How does this work exactly?

LeihaS

I guess I'm not 100% understanding how the calories in calories out works.

Am I striving to get my net calories to my goal calories?

For example:
I'm trying to eat 1200 cals a day.
if I burn off 600 do i eat 600 more??

hottottie11

Yes strive for NET...

Read my explanation from another post:

I eat my exercise calories and I still lose. I eat anywhere between 1800 to 2000 cal total and I net an average of 1490 calories a week. Here is what helped me understand "eating my exercise cals":

My activity level (excluding exercise; this is important) is sedentary because I work a desk job. MFP calculated my Total Daily Energy Expenditure to be 1760 calories. This means to maintain my current weight I must stay at 1760 calories.

Now I have set myself to lose 0.5lb per week because I'm getting pretty lean and I want to focus on reduce body fat while maintaining muscle. MFP assigned me 1490 calories per day. A deficit of 250 calories per day. Now I work out ALOT. 6 days a week for 1 to 2 hours. I can burn an additional 500 to 1000 calories on those days.

I use a Polar FT4 HRM and it has been a godsend because I can know for sure what I burn.

For example, I went to zumba today and burned 554 calories. My total calorie burn is no longer 1760...it is now 2311 (1760+551). It is very important to me to maintain my deficit. I don't want to lose more than 0.5 lb per week. So my calorie goal for a 0.5 lb loss per week is now 2061 (2311-250). So in essence, I must eat back my "exercise calories". I really don't like how it sounds because it seems like you are eating away all your hard work but if you don't fuel your body properly you run the risk of stalling your weight loss. Now I always leave a little room for error. So I always leave about 100 to 150 calories for cushion.

I've been losing about 0.5 to 0.75 lbs per week. The key to making this work is making sure your activity level reflects your normal life not including exercise. Then you can add in exercise.

You can, as an alternative, set your activity level to include exercise. For example, active or very active with exercise. MFP will give more calories to eat. In this case you don't log your exercise and you wouldnt have to eat them back.

This also:

My settings are sedentary and I add in my exercise cals. I eat a average of 1800 to 1900 cals per day and burn an average of 400 calories per day through exercise (2800 cal per week). I net between 1400 to 1500.

BUT If I change my activity level settings to very active to include my exercise....MFP will give me 2152 as my TDEE and a calorie goal of 1902 to lose 1/2 per week. IN this case I wont "eat back my exercise cals". The math turns out to be the same.

Shweedog

Short answer= yes.

adrianneboyd

You can if you're still hungry, but I try to not eat them all back. If you burn them...try not to use them.... Hope this helps!

agthorn

Yes. MFP gives you a calorie deficit through diet alone, so you are only "credited" calories for exercise when you actually log it. Then you consume that number of calories to maintain your original deficit.

Falling_star

no as long as you eat 1200 a day if u have done exercise then you can eat some of them calories back or all of them if ur hungry.

MummyOfSeven

The short answer is YES, you should eat them back.
Also, 1,200 calories should be your minimum goal, not your maximum. If you fall below 1,200 on a regular basis, not only are you denying your body what it needs but you are also in danger of putting your body into starvation mode. This prevents you losing weight. :flowerforyou:

bwesser

Yes, you should eat them back. However, it's alright if you burn 1,000 cals one day, but just can't seem to get more than 700 or 800 back into your system. You should never have a net of under 1200. Your body needs it... especially if you are really active.