help

sissyhager

Do we have to eat our calories that we lose when we exercise, cause thats adding to my 1200 calories in my day?

TheRealParisLove

Log your exercise and try to keep your net calories at 1200. Sometimes I find that I'm unable to eat back all of my exercise calories, and it hasn't caused a problem. I shoot for more protein if I'm too full to eat an entire meal (such as a hard boiled egg or protein shake).

Pedal_Pusher

do what works for you.

lauralprince

1200 calories is a small amount. I used to think thats what i needed to eat to lose weight but actually when I increased to 1500 calories I started losing more weight. You dont want your body going into starvation mode.

sissyhager

It seems like if i go up on calories i will gain more weight.

speedracer2007

You need to eat the 1200 calories after the exercise...because if you don't, your body goes into starvation mode...it will then "store food" because it thinks it will be starved again and you will end up gaining weight. Also, you need the nutrients in the food.

nxd10

It seems like if i go up on calories i will gain more weight.

As if you DO or as if you SHOULD?

It depends on a lot of things, especially WHAT you eat.

But long term there is no question that if you eat too FEW calories (within reason) you stop losing weight (you hit a plateau), it will be hard to maintain over the long haul 'cause you'll be really hungry, and it will be hard to get adequate nutrition. If you eat too MANY calories you gain. That's why most of us are here.

What does MFP say you should eat? Unless you have a good reason to think your metabolism is much slower or much faster than that, I would definitely start there. That's a baseline. Extra exercise mean you need more calories than that baseline.

speedracer2007

It seems like if i go up on calories i will gain more weight.
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It's all relative to how many extra calories you are eating and what you are eating. If you eat an extra 5oo calories of protein..like a lean steak...it's much different than eating an extra 5oo calories of something thats mostly fat..like candy

sissyhager

I lost 18 pounds a little over 45 days on 1200 calories just by eating, breakfest 2 starch,1 oz of meat and 1 fat and then for lunch i had 2 starch, 2 oz of meat, 1 fat and cup of fresh vegies and 1 fruit,dinner i had 2 starch, 3 oz meat, 1 fat, and 1 cup fresh vegies and then a 8:00 snack 1 meat and 1 starch.

sissyhager

MFP says 1300 calores