for those people who MFP have their net calories @ 1200...

lilsassymom

For those of us who MFP calculates should be netting 1200 calories a day (including me):

Are you consuming ALL of your exercise calories? This is such a debatable topic as I have searched these message boards---- BUT most peoples responses come from people who have a lot more calories to work with. We have so little calories to work with---so what is working best for you?

I want to know from those people who have a net calorie goal of 1200...Are you losing, stalling, gaining? I am fairly new to this site so I am just trying to understand since we have such a low caloric intake do we HAVE to eat all our calories back in order for us to lose weight healthily? As sometimes WITH exercise I am under, around 1169, etc.

erinkeely4

When I started to use MFP to lose weight my net was 1250, and I almost always ate all of my calories back. Every now and then I'd be under net, and every now and then I'd be over. I reached my goal weight, and it worked very well for me!

taramaureen

Yep. If I only eat 1,200 cals when I'm exercising I'm very lethargic.

AnthonyScalco

I'm at 1,400 cals. Have been for 6 months. I'm totally against the "NET calories" Why would you want to eat the calories you just burned off. Doesn't make sense to me.

mizzdivat

I just changed my calorie intake to 1260 this last week and I have only been under my calorie goal once. I have also been really tired lately. Not sure if it's from eatting too few calories or if something else is going on. It has definitely been a challenge to stay under though.

Melookprettyoneday

This is what you need to do in order to eat more.... work your *kitten* off! Literally and figuratively. My go to is 60 minutes of heat yoga. It brings about 600 more calories. I also try to choose more fiberous foods. Celery is yummy and I try to skip the dips! There are good and bad days, but I try to lean more towards to good and make conscious decisions about eating right!

GeneaCindy

My goal is 1200 calories and I am staying under that everyday (except 1, and I didn't count Thanksgiving). I do not eat back my exercise calories, but I know that I could if I wanted to. I have been doing MFP for 7 weeks and have lost a little over 20lbs. Now, I do have a long way to go (abt. 60 lbs), and I was doing little or no exercise before I started. I am doing at least an hour of exercise every day now. As I get closer to my goal, I may have to do some tinkering with the calories/exercise program. For now, it is working.

momtozmc

Mine is also set at 1200 but I mostly eat back my exercise calories. It works for me...

L.

ChristineMarie89

mines 1300 just 100 more.. and its been working for me to eat back my exercise calories...when i couldnt eat bak my cals i stopped losing so yea i eat as many as them as i can i learned my lesson about not eating them back. but it really depends upon you try eating them back see what happens try not eating them back and see what happens...

lifeskittles

1200 is so little calories I don't know how you guys do it. I get dizzy and feel sick if I eat any less than 1600 calories and thats not including my workout calories...I always eat those on top of that and on cardio days I burn about 500-600...So those days I eat a high protein and high carb snack afterward...

Helloitsdan

For those of us who MFP calculates should be netting 1200 calories a day (including me):

Are you consuming ALL of your exercise calories? This is such a debatable topic as I have searched these message boards---- BUT most peoples responses come from people who have a lot more calories to work with. We have so little calories to work with---so what is working best for you?

I want to know from those people who have a net calorie goal of 1200...Are you losing, stalling, gaining? I am fairly new to this site so I am just trying to understand since we have such a low caloric intake do we HAVE to eat all our calories back in order for us to lose weight healthily? As sometimes WITH exercise I am under, around 1169, etc.

With only 8lbs to go you are eating way below what you should.
MFP is actually killing you slowly.
If you were obese at 35%+ bodyfat then running below BMR is okay till you stall.
With only 8lbs to go?
Figure out those stats before you jump into the diet.
Hell you could probably eat upwards of 1600 calories a day and drop weight.

kappyd

I am at 1310 and I eat my exercise calories back most days just because I am hungry. I am 5' 10" and 200 pounds (down from 255) so 1310 is not a lot of calories. But it does make me exercise or i would be starving.

VinVenture

1200, I don't make an active effort to eat them back, but I make an effort to work off when I go over. (Does this make sense to anyone else?)

Especially since I lift weights, I'm very specific in getting my post-workout protein refill to build (or just maintain) muscle. (This would be a tall glass of chocolate low-fat milk).

Other than that, I try to eat more if I'm hungry that day (or want something I don't normally allow myself), but if I'm not, I can easily net 400 kcal, even though I've eaten 12-1400.

sullyboo

I started on 1200 cals and ate back most of my exercise calories (only didn't if couldn't physically eat anymore) ... You have to otherwise your body won't get enough fuel !! Let MFP work for you as it should ... Stacks of us on here have lost weight doing exactly that !! I think if you look at your maintenance weight there should be a deficit between that and your losing weight calorie intake and that's how it works ... If you look at top athletes and their calorie intake is huge ... Yet they ain't fat !!

brianrb

I started using 1200 cal a day then started doing a few nutritional courses and such. About the same time I realised how much damage I was doing to myself on 1200 a day my body went into starvation mode.
Took 9 weeks to fix that............
All up I have lost 40kg, now I am eating 2700cal a day and with that using up 1500cal a day at the gym. My new Dietician is about to increase a few things as I am still losing to much weight.

