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therinna
therinna Posts: 17 Member
in Getting Started
I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

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  • pbruce706
    pbruce706 Posts: 15 Member
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    You would eat less calories than you exercise IN ADDITION to your calorie goal. The most common comment seems to be to eat half your exercise calories, so in your case, if you burned 400 calories in exercise, you'd consume 1200 calories (goal) + 200 calories (1/2 your exercise) for a total of 1400 calories.

    Hope that helps.
  • SamanthaD1218
    SamanthaD1218 Posts: 304 Member
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    ...is this an April Fool's joke? :ohwell:
  • asciident
    asciident Posts: 166 Member
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    You're supposed to eat fewer calories than your total daily energy expenditure. A short female will burn about 1200 calories just being alive in most circumstances.

    I suggest reading these:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

    you have the saying mixed up.

    you are supposed to eat less than you burn.

    and that is including what you normally burn throughout the course of the day. that is why you need to look up and find you TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
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    No, because it is blatantly and horribly wrong.

    If your MFP goal is 1200 calories, you should NET that amount (net being total calories eaten minus exercise calories - so if you eat 1600 calories and subtract your 400 burned with exercise, you net 1200).
  • Jacwhite22
    Jacwhite22 Posts: 7,012 Member
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    eagles jump over bunny rabbits in the Indian ocean
  • MikePXstream
    MikePXstream Posts: 965 Member
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    I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

    A calorie goal of 1200 is pretty low. If you are burning 400 calories when you exercise, then you should be adding 400 calories to your daily "need to function" calorie intake. So, if you are supposed to take in 1200, add in 400 from your exercise, bringing you to 1600. You can decrease that amount by 20%, bringing you additional calorie intake for exercise to 300 and putting you at 1500. Is the treadmill the only exercise you do?
  • LeahFerri
    LeahFerri Posts: 186 Member
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    I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

    I think what people say/mean is that you need to eat fewer calories than you *burn*. Calories burned go beyond calories expended during structured exercise--otherwise, if you didn't work out, you wouldn't need to eat at all! Which of course isn't the case.

    Example: My basal metabolic rate is what I would expend if I were comatose. Let's say it's 1380 calories.
    If I'm sedentary--spend the majority of my day sitting around--my total daily energy expenditure is probably around 1656.
    If I exercise and burn 400 calories, (which for me would be probably 90 minutes of exercise), my total energy expenditure for that day was 2056 calories. To maintain my current weight, I need to eat 2056 calories. For weight loss at the rate of .5lb/week, I would subtract 250 calories from my energy expenditure and eat that. So on a non-exercise day, I would need to eat 1406 calories. On an exercise day of 400 calories burned, I would need to eat 1806 calories.
  • Happymelz
    Happymelz Posts: 536 Member
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    I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

    I've never heard this, but it is incorrect.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I think you just misinterpreted someone saying you should eat below your TDEE to lose weight, which is true.

    TDEE or total daily energy expenditure is the total amount of calories your body burns from both metabolic rate and activity including exercise. If your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is 1400 and your just normal walking around day to day activity is 400 and you exercise for another 400 then your TDEE would be 2200. What the person was saying is in that case you should eat below 2200 and the amount you should eat below is half your exercise or activity callories which would be 800 for the day and half is 400 so it would mean you should eat 1800 in that example which sounds about right.

    At least I assume that is what they meant because yeah what you said is dead wrong and not what you should do at all.
  • Cranquistador
    Cranquistador Posts: 39,744 Member
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    :indifferent:
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

    The word "exercise" is totally wrong. What I hope they mean is eat less than you "burn".....big difference

    Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is what you burn everyday. This consists of BMR (basal metabolic rate) .....calories your body would use if you stayed in bed 24 hours + activity level (ie: sedentary is lowest....almost no one stays in bed al day) + exercise.

    The TOTAL of those 3 things are what you need to eat less than.

    Anything less than TDEE is a deficit. Eating less is the easiest way because you can take in lots of calories quickly. Exercise can also help with deficit, but, exercise has extra health benefits too. MFP as designed gives you a calorie deficit BEFORE any exercise....because some people can't/won't exercise....they still lose weight. If you do exercise (and log it) MFP adds those calories back in.....it simply gets you back to your original deficit and helps you maintain lean muscle mass.
  • therinna
    therinna Posts: 17 Member
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    Thank you all for the replies(useful information :) ) ...some of the smart comments could have been avoided. Luckily my sense of humor is off the charts and I just smile. LOL.

    I just started this weight lost journey and everything is new and confusing to me. Especially, with all these gimmicks about special pills, weight lost dvd's, ....just frustrating. The more I exercise, eat healthy and ask a lot of silly dumb, questions i will be fine.

    Thanks again for the support!!!
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    I'm confused too.



    What does this thread have to do with potatoes???
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
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    I don't get it! this make no sense....I hear people say your supposed to eat LESS calories then you EXERCISE...so for example my calorie goal is 1200. I should work out at the gym so i can burn MORE then 1200 calories a day? it take me 45 minutes just to burn 400 calorie on the treadmill. Does this making sense to ANYONE???

    The number MFP gives you puts you at a deficit. Trying to make too large a deficit is counterproductive, especially if your goal is to be/do this healthily.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
  • therinna
    therinna Posts: 17 Member
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    ha ha ha very funny! Mr. Potato head!
  • hmaddpear
    hmaddpear Posts: 610 Member
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    The different terms can be awfully confusing when you start. Check out the acronym guide:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1069278-acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6

    And then, to put it into context, read the sexy pants link and the getting back to basics link, mentioned above (I think - will double check and post the links if not). It's not rocket science, but it can take a while to get your head round it. (It took me an embarrassing amount of time to get my head round it!!!)

    In the meantime, think of your calorie goal as a basic budget. You've been given $1200 a day, if you work out you gain, say $400 more to spend - you can spend $1600 in that day. If you don't work (out), you don't get to spend it, or you'll bust your budget. You can also save those extra dollars/calories for the weekend/special occasion that week, if you want to. But you might want to check out that your budget is correct - too much of a deficit is counterproductive -the aim of the game is to find out how much you can eat, whilst still losing weight.

    And good luck!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    You don't have to "burn" off every single calorie you take in with exercise. To boot, your MFP calorie goal already includes your weight loss deficit without any exercise whatsoever...that 1200 calorie goal is NOT maintenance; that would be ridiculous.

    You "burn" calories 24/7...the vast majority of your calorie requirements come from you just being alive and doing absolutely nothing at all...for me, that's about 1800 calories...I burn about 1800 calories if I were to do nothing but sleep all day long. Then I have my day to day stuff like crawling out of bed, driving to work, cleaning, cooking, etc. This is how MFP arrives at your calorie goal...it determines as per your inputs and stats what your theoretical NON EXERCISE maintenance number would be as per statistical averages and then takes a cut from that number for you to lose weight. 1200 is the lowest and most aggressive approach. If you do exercise you're supposed to eat a portion of those calories back (adjusted for some estimation error) because you don't need to create a bigger deficit with exercise...it's all built in and larger and larger deficits can be counter productive to your fitness, nutrition, and health goals.

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