CONFUSED! HELP!

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loeyb24
loeyb24 Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
So I am a new user on MFP and here is my question. I am on a 1200 calorie Jenny Craig diet but i've really hit a plateau. I started using this website and it tells me whenever I excercise that I earned calories back to eat. I feel like if I eat those calories though, I'll gain weight right? I burn a lot of calories because I excercise a lot but I don't want to ruin it by eating them all back. what am i supposed to do?

Replies

  • rileymama
    rileymama Posts: 196 Member
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    This is a controversial question..lol....MFP has you on 1200 calories, which is already a deficit. If you exercise and burn alot of calories, you should eat back at least some of them...as wierd as it sounds. Your body needs the fuel. Do you have to eat back all of them? Your choice..I don't believe in eating just to eat..but you can and should try to eat back some of them...otherwise you may burn out really quickly....
  • mangirl
    mangirl Posts: 93
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    YOU ARE ALREADY EATING A DEFICIT.Meaning you are will lose weight without exercise. So when you exercise you are burning more calories and your body will go into starvation mode.

    Sorry but LURK MOAR.

    tl;dr EAT MORE
  • CraftyGirl4
    CraftyGirl4 Posts: 571 Member
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    I agree to eating at least some of those calories back. 1200 calories is the lowest you every want to go with your calorie intake to still be able to get all of the nutrients you need.
  • luvgreen25
    luvgreen25 Posts: 202
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    Yes - eat back at least SOME of your exercise calories. Your body goes into starvation mode otherwise. Good luck!
  • crysofmyk
    crysofmyk Posts: 52 Member
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    No where near an expert here or anything, but I've been on MFP for a few weeks and have read a lot of these message boards. Here's what I take away from it. 1200 calorie diet is to reach your weight loss goal using diet alone. So if you put a low daily activity level in your profile and said you wanted to lose 1.5 lbs a week it might give you this amount of calories. That's what I put in and I'm on a 1200 too. When you burn more calories by exercising you need to eat more to fuel that activity. What I've read is that you want to meet your 1200, and then eat about 90% of your workout calories. If you are only eating 1200 calories a day and then burning an addition, say 600, with intense workouts that means your body is trying to function the rest of the time on just the 600 remaining calories. Given a long enough time you will probably lose weight this way but it's not a healthy way to go...in fact it would seem to me that it would boarder on anorexia, and at first your body might protest by storing as much as possible and not losing anything.
  • pa_jorg
    pa_jorg Posts: 4,404 Member
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    Your calories are very low.
    You should check out this recent post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/301205-who-would-have-thought-it-would-work
  • TipMcE
    TipMcE Posts: 158
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    Hi! From what I've read, 1200 calories is the absolute minimum you should consume if you are not active and want to lose weight. If you add exercise to the mix and do not eat any more then your body will go into starvation mode ( MFP will tell you when you complete your food diary if this is the case) and will actually hoard the calories you eat, causing you to gain weight. Not to mention being very unhealthy. Your body burns calories even while resting, if you burn 400-500 calories per workout from the 1200 you eat, that alone puts you at 700-800 calories net for the day. if you deduct from that what your body burns during the rest of your day, you're not getting enough energy to survive. A lot of people on the boards talk about eating some of the calories back but not all. If you start eating your exercise calories, you may notice that you will start to lose again. Good luck!

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