Now I'm confused on the calorie intake...

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amy29fan
amy29fan Posts: 83 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so my calorie limit is 1200. If I exercise and burn 400 calories, which brings my net calories to 800. Am I eating to little? Because I try not eat back my exercise calories.

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  • Amber_2005
    Amber_2005 Posts: 28 Member
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    I would like to know the same thing!!!!
  • morganadk2_deleted
    morganadk2_deleted Posts: 1,696 Member
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    You need to eat your exersise calories!


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    Yes! There's a link on my signature that explains it all. You want to eat your exercise calories to get back up to 1200
  • hollyb9871
    hollyb9871 Posts: 401 Member
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    Yes you are eating too little. There are a lot of threads on this subject, some go into a lot of detail why it's important to eat back your exercise calories. Some people eat back half of what they burn off from exercise, others try to eat all of it back. If you go too low your body will start conserving fat thinking that it will starve. Remember that at 1200 calories a day that is already a built in deficit compared to what most people already consume. Some people find that 1200 is still too low for their body and need to eat more than that to lose weight. Personally I zig zag my calories. I'll have a couple of days right around 1200 then a day or two of going slightly over.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Ok, so my calorie limit is 1200. If I exercise and burn 400 calories, which brings my net calories to 800. Am I eating to little? Because I try not eat back my exercise calories.

    Yes, you should eat your exercise calories. If you are set up to lose a certain amount of weight MFP gives you a caloric deficit to meet this goal. So for you 1200 cals would give you your desired deficit, without working out. If you workout you must eat those calories back to keep your goal deficit which comes at 1200 Net cals. So if you burn 400 you must eat 1600 (1200-400) to achieve your goal caloric deficit to lose your goal amount of weight.
  • wiggleroom
    wiggleroom Posts: 322 Member
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    Yes, you should eat back your exercise calories -- but be really careful and make sure that the "calories burned" is as accurate as possible.

    I also set my activity level for sedentary and then log pretty much everything I do (like housework, grocery shopping as walking, etc.).
  • CARNAT22
    CARNAT22 Posts: 764 Member
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    As I understand it you should not be eating less than 1200 cals per day (this is the minimum calorie intake anyone should be on) so if you burn 400 of those calories you need to eat them back otherwise you are falling under 1200 and this can put your body into starvation mode.
  • AggieCass09
    AggieCass09 Posts: 1,867 Member
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    As you are exercising you are using up energy and you need to replenish that energy by eating. You NET calories need to be 1200. I know it seems counterintuitive that you exercise only to eat but it is reality. You will be strengthening your muscles and they must be replenished.
  • Leamac83
    Leamac83 Posts: 99 Member
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    Ok im even more confused!
    If i get 1200 calories a day and excercise away 500 calories that means i have to eat 1700 calories, but when i do this and click on the button at the bottom of my food tracker it says....if every day were like today yuod weigh so and so pounds in 5 weeks. The figure it gives me is my exact weight i am now? And i have set it to lose weight. The only way i get it to say lower is if i eat my 1200 but dont eat my excercise calories. WEIRD!
  • RMinVA
    RMinVA Posts: 1,085 Member
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    I have found MFP estimates of caloric burn to be much higher than the machines @ the gym. So I just started using the # from the machines in the past week or so and I still subtract about 35-30% from that...since those #'s are notoriously inaccurate as well. Seems to be working much better.

    You also have to make sure the calories you eat are spot on too. Nutrition labels by law can vary as much as 20%. Eat out a lot? Don't believe restaurant nutrition info...studies have shown that prepared meals are often 20-30% more than indicated. Do you weigh your food with a scale? That is one of the most important things you can do and this video is a great illustration why...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

    Don't exercise quite as much as you think, eat a little more than you think, even when you think you are doing everything right and you won't lose any weight, and might even gain.

    I usually stick to a caloric range instead....1400-1600 most days of the week. 1400 is my base MFP level and 1600 accounts for eating some, but not all of my exercise calories on most days. On days I engage in sustained cardio activity of an hour or more, I will eat about 1800-2000 calories, but I have just consistently started hitting that point with my long runs. Eating a "range" also gives me a bit of "wiggle room" if I have a day that I go over, don't burn as much as I think, eat a bit more than I think, etc.

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