Daily calories

donnasmith2329

I have put in my goals and activity levels and it gives me my daily calorie target. Does this include my defect or do I have to take this off? Also should I have the extra calories gained during exercise or stick to my target calories?

clg2553

It includes a deficit based on what you said you wanted to lose. It's a personal choice regarding exercise calories. I like to see them there but I don't always eat them all if I've had a particularly active day.

Lietchi

If you selected a rate of loss in your goals, then yes, your calorie goal includes that deficit.

As for eating back exercise calories, then yes, you should eat back those calories on top of your base calorie goal:
- on condition of having set your activity level correctly (only including daily non exercise activity in your activity level l
- on condition on the estimated calorie burn for that exercise being reasonable. Depending on the type of exercise and the source of the number (MFP, an exercise tracker, etc) the number may or may not be inflated.
So you should eat back those calories, or eat last a proportion of those, or you will be creating a larger calorie deficit than intended. In some cases this can pose a health risk (losing weight too fast can lead to muscle loss and other bad consequences).

Since MFP's calorie goal is based on population averages and you may or may not be average, it's a good idea to follow the number for one or two months/menstrual cycles and then adjust upwards or downwards depending on how your actual rate of loss compares to the rate you selected.