New to calorie counting ??

areittinger

So MFP gives you a calorie goal, and if you exercise it says you gained (x) amount of calories from exercising, is it important to eat all of you calories? Ive been tracking for 5 days and I seem to be under by 500+ all the time.

sunshine__angel

Generally you need a NET calorie intake of at least 1200 calories. So if you eat 1500 and exercise to burn off 300, you don't have to eat those back. However, if you eat 1500 and burn off 500, you will need to make up 200 more calories in meals to bring up your NET to 1200. Hopefully that makes sense!

sweebum

I eat half my exercise calories for the most part. The first 40 lbs I lost, I lost eating 1200-1300 a day and most of the time under. I didn't eat my exercise calories because I wanted to lose more. Well, I stalled. Like January until June (now!) stalled. I had a 2.6lb loss in those 6 months, but because I started exercising more, the deficit increased- and I stalled again.

Now I am losing again at 1.6 lbs a week, eating all my allotment and half my exercise calories. You can't starve your car of fuel and still go faster When I worked it out on paper, my ideal losing range is 1550-1650 calories NET per day. Coincidentally, my BMR is 1604, so it seems pretty accurate to eat my BMR. Remember, MFP has you set up to lose without exercise. Exercise is a bonus

Edited to add: With a larger number of pounds to lose, you should be eating over 1200 calories per day.

areittinger

Thanks!

sweebum

This is a good tool as well to calculate different scenarios and your BMR to compare with MFP's

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm