Too many calories?

Cedura

Usually MFP starts me around 1700 calories allowed for the day. Today I exercised a lot and realized I could eat like 2600 calories and still be below my calorie goal because I exercised. I am new to this website, and still trying to adjust to how a calorie counter works.
Am I supposed to eat all the extra calories? Is it ok if I have 600-800 calories left at the end of the day? I want to lose weight and even though I exercise, I feel eating close to 3000 allowed calories would be counter productive. Anyone have advice for how they use this system, or what seems to be working for them?

Coco_UK

Hi there,

I am sorry I am no expert on this. but I would think too that 2600 calories a day (unless you are an athlete or on atkins) seem like a lot too Then again different things work for different people, there is a group in here which is reporting great success and they are eating larger amounts of kcals.... they are called Eat More to Loose More (EMTLM) I believe...

There are heaps of groups and information in this website... it trully is an amazing tool, I am sure that if you look around you will find the answer you need.

All the best!
Coco :-)

Cedura

Thanks, I will definitely look into that group and see what people are saying I have just always been told to lose weight you have to burn off more than you eat, so I would think that I wouldnt want to re-eat everything I burned off... but I dont know if by re-eating those calories it kick starts the metabolism or something... Im not a nutritionalist or anything, nor a fitness expert, so I am just a bit confused about how eating so much can be so healthy, even if it is all veggies and chicken haha.

Ronaldblue

MyFitnessPal already includes your deficit in your allotted calories for the day. Any calories that you earn through exercise are yours to do with as you please. I would recommend eating them early on as it will help with hunger issues at the beginning of stricter diets, otherwise you are creating a large gap between what you need for maintenance and what you are actually eating. If you are confident in your self-control and diet, then you can eat back a portion of the calories or none at all. Either way, you should still see results.

I personally always shoot for a net calories of 0 and I have lost 27 pounds since January. If I exercise a lot, I eat back enough calories to feel satisfied throughout the day, which is sometimes all and is sometimes only a fraction.

susannamarie

Leaving too many calories uneaten *can* result in lower energy/excessive hunger, which may in turn lead to binging/lower burn in exercises. Also depends on how much of a deficit you've given yourself in the first place. I try not to let my deficit get much over 1000/day, which is 2 lbs/week.

susannamarie

MyFitnessPal already includes your deficit in your allotted calories for the day. Any calories that you earn through exercise are yours to do with as you please. I would recommend eating them early on as it will help with hunger issues at the beginning of stricter diets, otherwise you are creating a large gap between what you need for maintenance and what you are actually eating. If you are confident in your self-control and diet, then you can eat back a portion of the calories or none at all. Either way, you should still see results.

I personally always shoot for a net calories of 0 and I have lost 27 pounds since January. If I exercise a lot, I eat back enough calories to feel satisfied throughout the day, which is sometimes all and is sometimes only a fraction.

Um, do you mean net calories of 0 or calories remaining of 0?

Cedura

Ok glad to better know how this system is set up, and that I can re-eat with out worry. Thanks so much everyone

Ronaldblue

MyFitnessPal already includes your deficit in your allotted calories for the day. Any calories that you earn through exercise are yours to do with as you please. I would recommend eating them early on as it will help with hunger issues at the beginning of stricter diets, otherwise you are creating a large gap between what you need for maintenance and what you are actually eating. If you are confident in your self-control and diet, then you can eat back a portion of the calories or none at all. Either way, you should still see results.

I personally always shoot for a net calories of 0 and I have lost 27 pounds since January. If I exercise a lot, I eat back enough calories to feel satisfied throughout the day, which is sometimes all and is sometimes only a fraction.

Um, do you mean net calories of 0 or calories remaining of 0?

Calories Remaining, my apologies