerson6571

I’m curious if I should be eating my calorie goal MFP gives me or if I should make sure I have a caloric deficit at the end of each day? Should my final balance be 0 calories left? Or deficit of a few hundred to lose weight.

Shortgirlrunning

Did you put in a weight loss goal? If yes, then MFP gave you a calorie goal that will put you in a calorie deficit to lose weight and you don’t need to eat less than it gave you.

randerson6571

Thank you! That was exactly what I needed to know. If the caloric deficit was built into the calorie goal or not. Thank you. I was eating I think way less than I should’ve been then. So does that mean if I burn 500 calories in a workout, I should eat those back to break even?? I haven’t been doing that.

apullum

randerson6571 wrote: »

Thank you! That was exactly what I needed to know. If the caloric deficit was built into the calorie goal or not. Thank you. I was eating I think way less than I should’ve been then. So does that mean if I burn 500 calories in a workout, I should eat those back to break even?? I haven’t been doing that.

You would eat back all 500 calories assuming you are confident that they’re calculated correctly. The problem is that some people find their exercise calorie estimates are not accurate, so they recommend starting by eating half your exercise calories and adjusting from there if you’re relying on exercise calorie estimates like the ones in the MFP database.

randerson6571

apullum wrote: »

randerson6571 wrote: »

Thank you! That was exactly what I needed to know. If the caloric deficit was built into the calorie goal or not. Thank you. I was eating I think way less than I should’ve been then. So does that mean if I burn 500 calories in a workout, I should eat those back to break even?? I haven’t been doing that.

You would eat back all 500 calories assuming you are confident that they’re calculated correctly. The problem is that some people find their exercise calorie estimates are not accurate, so they recommend starting by eating half your exercise calories and adjusting from there if you’re relying on exercise calorie estimates like the ones in the MFP database.

Thank you so much!! This is what I kept getting stuck on. I think I was overeating in some instances then. Good to know this! Thank you!

bethjl96

What if your exercise calories are created by tracking on an Apple Watch? Do you think that is accurate enough or should one err on the side of caution and not eat all the calories it says?

ceiswyn

Watches and other heartrate based trackers are notoriously inaccurate. I'd start by eating half, see what happens over a couple of weeks, and adjust if required.

jennifer_417

Your calorie goal already has a deficit built into it. It's not necessary to go below it.

cwolfman13

randerson6571 wrote: »

I’m curious if I should be eating my calorie goal MFP gives me or if I should make sure I have a caloric deficit at the end of each day? Should my final balance be 0 calories left? Or deficit of a few hundred to lose weight.

Your calorie target is your deficit if you selected weight loss...the calculator calculated the calories you should target for your deficit...that's why you set those goals and put in your stats and all of that.