Please tell me if I really need to eat all of these?

iceicebaby1012
iceicebaby1012 Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! I've been logging into MFP for 15 days now and I've seen this asked over and over again so I'm sorry for asking again but.. after lunch I had a little over 400 calories left for the day. I just finished my workout of 30 min on the elliptical machine. I wear a HRM so I'm pretty sure the calorie count is accurate. I burned 416 calories. Now MFP says I have 846 calories remaining. Do I need to eat all of those calories to lose weight? I've been gaining and losing the same darn 2 lbs for 2 weeks so please help!!!

Thanks!

CH

Replies

  • skinnylion
    skinnylion Posts: 213
    You need to eat a number of calories that falls between your BMR and your TDEE.
    This website is pretty helpful in doing the calculations for yourself: http://www.free-workout-routines.net/tdee.html

    But in short, yes, eat all of your calories!
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
    Hi! I've been logging into MFP for 15 days now and I've seen this asked over and over again so I'm sorry for asking again but.. after lunch I had a little over 400 calories left for the day. I just finished my workout of 30 min on the elliptical machine. I wear a HRM so I'm pretty sure the calorie count is accurate. I burned 416 calories. Now MFP says I have 846 calories remaining. Do I need to eat all of those calories to lose weight? I've been gaining and losing the same darn 2 lbs for 2 weeks so please help!!!

    Thanks!

    CH

    You don't REALLY need to eat ALL of your exercise calories back... but you CAN eat all or some of them back and still maintain a very reasonable deficit. So why not eat them back? I can think of a lot of fantastic things that I'd eat if I had 846 calories remaining... almonds, hummus, cheese... plenty of high calorie favorites for me.

    Really, you don't want a crazy big deficit because it will make it hard for you to stick to your diet. Also, the lower you go on calories, the more careful you have to be in what you eat in order to get the right nutrients. That said, you can play around with things and find what works for you. The MFP method of eating back exercise calories is just one method. Other methods work as well. Find the one you like. You didn't sign a contract saying you have to do things MFP's way :D

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