Exercise or not when finding maintenance calories

Wingg

I am currently trying to find my maintenance calories intake, but I am not sure if I should continue my exercise when I am trying to find the maintenance calories intake. I am afraid that if I exercise while finding maintenance calories intake I may gain weight in the future when I do not exercise. Should I not exercise now when finding my maintenance weight and find the maintenance calories intake I need when I am not exercising now, then after finding my maintenance level then I start to add in my exercises? I am confused! Please help! I really do want to maintain my weight!

JesterMFP

I think maybe you're over-thinking things. You're not going to accidentally gain significant amounts of weight in the future if you're keeping an eye on your weight. Of course, if you determine your maintenance number now, and later find that you are exercising less, you will need to eat less. But, you already know this, so there's no reason for it to sneak up on you. It's impossible to know the exact number of calories you burn on any given day anyway. It's all just estimation.

Find how much you need to eat now, for the activity you're doing now. If your activity level changes later on, then take another look at your calorie intake.

nxd10

Why would it matter if you are looking at net calories?