confused on calorie consumption

jayce28

Hi Janie Here...

I just this week started weight trainning and cardio exercising. im working with a personal trainer once a week but the plan for intake consumtion is a bit confusing. He told me for the weight i am and goal I want to accive i need to consume 1600 calories a day. Hi protien and fiber less fat. thats ok cause i can consume that but where i get confused is on MFP when i enter in my work outs it say i need to then cosume more then what he recomended me to consume.....so question is if anyone can answer is do i only eat what my trainer suggested or do i consume the added after i do my workout here on MFP......any help well appreciated

Thanks
Janie

ajbeans

Go with what your trainer recommends. MFP goes by general guidelines, where your trainer came up with that number specifically for you. Input your goals manually according to his recommendation.

ladyhawk00

You need to explain to your trainer that you're using MFP, and how MFP calculates calorie deficits. If you explain it properly, he will likely recommend you go with MFP's numbers, with perhaps a bit of tweaking.

Here is a thread that explains it - and pay special attention to the last part about explaining it to trainers! lol

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

Good luck to you!

xonophone

Personally, I followed what MFP told me and it worked. Also, quality of calories is just as, if not more important than quantity of calories.

NoAdditives

My trainer told me to go with what MFP says and to eat at least 300 extra calories when I exercise. I just eat all my exercise cals and have been seeing good results. I've lost 12 pounds and 12 inches in 3 months!

rileysowner

I second going with your trainer. I personally don't like how MFP calculates things as all the studies I have heard about say people over estimate how many calories they burn and under estimate how many calories they eat. Adding things up from nutrition labels helps with the calories, but those numbers can be misleading as well. Try this experiment if you have a good kitchen scale look at the label on your bag of bread (other things will work as well) and see what the weight of a serving is. Then take that and weigh it. With bread it is usually by either the slice or two slices. More often than not you will find the serving (say two slices) weighs more than the weight marked on the nutrition label. It will be close, but not exact. The error will almost always be to being slightly larger. The person who pointed this out to me suggested assuming that you are eating 10-15% more calories than you expect based on the labels (unless you are weighing everything I guess) and burning less calories by about the same amount. A heart rate monitor will be more accurate than the estimates here on MFP or on the exercise machines so that can help. Again I say trust your personal trainer, you did hire him or her for a reason.

jayce28

thanks for the advise everyone!!! i will ask him when i see him next week but will follow hi instuctions!!! thanks lady hawk for the web site link!