bit confused..

mum23

right, im set at 1200 cals intake per day.. and when i log my exercise it goes up. now, to be more ideal, should i eat the extra cals, or should i stick to 1200?

Ely82010

Eat them, or at least 1/2 of it!

FunkBunny

Yes, eat the extra calories. The 1200 calories you are originally given is already at a deficit so if you did no exercise, you would still lose. Once you start burning calories through exercise, you need to fuel the work you've done and are supposed to eat your those earned calories. you will still be at a deficit and will still lose. If you don't eat them, you may lose slower by starving your body the fuel it needs.

mum23

ok, so now i dont have to feel so bad about the piece of cake i just had!

jimmydeanbakker

Eating those extra calories are important to your overall health. You don't want to shock your body. I'm not sure how much you weigh, but you probably burn 1800 calories a day before you even think about working out. The program gives you 1200 calories a day, and then tells you that you will lose so many pounds over a 5 week period. You have a deficit of 600 calories. If you exercise and continue to only eat 1200 calories, your deficit increases. If you burn off 400 calories and eat only 1200 calories you deficit becomes 1000. After doing this for too long, it can cause your body to go into starvation mode, and then you may start to gain weight. This is the reason you want to eat those calories you earned because you need to have a reasonable deficit. My deficit is about 800.

bsexton3

No, don't feel bad about the cake. Think about what you want out of your exercise and calories. Once a week, I exercise for the cake. It is the treat after a really long workout. I just don't make it a habit. When I do, I don't lose weight. The idea is not to feel bad about what you eat, it is to change your eating to eat as you wan to live. I want to live with a dessert each week, so while on a losing weight plan, I exercise to eat that way.

About eating calories. A couple numbers to figure out is what is the calorie intake to maintain your weight? To check that, look under goals on the home page. Mine is 2,570. So, if I eat that in a day, I will not lose weight, and I will not gain weight. 1,200 is the lowest this page will go, so you don't enter starvation mode. I don't like eating more than this number even when exercising.

But the real number to check is your BMR, under tools. This is the calories you live on in a day, simply breathing. Take this number and divide by 24. This gives you the calories you are burning in an hour. I always subtract this hourly number for each hour of exercise. Simply put, I am burning 80 calories every hour just living. If I burn 700 calories in an hour of exercise, I only get 630 more calories. So, I never eat all my calories. The easiest that most people do is just eat half.

Good luck.

4lafz

As you can see - there are lots of opinions on this subject. Your goal seems to be 1200 calories a day. Mine is too. I am doing this as a lifestyle change - will eat like this - and exercise forever. Therefore, depending on how hungry I am - I exercise in order to eat. Generally I eat some of them - my total rallies between 1200-1450 most days. I alwasy have several hundred left - I call that for "error rate". You have to do what feels right to you and as you move along this journey you will learn how to judge better for weight loss. Good luck

Suzy12

I don't even enter my exercise cals because it adds them to the daily total allotment. I figure it this way: You need to burn 3500 cals to lose a pound. If you "earn" 3500 cals in a week AND eat them - you've either stayed at the weight you are, or only lost what you'd lose by eating only the 1200. If you eat none of them, you lose an extra pound. Eat 1/2 of them and you're still a half-pound ahead of the game. Unless you are at a maintenance stage. Then yes, eat the cals you burn and you'll stay at the weight you're at. Just my two-cents, and I see most people go the other way. That has always seemed odd to me. As long as you are not starving yourself - we're here to lose weight, right? So burn the cals and lose the weight.

gingajoy

My experience is you can eat the calories *and* lose the weight. MFP already factors in a deficit before you've even exercised. I eat the exercise calories, but often save them for a day or two later. Uhm. Today I going to be making up for yesterday tho! I dint always eat them all, but I overall I think it evens out. Do what feels right, but 1200 per day plus exercise -- you're going to get hungry! ( I find I'm less hungry on exercise days than others. Apparently this is normal. I've seen people recommend eating up exercise calories on non exercise days to exploit this. It works for me. Not all tho)

dgroulx

Also remember when you calculate your resting basal metabolic weight, that is based on lean body weight (ie NO FAT). Just think about it. At sleep your body makes hormones, cholesterol, proteins, repairs muscle etc. This rate will be the same for you thin as it is for you fat. This number is for your body while it is sleeping, not for 24 hours.

While you are awake, you will burn more than your basal rate. Your weight comes into play for aerobic exercise. You are working harder while pushing around that weight than you would be thin.

So, you kind of have to figure out your own bottom line. I try to eat about the same amount everyday whether I exercise that day or not. I really don't burn that many calories on a 10 mile bike ride. When I am thin, I won't be able to "add back in" calories. Why do it now?

I think the attitude of "I exercise so I get to eat more" is counterproductive. You should just always eat the same. This is the way you will have to eat the rest of your life.

bsexton3

Also remember when you calculate your resting basal metabolic weight, that is based on lean body weight (ie NO FAT). Just think about it. At sleep your body makes hormones, cholesterol, proteins, repairs muscle etc. This rate will be the same for you thin as it is for you fat. This number is for your body while it is sleeping, not for 24 hours.

Technically, we are both wrong. It is calories burned if you were in bed all day. And, it does change when you lose weight. Mine was 1950 when I started here. It is now 1884 and will end at about 1775.

And, I do not think it is counterproductive to treat yourself when you exercise. Yesterday, I spent 90 minutes on my trainer. Supposedly, I earned 1385 calories. So, when I was making gingersnaps for church today, I had a couple as a treat. What, maybe 200 calories. If I had not exercised, I would not have had them even if I had spare calories. And, I am losing 2 pounds a week and have since joining 8 weeks ago.

I am not going to cut sweets out for the rest of my life. I am going to be responsible to my body. So, I limited myself to 2 cookies. Before I would have had 6 to 10. Also, by allowing sweets to be a treat when I sweat, I only get sweets three times a week at most. And, many days, I don't want something. So, once or twice a week, I get a treat in limited amounts.