Calorie counter and exercise allowance

momsfavoritechild

When I did my original profile I wrote my typicla fitness level. My workday is sitting at my desk doing computer work most of the day, or I'm in my car driving long distances to vairous office sites. This gave me a pretty low calorie count for just over 1200 calories. I noticed on the days I worked out, it added calories to the count. If I plan to exercise on a routine basis should I update my profile to reflect more movement? OR just stick to the plan and allow more calories on workout days?

kgeyser

The way MFP is designed, your calorie goal has the deficit already built in to lose a certain amount each week without exercise. If you exercise, those calories are added to your calorie goal. Most people eat 50-75% of those calories back because MFP tends to overestimate exercise calories (using entries in the database, obviously this will be different if you are calculating your burns with a HRM). Since MFP uses this method, your calorie intake varies day to day.

If you are planning on exercising on a regular basis, you can always switch to the TDEE method. You would calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), which is all the physical activity you do, including exercise. You would then subtract a percentage from your TDEE to figure out how many calories to eat per day to lose weight. This means you would no longer be tracking your exercise calories and would have the same calorie goal everyday, even on days you do not exercise. When you calculate your TDEE, it looks at how much you exercise over the course of the week and averages your calorie intake over 7 days.

Both methods are effective, it's just a matter of which will work better for you and help you stick to your plan. This link goes into more detail and includes links for calculating your TDEE:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

momsfavoritechild

Thanks for your input! I will definately check this out. I think it might be easier for me to have the same amount each day. I'ts hard enough to track them and easier getting into a routine, and not having them change.