I'm new and have a ?

AlyssaLoflin

So, I got on here for the first time in May I guess, but I haven't actually used it or really been committed to my weight loss. Now I just have to, so I'm going to stick to it this time (yeah I've said that a thousand times like everyone else). The last time that I was really determined to loose weight, I went on weight watchers and lost 45 lbs. Well I've now gained 30 of that back, which well sucks, and was partly due to medication I was on to prevent migraines by decreasing stress levels. When I finally figured that out, I decided that if it was causing me to gain weight, then it was definitely not decreasing stress enough so I stopped it and now am just trying to use exercise and meditation as a stress reducer. The weight gain was also to due with my lack of exercise and huge sweet tooth. I think myfitnesspal will be a very helpful tool to my weight loss, as it is very similar to the weight watchers program I used, it just uses calories instead of points (though the points are figured out by calories).
So, to my actual question; When I add in cardio that I have done for the day it adds those calories to my daily "goal" for calories to be eaten, should I try to eat some of these or just stick to the normal 1250 goal that it gives me? When I was on weight watchers, I did their point system and it did something similar, it would add half the points you burned so basically half the calories, and I found that sometimes it was good to eat some of them but on a regular basis I didn't eat many, if any of the extra calories/points that I burned. My husband says to just completely ignore the extra calories that I burn and don't eat into them. Let me know what you think. Also it doesn't tell me how much I burn for any strength training exercises that I do, how should I figure that out?

Thanks for any help :happy:

<a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"><img border="0" src="http://tickers.myfitnesspal.com/ticker/show/14/5780/145780.png&quot; /></a><p style="text-align:center;width:420px;"><small>Created by MyFitnessPal - <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com">Calorie Counter</a></small></p>

DanaHolmes

Hey I am pretty new on here to and I had that same ? Some people said they eat all some said they eat half and some said none. So what I am going to do is not eat them and if I am not losing then eat half and if still not losing eat all of them. I don't know if that makes since, but some people said they didn't drop any lbs until they started eating their exercise cals. I think it just depends on your body. Let me know what you end up trying. I hope this helped

SHBoss1673

welcome guys. See the link in my profile? Click on it and read through the posts in there. That should give you a lot of information, then you can make your own decision. Best to be informed before you make the choice on what to do. Once you read through it, then you can look at your own situation and decide whether your body can support such a large deficit that not eating exercise calories will bring. Some can, but many can't and you just become frustrated.

Good luck.

-Banks

hiddensecant

It's a choice. I eat them all and took the time to train my body to function on the fuel I feed it ... As a result, I am now losing faster than MFP says I should.

For strength training .. go into the cardio section and look up "strength training". When you enter your minutes you get a calorie burn. But the best way to count calories and eat the proper amount is to get a heart rate monitor. There are plenty of good deals on eBay, amazon, and buy.com ... look for one with a chest strap that counts calories burned.