another newbie

PMCGL
PMCGL Posts: 11
in Introduce Yourself
Hi, my name is Pat and I joined last week and I bought an elliptical trainer as well. I am committed to this journey for the umpty-ninth time in my life. I start and then without encouragement from anyone I fall off the diet and have to start over. I decided this time I would enter something every day on the message board to get motivation from others. I need your help everyone to keep me on the straight and narrow. When I entered my food and exercise today I got a message that said I earned an extra 250 calories because of the exercise I had done.. Ummm, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of exercising if I'm just going to add calories? What happens to my metabolism and weight loss if I don't add the calories? Anybody....?

Replies

  • Sarahnade42x
    Sarahnade42x Posts: 308 Member
    Hi Pat! The net calorie goal MFP sets for you is based on the rate of weight loss you chose in settings (1 lb/wk, 2 lb/wk, etc). Eating back your exercise calories keeps you at the deficit required for that rate of weight loss and no more than that.

    Whether you should actually eat your exercise cals back is eternally controversial on MFP...I think if you're eating healthier and moving around more than you used to, you're good to go :)
  • KRG111
    KRG111 Posts: 3
    Adding the calories from exercise is optional. Stick to your calorie goal for the day most days. If you have a special meal or event where you are planning to have more calories than your daily goal increase your activity. If you ate all the calories you 'earned' from your activity you would theoretically stay t he same weight.
  • crls64
    crls64 Posts: 5
    hi! i was a bit confused when i first saw that message of "earning calories" aswell but what they mean is earn as in you earned the right to ingest that many more calories since you lost them during training (you always want to try to stay at or a bit below your calorie limit of course, which i myself have troubles with once in a while haha) feel free to add me/
  • PMCGL
    PMCGL Posts: 11
    After I posted about why should I eat the calories I earned I went to the "help" page and found the answer to my question. I think the answer is I have burned some of the calories it takes to keep myself in a normal function and if I don't eat the extra calories suggested I might put my metabolism back into the starvation mode. Before I read the answer I ate some junk calories (2 bite brownies) to get the calories in. I figured they were free calories. But I was wrong and realized too late that I need to make up these calories with good sound nutritious food. I won't make that mistake again. I should have known better. Usually if something is too good to be true,,,,,it is, lol.:laugh:

Categories