Eat more on workout days?

Jenni_MFP

Hello! Hope someone more knowledgeable than me can help me with this question

I'm a female, and I know that the bare minimum calorie requirement for women is 1200 calories per day. My daily calorie target is 1200 - 1400 calories per day. I usually try to keep it closer to 1200 but I give myself a range so that I don't go too crazy with the counting. When I log my exercise into MFP, it deducts this from the calories I have taken in... so that if I burned 300 calories, the tracker basically tells me I should eat 300 more calories to make up for it.

This doesn't seem right to me. I would hope that exercising would result in a little bit of a calorie deficit to help with weight loss, and that I shouldn't be trying to "make it up". If you look at my food diary for today (fell off the tracking wagon for a few weeks, so the last 3 - 4 weeks are not accurate), I am eating a LOT of food today. I can't possibly bring myself to eat more. I have a hard time getting that much food in!

So my question is... should I disregard what MFP tells me? If I burn 300 calories, and then my total calories taken in minus the calories burned now becomes less than 1200... do I still need to try and make up the difference?

Jenni_MFP

bump

SideSteel

Please see here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

jsalzat

I wouldn't consider myself more "knowledgeable" than anyone else on this site, but I have used the calorie tracking tools as a point of reference more than anything else. When I don't log my calories, I tend to eat more without regard to how many calories I'm consuming, which tends to be more than I would estimate in my mind. The exercise calories provide me a little extra margin for error, not an obligation to eat more. Weight loss comes from consuming less than what I'm burning, so accurate logging is a much higher priority than worrying about whether I'm eating enough.

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage

Read Side Steel's link he posted above. He's pretty much a god on these MFP forums. He explains a lot of things really well.

Jesssamesssa

Yes. I lift weights and I eat 1400-1600 cal a day depending on how hard I lifted that day.

lili61

You should probably be eating more anyway, regardless of exercise. 1200 is very low and combined with not eating your exercise calories back creates a really high deficit. This might speed up weight loss but is probably not sustainable.

Personally I eat back about half of my exercise calories most of the time, sometimes more if I feel hungrier.

Jenni_MFP

Didn't notice the responses until now, thanks! I agree 1200 is low, and I am trying to keep my intake closer to 1400... but factoring in exercise, I dont really know how to manage this unless I start smearing butter or ice cream all over my food. I eat a lot right now, it just happens to not add up to many calories.

Off to read the link from SideSteel

steff274

we eat more when we workout to sustain ourselves.. Bit different for me because I am actually maintaining and making sure I don't lose anymore weight!! If you are extra hungry on the days you have worked out then eat a few more calories If you don't feel like you need them then don't

Fujiberry

Yup. I eat more on workout days. If I'm going to work my butt off, I need the extra energy.

librarydebster

I am still in the losing phase, not maintenance yet. I know I will never be satisfied with 1200 calories and I'm no nutritionist but I doubt that you can get what a healthy active woman needs with so few calories. When I do hours of hiking at a time I never usually eat all those calories I'm allowed but I do eat when I'm hungry. I can burn 2000 calories from hiking on a particular day but my body doesn't seem to need to eat that much. So on the weeks that I hike a lot I usually lose more weight.