What I don't understand about calorie intake and exercise...

remaho80

I know that we're supposed to consume the calories that we've burned during physical activity, but why do we have to eat extra calories? How come we can't plan our meals according to when we workout and not need to eat extra? For example, I do my normal workout, then eat my normal dinner right after that?

GinjaNinja1

The way MFP sets up your weight loss is to already make you loose up to 2 lbs a week by cutting a large portion of calories out of your daily intake.

If you excercise and not eat back those calories, then your body goes into starvation mode. In starvation mode your body tends to store more calories in the form of fat for later. Therefore, you won't loose any weight.
It is also not healthy to loose more than 2 lbs average a week as your body needs to comfortably adjust to it's new weight. If you are loosing to quickly, you will gain it all back very fast!

Good luck and eat back those calories.

ladyhawk00

This thread might help:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

McKayMachina

It's not a matter of "first I burned calories off, then I consumed that amount". The time doesn't matter.

Allison128

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


this is helpful too. Depending on how much you weigh now and how much you are trying to lose... you may not have to eat ALL of your exercise calories right away. I don't eat %100 of my calories but I try to eat most of them. It does help... keeps you from having hunger pains too. Its not recommended to eat less than 1200cals/day or lose more than 2lbs per week. keep that in mind!

Good luck and Welcome! Its great here!