new and confused

jrevling

So I am totally into following what I am eating finding it way easier to exercise when I am keeping track. My question is I am on the 1200 calorie diet, now when I exercise off 400 does that mean that I need to eat that back? I know you have to stay above 1200 or your not going to get anywhere with the chance of gaining. so do I eat back or not??

kacarter1017

The general consensus is that at the end of every day, you should have eaten a NET 1200 calories. So, eat back your exercise calories to the point that you have taken in 1200 calories total for the day. If you're still hungry and have additional net calories left, then eat those as well. If you eat less than 1200 calories, you tend to go into starvation mode.

swseibert

definitely eat that back. If you consume less than 1200 calories per day your body will start to lose muscle mass. This causes two problems: slows your metabolism down and your muscle is what burns your fat - if you lose muscle your body is burning less fat. I hope this helps!

jrevling

thanks a million