so should i really eat

freestone1

all my cals everyday? and what r your thoughts on eating your exercise cals? im new to this so any help would be great

bathsheba_c

Yes. Here is why:

1. You need more than calories from your food. You also need nutrients. By restricting food intake too much, you risk malnutrition.
2. The human body doesn't like calorie restriction, and will respond by become more efficient at using calories. If you restrict food intake too much, your metabolism will slow down, resulting in slower or stalled weight loss.
3. At the same time your body is burning fat stores for energy, it is also burning muscle. Eating too little will result in a higher rate of muscle loss, which has both health and aesthetic effects. Incidentally, muscle burns more calories than fat, so it is in your interest to retain as much muscle as possible.

You are likely to get a fight over whether or not to eat exercise calories. The short answer is that, the more calories you are burning from exercise, the more important it is to eat back at least a part of those calories. I personally eat them all back, though some people eat back 50-75% in order to account for overestimating exercise or underestimated eating.

MissCierra2008

I am currently doing the weight watchers program- you should really look into it especially if youre new to the game.. They go by points values instead of calorie counting.. I guess to me, its just easier to count to my allowed 26 points per day rather than trying to keep track of 1,500 calorie allowance..

Anyways, think of it as a give and take situation. The more you burn, the more you can eat. As a general rule of thumb, you should shoot to lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week (which is the healthy amount). In order to burn one pound of fat, you have to burn approximately 3,500 calories- obviously not best to do that in a single day

I am really just going by a trial and error standpoint- just making sure my calories burned is roughly 500 calories above what I take in (because 500 x 7 days per week= the 3,500 calories).

Hope this helps! Good luck and keep up the good work!

theartichoke

That depends on what your goals are. Would you mind sharing some information?

Daily calorie goal.
Height.
How much weight you want to lose.
How often you exercise and the type of workouts.

justjenn1977

all my cals everyday? and what r your thoughts on eating your exercise cals? im new to this so any help would be great

I don't even add my exercise here... mfp calcs a deficit... and I go with that deficit...

unless I am doing something REALLY intense like biking >30 miles in a day... or hiking >10 miles.... I don't eat extra (extra being more than the deficit)