Calorie Targets adjustment question

iventer1

Quick question. On a mission to drop 0.5 - 1kg a week my recommended calorie intake is 1200kcal/ day.

According to fitbit I burned over 2500 today.

MFP's adding back some calories from running & exercise tracked my fitbit . Can I add some of them back or ignore the extra?

KickassAmazon76

If you are tracking using the mfp formula I would add back the calories. I have found my Fitbit to be pretty bang on, so I will often add back most of what it gives me, but if you're just starting out, you could try eating back all but 150 - 350 cals.

If you're burning that much, you should be eating more than 1200, for sure!

iventer1

Cannot seem to add the screenshot but I had 1200 and MFPs adding 823cals back for exercise... add? Or stick to 1200

KickassAmazon76

Add. If you're worried, add 750. Do that and monitor. If your rate of loss is not enough after a couple of weeks (a month even), then only add back, say 500.

Definitely add back something.

Strudders67

ADD. MFP is designed such that you're supposed to eat your exercise calories. The 1200 is what you'd eat if you'd not moved all day. Whilst you may not have burned 823 cals (although I have no reason to doubt it), you definitely didn't burn zero. If you don't eat your exercise cals, you're effectively eating less than 400 cals today, which is really really not a good idea.

If you don't know how accurate your Fitbit is, eat the number of calories MFP tells you, each day, for 6 weeks. And then calculate what rate you have actually lost at over that period. If it's in line with your expectations then your Fitbit is accurate. If you're losing faster or slower, then eat a little bit more or a little bit less.

Question for you though. Did you set MFP to lose 0.5kg a week or 1kg a week? Which are you trying to achieve?
How tall are you, how much do you weigh and how much are you trying to lose?

AnnPT77

iventer1 wrote: »

Cannot seem to add the screenshot but I had 1200 and MFPs adding 823cals back for exercise... add? Or stick to 1200

Like KickassAmazon said, if you got your calorie goal from MFP, eat them.

Losing weight too slowly can be frustrating, but losing it too fast creates health risk. No one needs that.

Speaking of which, many of us think most people would best served by losing no faster than around 0.5-1% of current body weight weekly, as a maximum. (Slower is fine, can be more successful through sustainability.) So, if you weight at least 100kg-plus now, you may be OK at a kg a week goal, otherwise I'd suggest the 0.5kg or less.

1200 is quite a low calorie goal. If you do enough activity to get 823 calories calorie adjustment, and don't eat that back, you'd be netting less than 400 calories for the day. That's really, really not a good idea.

More women think they need to eat 1200 or less, than really should do so, for best health and thriving. (It was too low for me, at 5'5", age 59, when overweight, even when I ate back all my exercise calories on top of that.)

Any meaningful amount of weight loss is a long game, weeks at least, possibly months and longer. Sustainability - making it easy, manageable - is important for long term success.

Best wishes!

KickassAmazon76

A lot of times people come on here and set their activity level to sedentary, and their goal to lose as much as possible per week.

If they are actually quite active, and not largely overweight, that's doing them a disservice. Because you have the Fitbit, it's telling you it's estimate for how active you've been, and it's telling that to MFP.

Since I've used both together, my rate of loss has been pretty bang on target.

Enjoy the extra calories (and satiety!)

rosebarnalice

I generally eat back some portion of my exercise calories-- typically 1/3 to 1/2. Any less and I get hangry!

callsitlikeiseeit

my fitbit is pretty accurate for me (it seems everyone is different)

but I know what it gives me for a non workout day and then for when I go to the gym or am unusually active. You have to learn whats normal for you.

I do log my workouts in mfp but then adjust the number of calories burned to '1'. that way I don't double count those workout calories. mfp and machines give me WAY more calories burned than my fitbit.

whether or not I eat calories back depends on the day and how hungry I am.