Calorie deficit

linseyhirshon
linseyhirshon Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a question as far as your calorie deficit goes on my calorie deficit when I add in my exercise for the day it adds calories and it’ll say calories remaining should I still be eating those amount of calories as well to still be in a deficit?

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,220 Member
    If all the estimates are accurate - food logging, calorie needs, exercise - then yes.

    If I eat 1500 calories a day to lose a pound a week when doing no exercise, that implies I'd need 2000 calories daily to maintain current weight.

    If I add 500 calories of exercise in a day, I'd need 2500 calories that day to maintain weight (normal routine 2000 + 500 extra). Therefore, if I eat 2000 on that exercise day, I'd expect to lose that same pound a week. That's because 1500 normal goal + 500 exercise calories = 2000, which is 500 less than that day's 2500 total burn, i.e., same numeric calorie deficit.

    I hope that makes sense.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,951 Member
    Yes, with the caveat that exercise calories burned estimates are often inflated, and may also not take into account you would burn around 1 MET calories doing nothing for an hour, probably about 60-120 calories depending on your current weight.

    I'd suggest eating back a conservative estimate of exercise calories, and track your progress over time.
  • I_AM_ISRAEL
    I_AM_ISRAEL Posts: 160 Member
    I NEVER go based off of “calories remaining”. I stick to my daily caloric intake every single day regardless of how many “calories you’ve burned”.
    I made the mistake of saying “oh look, I can eat more now!” Kept me in a bad cycle of no progress for a long time.
    KISS 😉
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,529 Member
    Whether you eat back all, some, or none of your exercise calories is entirely up to you. If your exercise load is very stable, then you can pick a higher daily intake and leave it at that. (That doesn't work for me. My exercise load varies all over the place.)
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,951 Member
    edited December 2022
    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    Whether you eat back all, some, or none of your exercise calories is entirely up to you. If your exercise load is very stable, then you can pick a higher daily intake and leave it at that. (That doesn't work for me. My exercise load varies all over the place.)
    That's just fundamentally wrong. If you take in 1500 per day and also do workouts to burn 600, it would be madness to never eat any of those back.

    If you want to average it out by changing your setup here to Very Active or whatever instead of Sedentary, that's an option, assuming you never take much time off from working out. But that's still not the same thing as "don't eat back any calories you burn exercising". That's just baking in a calories burned estimate up front instead of entering it as and when you do the exercise.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,789 Member
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »
    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    Whether you eat back all, some, or none of your exercise calories is entirely up to you. If your exercise load is very stable, then you can pick a higher daily intake and leave it at that. (That doesn't work for me. My exercise load varies all over the place.)
    That's just fundamentally wrong. If you take in 1500 per day and also do workouts to burn 600, it would be madness to never eat any of those back.

    If you want to average it out by changing your setup here to Very Active or whatever instead of Sedentary, that's an option, assuming you never take much time off from working out. But that's still not the same thing as "don't eat back any calories you burn exercising". That's just baking in a calories burned estimate up front instead of entering it as and when you do the exercise.

    It's just TDEE vs MFP. Either way, you're eating back the exercise calories and, at least, not undereating.

    But you know this! :)

    Unless you meant to quote someone else and, after rereading the thread, you probably did.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,529 Member
    @Retroguy2000. I totally agree that bad idea to overdo the deficit. -500kcals/day is a good target (~1lb/week loss rate). Depending on your current weight, you could go as high as -1000/day (2lb/week loss rate).

    I'm most comfortable if my deficit is <25% of my TDEE, which is around 2000kcals without significant exercise.

    But, when I'm really motivated, I don't eat back all my exercise calories. At the very least it's nice to have some extra capacity as you go into the weekend.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,951 Member
    @Jthanmyfitnesspal Agreed, totally fine to adjust day to day, whether you don't feel you need the additional calories that day, or you're banking for the weekend, or just pushing harder temporarily.

    There's probably some talking over each other going on in the thread, I'm sure most are generally in agreement.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »
    I NEVER go based off of “calories remaining”. I stick to my daily caloric intake every single day regardless of how many “calories you’ve burned”.
    I made the mistake of saying “oh look, I can eat more now!” Kept me in a bad cycle of no progress for a long time.
    KISS 😉

    If you use MFP to set your calorie goal, exercise, but don't eat back any exercise calories, you are not using MFP the way it was designed.

    https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

    Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.
  • FeeLizRamirez
    FeeLizRamirez Posts: 1 Member
    Just want to say thank you too all that contributed to this post. It is extremely helpful and saved me from hours of google searches.

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