exercise calories

Do you eat your exercise calories or just the 1200 that my fitness pal recommends for weight loss? I am a little confused because I am also doing a workout program that says you should eat 1600 per day. However my fitness pal says 1200 to lose the 1-2lbs per week. Just need any suggestions or feedback. Thanks

Replies

  • guessrs
    guessrs Posts: 358 Member
    Yes, eat them or some of them. Otherwise I find my appetite drives me crazy, it's not worth it.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    yep, I eat them all.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    Myfitnesspal doesn't include your exercise. Your exercise plan factors the exercise already in. You should either go with the constant 1600 from your exercise plan or eat exercise calories.
  • j6o4
    j6o4 Posts: 871 Member
    Do you eat your exercise calories or just the 1200 that my fitness pal recommends for weight loss? I am a little confused because I am also doing a workout program that says you should eat 1600 per day. However my fitness pal says 1200 to lose the 1-2lbs per week. Just need any suggestions or feedback. Thanks

    Thats to lose 1-2lbs without exercise. When you exercise you create a larger deifict which is why MFP gives you back calories to eat, if you dont eat them back then your deficit will be too large. Too much of anything is not good for you, including too much of a deficit.
  • blueheron83
    blueheron83 Posts: 8 Member
    Most days I stick to the calories given from MFP, but depending on the exercise that you are doing and how much exercising you are doing you should make sure to eat enough extra calories to replenish your body. This is probably by far the hardest part of getting those exercise calories back into your diet. You want to keep a deficit to lose weight but if you don't replenish enough then you can have even more problems.

    What I try to do is make smart decisions on those days where I know I am going to really burn a huge amount of calories to make sure I don't run too big a deficit. If you do a hard workout and are through all of your calories but still feel hungry or thirsty then you should eat or drink something. Make sure that it is enough to replenish but don't go too far over either and make good choices on what you are consuming. A trick I try and use is to make sure that after you eat something to replenish, don't immediately go after more. Give your body a chance to take in the calories and then reassess if you are still needing something.

    It will take some time but you will start to recognize the difference between you body wanting something and needing something.