Need help with my calories

shaunasoares

Looking for a little help, I eat 1200 calories a day and have been going to the gym 5days a week for just over a month. The exercise I am working on is running /walking and eliptacal. So a lot of my days I have 300 to 500 calories that a have burned off, am I support to eat them. For the past month I haven't lost much and people keep telling me to eat more??? Am I'm not eating enough to keep losing???
Should I always eat the extra calories I burn off???
Thanks

suziecue66

You have to see what works for you. Some don't eat back, others eat all the calories back and others eat a portion of it back. There really is no should.

MommaSherryB

I think that it is important to never let your net calories go below 1200. So when you exercise, you have to add back some healthy snacks...protein is key.

I went through the same thing and was so mad, and thought I had hit a plateau, but actually my body went into starvation mode. I also found that the more sugar/starchy foods you cut out the lower your insulin will be. Insulin is said to be the "gatekeeper" of stored fat.

Good luck and try to eat a few almonds before exercise and some chicken/tuna or turkey breast within 30 minutes of workout to build your muscle back up.

Hope this helps!
Sherry

holly1283

If you are hungry eat them. You really don't want to go too far into a defifcit. Your body needs enough fuel to be able to sustain your workout. If you are burning 300-500 calories and not eating more than 1200 that puts the calories your body has left to use at 700-900. Not very much and not recommended. Listen to your body.

joconnor09

MFP has the system set up so that you are meant to eat back your exercise calories. Some do, some don't. For me, it depends on what I ate that day and whether I feel like it would be beneficial. You said you've been eating 1200 cal/day? Is that exact, or do you generally stay under that? If you're usually under, you might not be eating enough. If you're staying right around 1200 and burning off 300-500 a day, you're netting 700-1000 calories a day. Your body might want more than that. You could try upping your intake a little and see if that does anything. It may also be that your body is just used to your routine. If you've been doing the same exercises for too long your body will get used to it and won't burn as many calories for the same amount of work. Try mixing it up and make sure you're getting enough calories!

Blondefitbarbie

Shouldn't you have a negative net if you want to lose weight?

RobynMWilson

I would eat the calories you earned from exercise if you chose your lifestyle on here as "sedentary"...I think that's how I set mine and I try my hardest to eat back my calories and I'm just maintaining but I don't wanna lose muscle b/c I'm lifting. I def think if you're working out that much and not just sitting and sleeping all day you need MORE than 1200 calories...

healthyliving_girl

Everyone will say that it depends on the person - so all I can say is that eating more worked for me.

My starting NET was 1650 (1750 for the first month or two), which means that on days I did not exercise, I ate 1650. On days I worked out, I ate back my workout calories, which means I ate between 1600-2100 calories a day.

Some of the articles I read stated that it's best to eat 500 calories less than maintenance. I worked it out and figured I needed 2100 calories to be at maintenance, so the lowest I should go is 1600.

I went from a size 12/14 to a size 6.

On a sidenote, truth be told, in terms of overall health and trying not to feel like you're starving, not all calories are created equal. Meaning, I can eat a filling stir fry of salmon, spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms for 300 calories or I can eat two chocolate chip cookies. I would be full after the stir fry - and still hungry after the cookies. And I say this part because if you are eating moreso processed or boxed foods and only eating 1200, I don't think that's enough.

Some people will say that it's calories in/calories out. I disagree. Sure, for calorie counting maybe...but not for filling full, not for making this do-able - at least for me.

So, I think you may need to eat more. But that's just my opinion. :P

rahrah6459

I was losing well at 1200 calories but then after I dropped about 20 lbs I started eating just under 1000 mainly because I just wasn't as hungry. My weightloss came to a complete standstill for 3 weeks. I started doing some research on here and decided that I would eat as close to 1200 as possible AND eat back my exercise calories and within a week I lost 5 lbs and am now steadily losing again. That's what worked for me.

susannamarie

Shouldn't you have a negative net if you want to lose weight?

No!

If you've heard this, it's because they were using a different definition of NET calories.

MFP uses calories - exercise burn = net. Your net calories should (if you're following MFP's guidelines) be equal to your goal.

Some other sites use calories - TOTAL burn = net. With THAT calculation of net calories, you'd want negative. But this is not how MFP does it.