Working Out = Extra Calories?

itisjessdarling

My calorie goal is 1200 a day, but when I work out and add it to mfp it adds extra calories to my daily total. So should I only be eating the 1200 calories and stop logging my workouts or do I really need to eat the extra calories that it adds to my daily total?

kerenjackson06

I just read a feed about this today! You are supposed to make up at least some of those calories; otherwise, your body could go into starvation mode. You should focus more on your net calories at the end of the day.

melizerd

Yes you need to eat them, you should be shooting to NET 1200 calories a day. I'm sure someone will post the link to the MANY threads about why it's important to eat back some or all of your exercise calories.

BabyDuchess

I eat 1/2 to 3/4 of mine to make sure I keep my body fueled and not plateau, which I haven't done yet.... :flowerforyou:

anubis609

To answer your title: Yes. You get to eat moar phood.

melibea

You really need to eat them back. I only eat back from 1/3 to 1/2 of the calories MFP says I burned because it overestimates how many calories I burn and I don't have a heart rate monitor to know exactly how many calories I really burned. So if you have a HRM and you know how much you burned, then go ahead and eat that back.

fehz

Eat! Exercising requires your body to burn more calories - you want to NET 1200 calories (So 1200 calories without exercise, but say 1400 calories if you burned 200 calories during exercise still evens you out to 1200). I honestly don't think their measure of calories burned is accurate though so I usually change the calories part to about 75% of what they list just to play it safe.

AnnaValek

More exercise means that you need a higher calorie intake because of the demand of the physical activity. The base line of calories is more or less for someone who leads a fairly sedentary lifestyle. If you work out a lot, but eat too little, then your body will freak and you might cease to lose weight. You'll begin to feel tired and sore. So, match all exercise routines with a small following snack to gain back some of the good nutrients you may have burned during a rigorous workout.

itisjessdarling

Thanks everyone! Your responses really help me out.

SwippleCita

I'm very new to dieting and exercising. I see everyone writing to eat the workout calories, I work long hours on 4 days of the week. I leave at 6am and return home at 9ish, so I do the 30 day shred for 20 min, is it bad for me to do that since I will go to bed with extra calories.

Chiqui74

You don't HAVE to eat them but eating them won't stop you from losing weight. You should not force-feed yourself just to reach a calorie number. Eat if you are hungry, don't eat if you are not. I'm referring to the calorie surplus that comes from exercise. Unless you are exercise a great deal, you don't need to eat all the calories you burn.