calorie deficit confused to the max...

Kimsoontobe
Kimsoontobe Posts: 110 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I set up my goals to lose 2lbs a week. Mfp says my calorie deficit is a 1000. So has mfp already included it in the calories I should eat a day? I've read some where on the internet that the calories I eat I need to burn them is this sure? Thanks in advance.:happy:

Replies

  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
    Yes, MFP has included the deficit in your calorie goal and accounted for the activity level you've chosen. If you log additional exercise, your calorie goal will go up to keep your deficit at 1000.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    Yes. Your calorie target has a 1000 calorie daily deficit built in to your regular activity. So when you burn extra calories through exercise you're supposed to eat them back in order to maintain the same 1000 calorie daily deficit. More than that is generally not healthy.
  • Kimsoontobe
    Kimsoontobe Posts: 110 Member
    So when I exercise I need to eat the calories back?
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    Yes, say for instance your body uses 2500 to stay the same weight, MFP will have given you 1500 as a calorie goal, which will increase with exercise logged.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Yes, it's included. So if MFP tells you to eat 1500 calories, you eat 1500 calories.
    If you exercise, you're meant to eat those calories back, since MFP already works your deficit out for you. Not eating them back could create too large of a deficit for you, and you're weightloss could stall. Plus, since you're exercising, your body is doing more work, and it needs fuel for that extra work.
    So, if your goal is 1500 and you exercise 200. you eat 1700 calories, because you want to net your goal.

    That being said, if your goal is 1200 calories, you need to make sure you always stay at or above that 1200 line (or as often as possible). 1200 is the bare minimum a woman needs to consume to get decent nutrition. Netting below 1200 is dangerous territory, and can become quite unhealthy. Not trying to scare you, but you don't want to go through this with a whole bunch of "suck". It's also very hard to stick to. If you feel you can't stick to your goal, whether it's 1200 or 1500, or whatever, don't be afraid to up your calories and be a little less aggressive. As long as you're in a deficit, you will lose weight.

    Good luck.
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    So when I exercise I need to eat the calories back?

    That's how this plan works but log exercise on the conservative side and corroborate with other burn calculators as MFP can sometimes be a bit generous with those.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    So when I exercise I need to eat the calories back?
    Yes.

    Having said that, you want to make sure you're adding legitimate numbers. Sometimes the MFP database numbers can be off for some people. The numbers from the machines at the gym are notoriously wrong since they don't take anyone's weight into account usually (though some do). So your best bet is to get a properly calibrated heart rate monitor to find out what your actual calorie burn is for each exercise.

    Then, I'd also not bother adding stuff that isn't exercise like cleaning, mall-walking, grocery shopping etc. I have added heavy lawn-mowing sessions and marathon spring cleans and stuff like that, but if it affects your results, then don't add any of that stuff.
  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
    So when I exercise I need to eat the calories back?

    It depends on what activity level you set. If you chose sedentary, then yes. If you chose lightly active (or whatever) then only log exercise above that, because those calories will already have been added to your goal.

    I set my level to sedentary then log everything, even if I do it every day. That way I don't have to think about whether something is included in my calorie goal already.
  • Kimsoontobe
    Kimsoontobe Posts: 110 Member
    Thank you all so much. I was so confused because on other post some people are not eating back all or none of their w\o calories.
  • Gee_24
    Gee_24 Posts: 359 Member
    To add to the 1200 debate: I constantly netted under 1200. There were weeks were I was netting 500-800 a day.

    I was constipated for up to 6 days at a time and got constant headaches. Oh and my hormones went a little out of whack, too! I have NO idea if this is linked but for the first time in my life I got a 3 week long period.

    Had all sorts of tests done at the Gyno, they couldnt find a cause. Started eating at 1400 and it all stopped.

    Lesson Learnt.

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