Confused....

carynmiko

I do not understand the concept of eating the calories you burn off from exercise. Why would you want to eat back all the calories that you worked hard to burn off? Hence, the confusion LOL

ScarletFyre

I have always been torn about that - on the one hand it's nice to "have" those calories back, but on the other hand, i feel like i accomplish more when i DON'T count them...i realize that isn't much of an answer...LOL...:happy:

SaraEWrig

When you first sign up for myfitness pal, it asks you your weight loss goals. From there, it automatically gives you a deficit of calories so you are (hopefully) losing the weight that you want. For example, at my weight, age, sex myfitnesspal says I use 1700 calories a day just LIVING, eating, breathing, whatever. I want to lose a pound a week, so it suggests that my daily calorie goal is 1200 (500 calorie deficit = one pound per week weight loss). The additional exercising has nothing to do with your original goals.

cmriverside

Hi, please read these:


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1

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

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

AndreaWyland

check out this reference http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/championnfl/view/expert-in-his-field-hope-this-helps-members-54291

mandykasase

This is how i understand it.
Your body needs a certain amount of energy just to function, so when you registered , there was a question about what king of lifestyle you lead. This determines how much calories you have been calculated as the energy your body needs to function. so when you excercise on top of what you normaly do, you reduce those calories so yue need to eat them back to bring it back to the set level.Giving your body the calories it requires.
Now this sounds comfusing but if during your normal goings of your life you put on weight, then you ate more than your body needed, in my case junk food which did not fill me up, so on a normal day i would consume about 3000 calories. My set calories are now just over 1500 calories. and if i excecise i gain more, even with this i'm still consuming less calories but more food because it's healthier food and feels like i'm eating more.
i hope this helps.

carynmiko

thank you everyone for the replies! mandykasase - that did help me understand it a lil better! I appreciate the info!!