New to myfitnesspal - Question !!

2TonBride2Be

I entered all my food for the day in addition to my workout - and I still have 600 calories remaining. Is it okay to have those calories in excess or do I need to break even? I entered that I would like to lose 2lbs/week, and with that, my daily calorie intake is 1,400. I would imagine I could leave the excess 600 calories but want to make sure I won't be putting my body in some kind of defecit from my workout.

sculley

I would say get as close to even as possible... Nuts are always a high cal healthy option

kansasgal19

A little excess is okay, but if you're exercising a lot and not replacing those calories, you won't lose weight, instead your body will store up fat rather than burning it. Sometimes I run anywhere up to 200 under, but I try to hit around the mark they give me. Try lean protein or something like nuts or berries to fill the gap.

Add me if you'd like!! :-)

Vkoons3

You need to make sure you are eating all of the calories that is suggested to you so that your body doesnt go into starvation mode.

flea2449

MFP says you should break even or come close to it. I'd say 200 to 300 calories left is ok. I could be wrong though.

live4turns

I entered all my food for the day in addition to my workout - and I still have 600 calories remaining. Is it okay to have those calories in excess or do I need to break even? I entered that I would like to lose 2lbs/week, and with that, my daily calorie intake is 1,400. I would imagine I could leave the excess 600 calories but want to make sure I won't be putting my body in some kind of defecit from my workout.

Just make sure your calorie counts are very accurate...are you using a food scale? measuring out servings correctly? A couple hundred calories off could be detrimental to your diet. For the first couple weeks I was measuring out in cups or counting out portions but I finally got a food scale and realized that i was probably undercounting my calories.

For example: The avocado listing I used measures a whole avocado at 200 g. So I would split the avocado and just do the math. When i got my food scale, I found that most of the avocados were about 220-250g. That makes a big difference in calories. So careful before you start eating back exercise calories. Good luck!