New and confused

littleEj

Ok maybe I'm just confused because I am the sleep-deprived mom of a 9-month old... but could someone explain to me why when I added exercise it upped my calories goal for the day? Isn't the point to have a deficit of calories and exercise (meaning you burn more than you eat)?
could someone give me a brief run-down of what the goals mean? I'm set at 1200 a day.... HELP! thanks!

scudster

By adding exercise to your daily report, you have actually burned those and now they dont count toward your food intake.

Jesusfollower

Your goal is set with a specific defect, say 500 calories. So if you normally burn 1800 calories without exercising then your goal would be 1300 calories for the day. If you workout it assumes that you don't want to have a higher deficit. Nothing says you have to eat those calories though.

care28

As I understand it, the 1200 calorie goal is the number of calories your body needs in order to lose the weight healthily. If you were sleeping and you ate this many calories you could still lose your 2 lbs a week.
But, if you exercise, you'r body needs more fuel, so you eat a little more than 1200 that day.

There's a huge debate here on MFP as to whether or not you should eat your exercise calories back. I usually eat some of them back, but not all. Or one day I'll eat them all back, but the next I'll only eat 100 of them back. It's good to keep your body guessing what's going to happen next- guards against plateaus, at least for me. (granted I am still new to MFP)

Basically, you know your body best. Listen to it. If you're hungry and you still have your exercise calories for the day, go ahead and use them (healthily - good choices here) Your body is probably telling you it needs more of something. Starving leads to binging, this we know.

radicalreader

Go to the tab "MY HOME"
Click on the sub-tab "Goals"


That will show you how many calories you burn just by being you. It will also say what your deficit is and your estimated weight loss based on that deficit.

Your 1200 calories is already at a deficit so when you exercise, you increase that deficit and have to eat the burned calories to bring you back up to a NET of 1200. If you don't eat the calories, your net falls too low.

Johnnyswife

If you eat 1200 calories for a day and burn off 300, than you've only eaten 900, which means you need to eat 300 more to equal 1200.:bigsmile:

littleEj

Thank you! Got it now. Hoping by my son's first birthday I'll be lighter than I am now!

olson0827

I just asked this same question on my wall. I asked my old trainer and she said if my goal is 1600 calories to stick to that, don't add back in the exercise calories or else that will defeat the weight loss part. But who knows...it could be that I'm just as confused as a mother of a 4 month old! LOL! Good luck to you!

Bretto

I try to just eat about half of my exercise calories. This way I get an added benefit if I do exercise.

bethvandenberg

It has already put you at a deficit to start so then it gives you back your cals you burned so that you stay at a solid deficit. Get it?

so let's say for sake of example that you have a BMR of 1800. MFP then subtracts 500 cals to put you at a deficit for the day to equal a weight loss at the end of the week. So then you're supposed to be eating 1300 cals a day. You exercised and burned 400 cals it gives you those back b/c it already took off the 500. You need to refuel your body to keep it from eating away at your muscles. Hope that makes sense. There are lots of people who do believe that you shouldn't eat them back and lots that think you should (I'm the later).

Do what works best for you and your situation. Do some homework too and figure it out. There are some interesting articles out there.

skinnyme125

you can look through old posts and there are some good articles that will explain it to you. That is the best way for me to understand it.