Do you use a Calorie Calculator?

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shayamador
shayamador Posts: 19
in Health and Weight Loss
There are quite a lot of calorie calculators online now a days and was wondering if anyone uses the calorie calculator to figure out how many calories they should be consuming every day- these calculators factor in exercise already. Do you set your goals to the suggested calorie goal and still eat your exercise calories back? I'm confused with this as exercise/activity is factored in in contrast to MFP where you have to log in your exercise.

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  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    MFP's numbers work pretty well for me. When I've looked at other calculators they usually come out around the same numbers when you factor in exercise.

    As I see it, the main difference is that MFP calculates your daily calorie goal WITHOUT considering exercise. When you actually exercise you add that to your diary and your calorie requirement goes up.

    Most other calculators ask how many times a week you intend to exercise and calculates your daily calorie goal including that exercise.

    Personally I like MFP's system of only allowing calories for the exercise that I actually do, not what I "intend to do".

    If you prefer you can go to another calorie calculator and work out your daily goal including exercise then set this manually in the custom goals section. If you do this, don't add exercise to your diary, that would be counting it twice!
  • charlesb22
    charlesb22 Posts: 110 Member
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    I used an online calculator to figure out my BMR for sedentary lifestyle (I have a desk job and also study full time) - so I would know the minimum amount of calories I can have without working out. Then I changed my MFP calorie goal to that number, and I log all my food and exercise, and eat back my exercise calories. That way I never eat below my BMR - never give my body less than what it needs to get through the day.

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