Eating back exercise calories? I'm confused

after_the_rain

My current weight is 380 (ugh!!!) and MFP tells me my daily calorie goal should be 2,600. PLUS it tells me to eat back my calories burned, which is usually around 1,500. I've only been exercising faithfully for 2.5 weeks but usually go to the gym for 5 or 6 days a week and work out for 1.5-2 hours. I haven't been eating back any of those calories, and I manually changed the calorie goal to 1500 calories and that is what I've been trying to stick to. It seems insane that I would be eating 4,000 calories a day and trying to lose weight??? Do I really need to eat that many calories? Maybe when I get down to a lower weight I can see it being more important, but at this weight shouldn't I be drastically limiting my calories? My goal has been to eat 1500 or less in calories per day and then to burn at least 1500 calories per day with exercise so that it evens out.

kaervaak

Eat 2600 calories and don't eat back your exercise calories. See where you are in a month and reevaluate based on results. At your weight you can safely run a very large daily deficit without doing any harm to your metabolism and with minimal lean mass loss.

llkilgore

I'd recommend that you follow MFP's recommendations to the letter for a month or so and then make any needed adjustments in small increments, and only AFTER you've proven the need for them. Your current strategy may appear to be working great in the short term, but It's likely to come back and bite you in the end. Crash diets generally do.

ladyraven68

My current weight is 380 (ugh!!!) and MFP tells me my daily calorie goal should be 2,600. PLUS it tells me to eat back my calories burned, which is usually around 1,500. I've only been exercising faithfully for 2.5 weeks but usually go to the gym for 5 or 6 days a week and work out for 1.5-2 hours. I haven't been eating back any of those calories, and I manually changed the calorie goal to 1500 calories and that is what I've been trying to stick to. It seems insane that I would be eating 4,000 calories a day and trying to lose weight??? Do I really need to eat that many calories? Maybe when I get down to a lower weight I can see it being more important, but at this weight shouldn't I be drastically limiting my calories? My goal has been to eat 1500 or less in calories per day and then to burn at least 1500 calories per day with exercise so that it evens out.

I'm assuming you chose 2lb per week?

if MFP gave you 2600, your TDEE is closer to 3500, and eating at 1500 is a deficit of 2000, which is not recommended. it's a deficit of over 50%

Why not give MFP's numbers a try first, and then adjust later if you aren't getting the results you want.

Have a read of this for an idea of why a deficit of 50% is not a good idea.

http://davfitfitnessforum.forumotion.com/t56-muscle-retaining-factor-1-severity-of-calorie-deficit-by-tom-venuto-a-trusted-friend

nickyrobinson

The problem with eating 1500 calories and then burning 1500 calories is you are asking your body to pull EVERYTHING from storage, which means muscle, as well as fat.

I recommend reading the first post here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Odds are you will find that you should be eating at least 2600 calories, and possibly more.