Calroies burned while excercising

Appleblossom26

Hi:

I usually eat most of my calories (with the exception of about 400 or so) before I go to they gym. On average I burn a little over 300 calories every day at the gym (I go 5 times a week). My question is: if you do the same, when you add your calories burned to the MFP app it adds the lost calories to your remining calorie count for the day, do you try and eat the new calorie count? I usaully just try to stay at 1200 no matter what, sometimes when I leave the gym its already 6PM and it says I still need to eat close to 1000 calories. Any comments?

alyssamiller77

This is covered a lot on this board, but yes you should eat your exercise calories. MFP (and other similar sites) calculate that 1200 calorie mark based on estimates of your daily metaboloic rate if you do no additional exercising (remember the part where it asked you about your lifestyle). So it calculates a calorie deficit based on your weight loss goals and the assumption of no additional exercise. So when you then do your workout and your body burns additional calories over and above what MFP caclulated it. So to achieve the same level "net" calories, you now need to consume those additional calories.

Not eating those additional calories means a larger caloric deficit. Remember that too large of a deficit can actually impede your weight loss progress and in some cases lead to actual health issues.

odd1_4ever

It's so hard to convince myself that its okay to eat those calories. It just seems like too much to be eating! Maybe one week ill force myself to try it and see if I still have weight loss .