I'm so confused!

angdestefano

Even though MyFitnessPal tells you how much calories to eat a day and everything, I'm still so confused as to how this works. What are net calories? If i work out and burn calories that I've eaten, do I have to eat more to equal the calories of everyday? I'm confused as to what I REALLY need to do in order to lose the weight and tone up. Sometimes, it's very hard for me to eat the 1200 calories a day because since I started working out, I'm not as hungry as I used to be. Should I be eating things with more calories in them? Tuesday I ate pretty well, but burned over 800 calories on a 15 mile bike ride, (with counting my calories) and GAINED a pound the next day! Some advice/guidelines/explanations could really help

amy1612

Im pretty sure there are looooooads of sticky topics about it on here already, but you shouldnt NET less than 1200, so if you workout and burn 700, you should account for it and make sure you eat those so you arent less than 1200. If that makes sense. Eat more healthy calorie dense food to fuel workouts, like avocados, nuts, etc.

And the gain was probably water weight, from the long bike ride.

now_or_never12

Eat your exercise calories. You want your net to be your calorie goal. If you know you are doing a fair amount of exercise that day try to plan ahead and eat more throughout the day.

Also, don't weigh yourself the day after a lot of exercise... your muscles hold onto water which can explain the gain.

neverstray

It is very confusing. And there is no one in the world that will help you. You have to find balance and what works for you. There is no one size fits all.

If you are eating only 1200 cals, which seems to be MFPs default for women, then I recommend that you always eat back all your exercise cals, hungry or not. People argue about this, but 1200 is not enough for you. So, you need to eat. It's ok for now, but 6 weeks down the road, you will be starving to death. If you burn 800, eat 800, plus your original 1200. Only eating 800 cals in a day is ridiculous. It's unhealthy.

If you really want to get confused, go to the eat more to lose more site here on MFP. They will have you eating more than 1200, probably close to 1800 per day, but then not eating back your exercise calories. It's a little easier to manage, and you will lose. If you continue to do what you are doing, you are going to lose some weight, and then you will stop losing and you won't be able to figure out why. The eat more to lose more site explains why this happens. Especially if you are exercising regularly.

Anyway, good luck.