calories burned vs calorie intake

brynniebo

I've been an excersing fool and have been burning on average 200 - 400 calories per day and still eating my " normal" calorie intake (around 1200) which is leaving me at the end of a day under my suggested calorie intake for the day.... my question is, is this a bad thing? or a good way to drop the pounds I want to lose? :flowerforyou:

bargmannr

As far as I understand, as long as you are consuming 1200 calories a day (regardless of exercise) you are ok. If you go lower than that you can go into starvation mode and your body will rebel and hold on to the fat. I hope this is right!

amysj303

this might be helpful:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

CountryDevil

It's not recommended to go under 1200 calories a day. At the minimum you should net 1200 with our exercise. So if you are on 1200 calorie diet and then exercise and burn 300, you will need to eat those calories back to fuel your body.

If you are above 1200 calories, say 1400 and you burn 300 that puts you at 1200 calories net for the day. In this scenario it is recommended to eat at least half of those calories back. In this case you would net 1350 calories for the day. You are still under your goal at this point but also above the 1200 minimum.

rainbowbuggy

You just need to NET what MFP says you should.

Example...if you eat 1200 calories and you burn 400 of those that means you NETTED 800 calories. And per research you shouldn't go under 1200 so that means eat those back in some form of healthy options...fruit, nuts, this of this nature.

laurenpence

If you are burning more than 200-400 calories a day with workouts then I think you are ok. I burn between 800-1200 a day with exercise so I eat back half of those calories so my body has enough fuel for my extremely hard workouts. If you get hungry fuel your body with healthy food.

rgalisky

Keep your protein intake high to avoid muscle loss (35% of the normal calorie load)

brynniebo

Thanks everyone....I clearly need to eat more to take in my net 1200......the good news is the pounds are.coming off and I feel great!