Do you eat more when calories are added in from exercise?

SunLovinMia

My calorie goal is set to around 1500. I consider myself sedentary because I mostly sit around the house aside from cleaning and walking around here and there. I’ve recently started going for walks and putting more hours in at work so my steps have increased quite a bit. My Fitbit is connected to my fitness pal account so calories are added the more active that I am. I’m not sure if I should continue to eat my original calorie amount or eat what it suggests. I don’t want to over eat, I feel so guilt whenever I eat more. It’s adding in over 1000cal each day! I have been having so much trouble losing weight. I log everything! And try to take pictures of absolutely everything that I eat so I don’t forget. It’s so hard only losing 1 lbs a week when I have it set to lose 2 lbs a week and it tells me to eat more, ugh! I’m not seeing a change in my body. What am I doing wrong here? Do you increase your food consumption when calories are added in or do you eat your original goal?

SunLovinMia

This is from today.

harper16

How much weight are you trying to lose? You should be eating back half your exercise calories.

janejellyroll

Eating your exercise calories isn't "overeating," it's eating to support your actual activity.

If you are having trouble losing weight while eating your exercise calories, then the issue is likely that you're underestimating your calories IN (that is, you are inadvertently making some common logging errors) or your Fitbit is overestimating your calories OUT. If you're taking pictures of what you eat and using that to log, my guess is that your logging may not be as accurate as it could be.

That said, losing one pound a week is excellent progress! It can sometimes take a while to see changes in your body.

I do eat back my exercise calories, but I'm also confident that my logging is very accurate (I use a food scale for solid food, avoid generic/homemade entries, try to minimize food I'm not preparing myself, and I double-check my database entries for accuracy).

ElizabethKalmbach

The way MFP works, you're meant to eat more as you move more. If you're not sure the calorie burn calculation is correct, start by eating back half the value it gives you and compare your rate of weight loss to the one you decided on when you set your goals. If you're losing weight faster than that, increase the percentage of calories you eat back.

My baseline calories are 1411, but I eat about 2100 to 2300 calories/day due to an average step count of about 20k per day. I'm still losing about half a pound every week. Having retroactively calculated my calories burned comparing weight lost to estimated deficit, it looks like my Garmin is only off by about 63 calories per day in it's burn estimates.

SunLovinMia

I currently weight 242. I don’t have a set number, im just trying to get healthy. I’m trying to lose 2lbs a week.

cwolfman13

Eating to support your activity level to lose weight in a safe and healthy manner isn't overeating. Think of it this way...does a vehicle commuting 60 miles per day require more fuel than a vehicle going around the block to the grocery store? The more you move, the greater your calorie requirements are.