noob question

ActionStephen

SO after reading up on portion control and how many calories i need each day my question is this. when taking into account how many calories i am burning during my workouts am i aiming for a deficit or trying to break even? (ie. eat more to make up for calories burned in the workout?)

Demetria

depending on how you set up your plan on mfp, mfp calculates the amount of calories for you, say you put that you want to lose 2lbs a week, then it will give you a deficit of 1000 calories or no more than 1200 calories total for the day, so then when you workout, it will give you those calories to eat so that your deficit is no larger than 1000 cal a day. Understand?
Yes, you are aiming for a deficit but it depends on the above numbers
Demetria

lizzys

what dr oz says you allways need a deficit to lose weight

arewethereyet

when you exercise and log it, it will add to your allowed cals per day.

For instance:

I am set up for .5 pound loss per week
I get 1400 calories per MFP to lose .5 a week
When I exercise I earn more calories, which are added to my food log.

I elliptical for 45 min, burn 300 cals

I now have 1700 calories to eat for the day.

I like to portion mine out 6 small meals and a night snack.

carbs/protein/fat at each meal except the evening snack which is usually nuts

BrendaLee

Click on the My Home tab, and you'll see the breakdown

Daily net calorie goal: 1,510 (Already includes a 1000 calorie deficit)
+ calories burned: 513 (My exercise calories)
- calories consumed: 300 (What I've eaten so far)
Calories remaining: 1,723 (How many calories I have left)

astridfeline

The calorie deficit remains when you eat your exercise calories. If you don't eat your exercise calories, the deficit will be that much bigger.

stormieweather

The calorie deficit remains when you eat your exercise calories. If you don't eat your exercise calories, the deficit will be that much bigger.

Which may not be what you want when you're trying to get your body to release it's grip on your fat cells. If it goes too low, you will feel sluggish, tired, crabby, and you may not lose the fat as easily.

astridfeline

I eat all of my exercise calories :bigsmile: In my previous post, I didn't mean to imply that I advocated against eating them.