Do you add in exercise calories when trying to figure out how much to each in a day?

reginabfly

I only have a few lbs to loose but I can't stop loosing and gaining back the same 4-5lbs. Right now to loose a 1/2lb a week, I am suppose to eat 1590 calories. Every day when I add in the calories I eat, it is about 1800 calories but I walk 10,000 steps every single day and I do 30 minutes of bodyweight/strength workout videos 5 times a week. On top of that I do a fair amount of walking around my home and chores since I am a stay at home mom. Do I add in those exercise calories? If I do bodyweight under cardio I put in 15 minutes instead of 30 because I don't see how I could really work off that many calories. Same for walking my dog (10,000 steps) I do 30 minutes instead of the 60-90 minutes I actually walk in a day.

I feel like I keep doing really well and then binging after a few or several days of working my butt off. Last night I had a piece of cake and ended up eating cookies, nutella, peanut butter and oatmeal on top of that. I feel disgusted this morning and this is a once a week thing for me. I have been hungry all week and I think I just got sick of it last night and ate whatever I could get my hands on. So for me 1600 calories a day is really hard for me to stick to. I am up at 6am and in bed by 9pm and I eat a good 600-700 calories between 6am and 12pm because that is when I am most active.

I really need some accountability friends too if anyone is in the same boat or needs help too. I have been dieting and exercising for the last 20 years and being healthy is important to me but I feel like I take it too far sometimes. I wish I could figure out a good range of calories a day for me where I don't have these binge episodes.

TeaBea

Depends...........

Did you get your calorie goal using My Fitness Pal (MFP)? If so, your calorie goal is before exercise (NEAT). If you started with a TDEE calculator, it included exercise up front. If your exercise is consistent you can start there.

If you sync an activity tracker to MFP - tell MFP you want to lose weight, log deliberate exercise in MFP, then you can use that number as a starting point. When I say starting point, that means you may have to adjust calorie burn estimates down, or adjust calories to be eaten up, depending on how accurate calorie burn estimates are and/or how accurate your logging is. 1/2 pound a week is a good goal for you. But a 250 calorie deficit doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room.

It doesn't really matter when you eat your calories. A calorie deficit builds up over the long haul.

reginabfly

Thanks for responding. I did the tdee calculator and it says 2000 to maintain so it seems 1800 calories is a good goal for me to feel full but still be able to loose. I need to stick with it and stop cheating it seems though. Mfp says I should do 1600 but then I just add in the exercise to bring me up to 1800 calories.