Question about Calorie Goals

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prencesskl
prencesskl Posts: 123
in Food and Nutrition
I am a little confused. I was under the impression that you were supposed to try to stay under your calorie goals for the day. Then I realized with exercise, my net calories are usually like 300-400 under. Is that bad? Am I supposed to aim to hit my calorie goal even if I pass it a little, or am I supposed to aim to still be under it, but close to it?

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  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Yes you should not go under your goal you should be within 50 over or under. MFP already gives you a daily caloric deficit to meet you goal, so you should eat as close as possible to what is suggested in order to hit your goal.
  • urnewbuddee
    urnewbuddee Posts: 53 Member
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    Yes you should not go under your goal you should be within 50 over or under. MFP already gives you a daily caloric deficit to meet you goal, so you should eat as close as possible to what is suggested in order to hit your goal.

    I'm also wondering the same thing. does this include after you exercise and your calorie goal goes up? should you eat the extra however many calories you just burned off after exercising, or just stay around the original calorie goal?
  • kelligonzales
    kelligonzales Posts: 391
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    If you notice your calories goes up when you exercise. But in the breakdown they are taken off. You need to hit your calories goal so your body doesn't go into starve mode and start storing everything... That is my understanding at any rate
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Yes you should not go under your goal you should be within 50 over or under. MFP already gives you a daily caloric deficit to meet you goal, so you should eat as close as possible to what is suggested in order to hit your goal.

    I'm also wondering the same thing. does this include after you exercise and your calorie goal goes up? should you eat the extra however many calories you just burned off after exercising, or just stay around the original calorie goal?

    Eat them. If your goal was 1200 and you burn 300 from exercise it is as if you are only 900 (1200-300) not enough fuel.
    Looking at it another way. To lose 2 lbs per week (which is aggressive) MFP gives you a calorie deficit of 1000/day. If you exercise for 300 calories your deficit now grows to 1300 which is more than the maximum 1000 that MFP recommends to get it back to 1000 you must eat the 300 you burned. failing to eat them back can lead to a few outcomes the follwing is not an exhaustive list
    -Lose weight more quickly (not necessary good, as any extra will most likely come from muscle stores)
    -Weight loss stops (your metabolism slows down as it thinks it is starving and if you go back to regular cals you will put wieght on instead of maintain due to a slower metabolism)
    -Lose muscle mass (not good at ll)
    -etc.
  • misrockie
    misrockie Posts: 3
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    Thanks for this topic because I was wondering the same thing. This helps so much. Since I just started calorie watching and having a set goal it will take a week or so to get a good routine going. I love the bar code feature you can use on your phone! :-)

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