Food diary - calories earned question?

Marianna194

How come in your food diary it will tell you that you've earned a certain amount of calories from exercising- isn't that counterproductive for weightloss? If I ate those extra calories then technically I wouldn't have burned them off, as I've just replaced them with food..right?

Or maybe I'm understanding it wrong?

SeaChele77

You don't HAVE to eat them back, but you want to make sure you do not fall below 1200 calories or your body will begin to store food and water. Additionally you can look at it like a car - the more you drive it the more fuel you have to put in it. Same with our body. We exercise so we need to fuel it with healthy foods (protiens) to create muscle vs fat. The calories given to you by MFP are lower then your BMR to maintain....so you will loose even if you eat them back; but you will be more fit!

MissNombril

If you are normally at 1200kcal and burn 300kcal, your intakes fall to 900kcal.

If you eat 1500kcal, in fact you still have a 1200kcal intake.

chevy88grl

When you sign up for MFP and put in your information (goals, height, weight, etc) it figures in a deficit assuming you won't be exercising. So, the daily calories it gives you already has a deficit built in to accommodate those who aren't going to exercise. By not eating back the exercise calories you can have too big of a deficit. Too big of a deficit can and does result in lack of weight loss.

Let's say MFP tells you to eat 1200 calories a day - 400 you burn exercising = 800 NET calories (this is how many calories you are truly eating) + 400 calories eaten back AFTER exercise brings you back to the original 1200 calories the website set for you each day.

jonikeffer

The idea behind it is that MFP has already build the appropriate calorie deficit into the allowance it gives you before you workout. in other words, it's telling you how to lose weight based on diet alone, and not relying on you to also exercise. So if you exercise as well, that's more calories to your total deficit for the day. Sometimes you can not eat them to lose more faster, but like another poster said, you want to make sure you NET at least 1200 for the day. Since I'm already set to 1200 as my allowance, if I didn't eat my exercise cals, I'd only be netting like 800 for the day and that's just too little.

erickirb

How come in your food diary it will tell you that you've earned a certain amount of calories from exercising- isn't that counterproductive for weightloss? If I ate those extra calories then technically I wouldn't have burned them off, as I've just replaced them with food..right?

Or maybe I'm understanding it wrong?

It is the way MFP works. MFP gave you a caloric intake to lose your goal amount of weight without exercise. So if you exercise you increase the size of your caloric deficit so MFP adds the calories back to ensure your deficit is at your goal amount, and so your deficit is not too large. Look at it this way eating 1300 calories and burning 600 is the same as eating 700 and not exercising as they both net 700 1300-600 = 700- 0.

If you don't want to eat the extra calories you may want to change your goal to 0.5lbs/week or maintenance and use exercise to create your deficit instead of lowering your food intake as MFP does.

meggonkgonk

MFP is designed a little bit differently than most weight loss programs. On MFP, your deficit comes solely from your diet- meaning MFP calculates how much you burn per day and then subtracts the full amount of calories you need to burn to lose (so 500 calories per day/3500 calories per week) if you are at 1 lb per week).

Most other plans would have you subract about 200-300 per day from your food, and would require you exercise a base amount to make up the rest of the deficit- not eating any of those calories burned. (so as to get you to the same 500 calories a day or 3500 per week).

It's really like 6 of one, half dozen of the other. But on MFP - since you will still lose without the exercise, you should be eating to fuel your calorie burn. 1200+Exercise calories is as low as you should ever go, and your GOAL+Exercise calories is what you should be aiming for most days.

I know it seems counter productive, but trust me, it's not. It's part of learning to fuel your life properly for varying activity levels.

sent4rmabove23

How come in your food diary it will tell you that you've earned a certain amount of calories from exercising- isn't that counterproductive for weightloss? If I ate those extra calories then technically I wouldn't have burned them off, as I've just replaced them with food..right?

Or maybe I'm understanding it wrong?

The amount of calories you have to consume daily already includes a deficit for weight loss. From what Ive read and understand in regards to this subject matter is that if you excercise and earn those calories, you eat them to prevent going into starvation mode. For me it means, more calories burned = more calories I can eat. The deficit for weight loss is already included in whatever calorie goal MFP set up for you.

sent4rmabove23

MFP is designed a little bit differently than most weight loss programs. On MFP, your deficit comes solely from your diet- meaning MFP calculates how much you burn per day and then subtracts the full amount of calories you need to burn to lose (so 500 calories per day/3500 calories per week) if you are at 1 lb per week).

Most other plans would have you subract about 200-300 per day from your food, and would require you exercise a base amount to make up the rest of the deficit- not eating any of those calories burned. (so as to get you to the same 500 calories a day or 3500 per week).

It's really like 6 of one, half dozen of the other. But on MFP - since you will still lose without the exercise, you should be eating to fuel your calorie burn. 1200+Exercise calories is as low as you should ever go, and your GOAL+Exercise calories is what you should be aiming for most days.

I know it seems counter productive, but trust me, it's not. It's part of learning to fuel your life properly for varying activity levels.

What she said! lol (= Well put my friend...

Marianna194

Ohh, so you have to eat your "goal" calories and it's better to add on your exercise calories so you're not eating too little... Basically you just eat the value of calories written on your home page in green- where it says x calories remaining? :blushing: Sorry about the confusion! But thanks for all the answers