OutiR

I've been in 1250 cals lately and I definately eat all my calories, also the ones got from exercise! Eating all the calories with nutritional, healthy food makes me feel SO much better and energetic and I still lose weight in my slow pace according to my goal.

Feeling good is important for me; if I'm not feeling good, the risk finishing before the goal increases. And who says you cannot feel good when you are managing your weight!!?? It can become a lifestyle only if you are able to enjoy it and fit it nicely to your life. If you are too strict to yourself, there is higher danger to return back to old ways that didn't really work...

If there is evenings when I need to get still some more calories but not hungry, I might eat almonds and drink fresh fruit juice etc - it adds up easily the needed calory intake and is healthy.

Good luck! :-)

crisnis

I'm at 1200 and I don't really have a personal rule on this subject... If I have exercised a lot on a specific day and my body seems to be telling me it needs more food (weakness, hunger, shakes...) then I eat more food but still probably not all of my exercise calories. I have been steadily losing without being too strict about this, but I think everyone needs to just see how it works best for them on this subject...

what works for one won't work for all - you have to consider your activity level, weight loss goals, your BMR... ect. Weight loss isn't a one size fits all (haha that's funny!)

tasnim81

When I first started logging here I was at 1270 calories. I almost always had to eat my exercise calories, because I could feel very clearly that I wasn't eating enough. Tired and hungry all the time. If I had 1270 calories, and burned 300-400... that doesn't leave much. My BMR is 1700+ so 800-900 calories a day was just not enough for me. I don't think it would have been healthy for me NOT to eat my exercise calories.

unsuspectingfish

I'm at 1,400 cals. Have been for 6 months. I'm totally against the "NET calories" Why would you want to eat the calories you just burned off. Doesn't make sense to me.

Because you're already at a caloric deficit. Exercising just makes that deficit larger, so if you eat back your calories, you're still at a deficit. Having a larger deficit won't necessarily make you lose faster, either. A lot of people on here can tell you from experience that you have to eat to lose.

lilsassymom

Thanks for the replies everyone .

For those of us who MFP calculates should be netting 1200 calories a day (including me):

Are you consuming ALL of your exercise calories? This is such a debatable topic as I have searched these message boards---- BUT most peoples responses come from people who have a lot more calories to work with. We have so little calories to work with---so what is working best for you?

I want to know from those people who have a net calorie goal of 1200...Are you losing, stalling, gaining? I am fairly new to this site so I am just trying to understand since we have such a low caloric intake do we HAVE to eat all our calories back in order for us to lose weight healthily? As sometimes WITH exercise I am under, around 1169, etc.

With only 8lbs to go you are eating way below what you should.
MFP is actually killing you slowly.
If you were obese at 35%+ bodyfat then running below BMR is okay till you stall.
With only 8lbs to go?
Figure out those stats before you jump into the diet.
Hell you could probably eat upwards of 1600 calories a day and drop weight.

I have only 8 lbs to got til I reevaluate my appearnce. I think I want to lose closer to around 14 lbs..

MelanieAG05

This is really interesting - my goal is 1250 net per day and I do eat back my exercise calories. I'm 166lbs and aiming to lose 26lbs maybe more (if I can be bothered lol!) but I am really struggling to lose anything at all. I tend to go by my average net calories - somedays i'm over and somedays i am under. This week I was about 1000 over my net cal goal for the week (oops!) but that should still be enough to lose a bit less than 1lb even - but no!!! nothing, nada, everyweek - frustrating is an understatement!

paprad

I ate back my net calories so far - and have lost practically nothing. i now wonder if I should avoid doing that. I think if I got even a jump start on losing weight I'd be able to eat net calories with some faith in the effectiveness of the deficit. As it is, if I am creating a net deficit of 500 cals per day, how come my weight is just not budging? Maybe for some us, there is such a thing as a rather sluggish metabolism

annemckee

I may be wrong, but isn't it the case that at 1200 some of us have a smaller deficit than people who are taller/bigger/on a higher calorie allowance, because mfp won't go below 1200?

