burned more than I ate

Dom80

If I burned more than I ate should I eat so there is not a deficit?

my calorie goal is 1200
I ate 1443
I burned 1699
I have a deficit of 256

thanks for any input

katrina1025

If you are looking to lose you should always have a deficit.

Mindful_Trent

If you really burned that many calories then you do need to eat more! You don't need to eat ALL of your exercise calories (since you may have overestimated your burn) but the deficit you need to lose weight is already built into the 1200 goal - so any calories from exercise are extra. If you have too high of a deficit (which you definitely do right now) then that will slow your metabolism and make weight loss more difficult if you do it regularly. It can also leave you without enough energy, headaches, bad feeling in general, etc.

Remember - when you burn more calories, your body needs more fuel to keep it running effectively/efficiently.

frenchfri87

wow how did you burn so many calories? must have been a crazy workout!

oh and yea you need to eat more!:flowerforyou:

Dom80

thanks

I did it all with the ea active and ea active 2....

Not all at once of course or I would have died.


I burned 1699 total.

Mindful_Trent

thanks

I did it all with the ea active and ea active 2....

Not all at once of course or I would have died.


I burned 1699 total.

I edited my post above - I realized that your 1699 was exercise burn before you posted this. Sorry!

rhodes2b

That is why I don't track my exercise through MFP. I believe exercise should be bonus and not a reduction of my calories.

sdtul

That is why I don't track my exercise through MFP. I believe exercise should be bonus and not a reduction of my calories.

Ditto. My exersice is a bonus on top of eating well (or at a defecit) for the day.

Mindful_Trent

That is why I don't track my exercise through MFP. I believe exercise should be bonus and not a reduction of my calories.

Ditto. My exersice is a bonus on top of eating well (or at a defecit) for the day.

The was MFP works is based on the idea of a set deficit. You need a deficit to lose weight, but higher doesn't always equal better. It's generally not considered safe to lose too quickly - it can lead to long-term health problems like gallstones, etc. MFP adds back exercise calories because your deficit to lose weight is built into your food goal already - to maintain that deficit, you need to eat back those exercise calories. I don't eat them all back because it's very easy to overestimate calorie burn, but I generally aim for 50% or so (sometimes more). The fact is, when you work your body hard, it NEEDS more fuel. If you only eat 1200 and burn 500, then that means you're only leaving 700 calories for your body's functioning that day - that's not enough! Some people are actually ending up with negative net calories (like the OP in this thread - burning more than they've eating) - this is leaving NO calories for their body to function on! Regularly having net calories that are too low will cause your metabolism to slow and will hinder weight loss.

katrina1025

Sorry, my bad! I thought that was your total burn for the day! Not your exercise burn.

NoAdditives

You need to eat so that your net calories are at least 1200. You already have the calorie deficit you need calculated into MFP, so when you exercise you need to eat those calories. If you are at -256 you need to eat 1456 to get your net calories up to 1200.

NoAdditives

That is why I don't track my exercise through MFP. I believe exercise should be bonus and not a reduction of my calories.

Ditto. My exersice is a bonus on top of eating well (or at a defecit) for the day.

The was MFP works is based on the idea of a set deficit. You need a deficit to lose weight, but higher doesn't always equal better. It's generally not considered safe to lose too quickly - it can lead to long-term health problems like gallstones, etc. MFP adds back exercise calories because your deficit to lose weight is built into your food goal already - to maintain that deficit, you need to eat back those exercise calories. I don't eat them all back because it's very easy to overestimate calorie burn, but I generally aim for 50% or so (sometimes more). The fact is, when you work your body hard, it NEEDS more fuel. If you only eat 1200 and burn 500, then that means you're only leaving 700 calories for your body's functioning that day - that's not enough! Some people are actually ending up with negative net calories (like the OP in this thread - burning more than they've eating) - this is leaving NO calories for their body to function on! Regularly having net calories that are too low will cause your metabolism to slow and will hinder weight loss.

And if done over a long period of time it can cause irreversible damage to organs, like the kidneys and heart.

Our bodies NEED fuel to function properly and we need it to lose weight as well.

SophieJade

I don't really know the inns and outs of how your body uses calories and such... but I would say if your hungry.... EAT!

I would think that if you were eating well through out the day, in between your work outs and are not starving yourself, then you should be ok... but if your truely hungry, you definately should eat.

The more calories you use, the more you need to eat. If you redid your calories and told them you were this active, they would give you more calories per day to eat. Maybe you should recalculate if you plan on being this active most of the time.

Dom80

ok thanks everyone that all makes perfect sense.