Are we only supposed to eat 1200 calories even if we workout

5248

I am supposed to only eat 1200 calories a day even if I work out. Can I or should I eat more if I work out? Cause it does add calories to my food intake per day. Just not sure.

mkennedym

1200 net calories. so if you exercise and burn 700 calories, you should eat 1900 calories.

SaraTonin

Yep! That's the system MFP has in place. If you only ate 1200 and burned 700, then you are only eating net 500 for the day, which isn't enough for your body.

AdamATGATT

www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

HeatherShrinking

Someone here made a funny website with some good thread links about eating exercise calories. It is http://www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/. (Click though the first page to get to the links)

Basically, no if you exercise your body needs more calories. Make sure your net calories are at least 1200.

mikeyrp

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/216118-exercise-calories-and-not-loosing-weight-my-2-cents-on-the

or I can just copy and paste here...

annacataldo

On ur main screen, it says calorie goal , food intake minus excercise, = net calories. U want net cal to match cal goal number. The big green number is the number of cals u have left to eat

MrBuckeye

Now I am confused. My goal is 1380. I am usually right around that. I rarely eat the excersise calories. That's wrong?????

chach918

I know what mfp says, but when i chose not to eat my calories burned by exercise I started losing the last few pounds I wanted to.

abrown4348

LOL. That's pretty funny. :laugh:

lemonychick

On ur main screen, it says calorie goal , food intake minus excercise, = net calories. U want net cal to match cal goal number. The big green number is the number of cals u have left to eat

Wow, this is the shortest (and dare I say best) explanation I've read yet! It totally makes sense when put like that. Thank you.

Spayrroe

I think it kind of depends how overweight you are on whether it's better to eat the exercise calories or not. I'm in the 'obese' BMI category (/cringe/ not something I like admitting). Since the highest you can set MFP goal wise is to lose 2lbs per week, and I'm aiming for 3-4, I usually don't eat my exercise cals back. Now, because I am more overweight, my body can take living on the lower cal diet because it's not going to freak out over starvation mode and all that if I cut it a bit shorter since the necessary resources to run the core system requirements are present. In someone that's closer to a healthy weight and just needs to lose a few pounds to be in the 'healthy' bmi range, it's more important to keep in line with your cal goal. The human body needs a certain amount of resources just to function (it's about 1200 cals, though that number is not exact for everyone), so if your limit is 1200 to begin with, and you're burning more cals through exercise, you need your net to stay closer to that 1200 mark. I'm not saying if you net only 800 cals here or there, it's going to kill you. If oncer or maybe twice a week you net way under, you should be okay, but if you're consistently netting way below 1200, you're going to cause yourself health problems.

annacataldo

Now I am confused. My goal is 1380. I am usually right around that. I rarely eat the excersise calories. That's wrong?????

If ur goal is 1380 and u eat that many and then burn off, let's say, 500 calories, it would be like you've only eaten 900 calories for that day, and anything less than 1200 is considered starvation mode territory

ChrisWag

Now I am confused. My goal is 1380. I am usually right around that. I rarely eat the excersise calories. That's wrong?????

No, that is not wrong, as long as you are eating 1200 or more. The only time you need to compensate for work out calories is if the NET is below 1200 or if you start to feel weak and/or woozie. However, just make sure you are healthy!!!

5248

Thanks Guys!