my calorie requirement changes daily

winstonh

Hey folks,

Sorry if this a naive question but my recommended daily calorie intake has changed every day since I started 4 days ago. Is that normal or is that some glitch? It hasn't changed by much, it just seems weird.

sarah44254

It varies with your workouts.

If you have a goal of 1200 and do not work out that day, you will stay at 1200 for goal.

If you work out the next day, and burn 400 calories, your goal becomes 1600. It is the workouts that change the calorie goal

winstonh

Ohhh, okay. So I probably should be taking in more cals than I thought. I'm still getting fairly close to the 2000/day but I had a big workout on Sunday and didn't eat enough (I guess). That's why it was so high.

Okay, thanks a ton, Sarah!

sarah44254

You're welcome This site is set up with a deficit built in, so don't fear eating all of the calories that are planned out for you.

mark03264

If you set up MFP right to start with then the daily calorie goal that MFP gives you already has a calorie deficit built in to lose weight. That said, you should eat close to the calorie goal MFP gives you each day including eating back most of your exercise calories. Depending on how far under the daily calorie goal you are, you are very likely to cause your body to hang onto the fat it has either slowing down or even stopping fat loss. It may not happen right away but eventually you will most likely plateau. If you have a lot of weight to lose you can probably get away with it longer but as you have less to lose your body will plateau easier.

winstonh

Thanks guys, I understand the deficit built in thing but I forgot to account for my excersize. I thought it would keep it seperate somehow from the inherent calorie deficit but I suppose if I had thought about it, I would've realized it added it in. Anyway, it was just the one day I was 800 some calories short with the excesize - I'm all good to go now!