I eat as close to 1200 as I can and more than 1200 on days I exercise, but don't eat back all my exercise calories. I seldom feel hungry, don't get shakes or dizziness etc. I eat three meals a day and sometimes snacks.

vanessaclarkgbr

I ate to 1,200 for quite a while, and lost well. I'm 5 7" so a reasonable height. When I first went down to 1,200 (by MFP so I could lose 2lb a week), I saved most of my exercise cals up for a spike and would then eat probably 75-80% of them - I like to have a margin of error no matter what I'm doing (I am a bit of a guesser sometimes and I don't trust some of the MFP exercise estimates/my ancient HRM.)

I found as I upped the exercise and got closer to goal that this wasn't working for me anymore - I lost too much in a two week period in my opinion and was hungry, so upped 50 cals per fortnight. This has slowed the loss, I'm not hungry and I'm still spiking with the exercise cals. I'm currently at 1,300, 11lbs left to go and as I'm at a healthy BMI I'm in no rush now.

To the guy who says you're killing yourself, - 54lb loss, healthy BMI, able to run a 5k now and unable to walk up the stairs properly before says I'm not. Do what is working for you but be realistic - if you're hungry, feel weak, don't have the strength to exercise etc - give yourself a break, you won't fail because of it.

Good luck! x

marianne_s

Read the 2nd post in this one - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/412932-will-eating-back-your-exercises-calories-benefit-you

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395881-people-who-lost-weight-eating-more

marianne_s

I ate to 1,200 for quite a while, and lost well. I'm 5 7" so a reasonable height. When I first went down to 1,200 (by MFP so I could lose 2lb a week), I saved most of my exercise cals up for a spike and would then eat probably 75-80% of them - I like to have a margin of error no matter what I'm doing (I am a bit of a guesser sometimes and I don't trust some of the MFP exercise estimates/my ancient HRM.)

I found as I upped the exercise and got closer to goal that this wasn't working for me anymore - I lost too much in a two week period in my opinion and was hungry, so upped 50 cals per fortnight. This has slowed the loss, I'm not hungry and I'm still spiking with the exercise cals. I'm currently at 1,300, 11lbs left to go and as I'm at a healthy BMI I'm in no rush now.

To the guy who says you're killing yourself, - 54lb loss, healthy BMI, able to run a 5k now and unable to walk up the stairs properly before says I'm not. Do what is working for you but be realistic - if you're hungry, feel weak, don't have the strength to exercise etc - give yourself a break, you won't fail because of it.

Good luck! x

What the guy probably meant is that you have probably lost more muscle than you needed to, rather than fat.

I am the same height (5'7").... My calorie was 1200 when it was to lose 2lbs a week, but I quickly changed that to 1.5 lb and now it's set to 1 lb a week and I have 1500 calories.

Since it was set to 1 lb a week, my average weekly loss has been 1.3 lb - and I eat back all of my exercise calories.

Jessica2Skinny

I am at 1200 calories/day. If i dont work out, i do not eat more than 1200. If i do workout I will only eat back SOME of the calories I burn off. SO If i burn off 400 calories, I'll only eat back 200. It works AMAZING - trust me, you will be lighter the next day!

Onesnap

I was at 1260 when I was losing a lb/week.

HECK YAH I consumed my exercise calories to make total consumption per day around 1700.

Fuel the machine!!!!!

serena569

Net calorie is exactly that - calories eaten minus calories burned. If you eat 1200 and burn 300 you have a net of 900. That is too little energy to sustain your body and you will end up in "starvation mode."

aweightymatter

I eat some of them back because my hunger naturally regulates itself that way... But I definitely do not always reach 1200 "net." I don't have a heart rate monitor yet (that will change after Christmas hopefully, hah) and based on others' experience and different calculations around the web, I assume my "real" calorie burn is usually 25% - 33% less than what MFP estimates.

Also, with distance running, sometimes I just can't reach 1200 net. After, say, a 10-mile run, I'd need to eat upwards of 2200 calories a day to "net" 1200. It's hard for me to eat that much clean food. (It would be very, very to eat it back in dessert, though, haha.) I'm not saying it's great but a 1200 "net" only puts me at a deficit of like 600 a day anyways since I'm no longer technically overweight.

MegMilleratc

I tried 1200 calories and I would go over every day, I've increased my calories to 1800, I'm losing weight very slowly but I never go over and I always have extra. It also helps me because I used to have an eating disorder and not feeling "stuck" (even though no on sets my limits but me) has helped keep MFP experience really healthy and more about changing my habits.
Eating back the calories you exercise off is dependent on how many you intake, at first it's hard but your body needs nutrients so if you eat too few you'll crave them back. I would honestly meet with a nutritionist (one with a degree, long story for another time) and make sure your plan is working. MFP doesn't tell you about iron deficiency which leads to anemia or that your body will leach the calcium from your bones for muscles if you're not getting enough in your diet.
Hope all goes well for your future weight loss