Should I eat the calories i burned through workouts?

Ellis0301
Ellis0301 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello, im going straight to the matter :smiley: I'm on 1200cal a day and i workout and count my steps, so basically i burn around 400 cal, so the question is: should/can I eat those calories, cause then basically my intake will be around 1600cal a day. I'm a little confused and I really want to be sure :blush: thanks in advance <3

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,075 Member
    Yes, you should! Or at least a part of that. The calories MFP gives you are without exercise, and exercising gives you additional calories. Other calculators give you a calorie goal with exercise. Just say you really burn 400 calories. That's pretty much the same as not exercising and only eating 800 calories. So it makes sense to eat them.

    However, MFP notoriously overstates calories burned. Might be a good idea to eat half to 3/4 of them and see where you are in one month to 6 weeks.

    Two more comments:
    are you purposely walking, thus do you say you go out for a walk and that's where the steps come from or are they from everyday life, like you job, home making, etc? If they are exercise then yes, they are part of the extra calories. If they are just everyday life then you should possible raise your activity level in MFP. This will automatically give you more calories to eat.

    And one more thing: if you're on 1200 calories then your chosen weightloss goal is likely too big and you will not reach it, whatever you do. If the goal is too big then MFP will always give you 1200 calories as less is not healthy at all. See we're going back to the exercise calories? You should not eat less than that unless you're super petite and old. Thus expect a slower weight loss. How slow? Change your goal and see when the number of calories to eat goes up. You could also share your stats with us and we can help.

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