confused

courtney3988

I have no problem eating the 1200 calories they tell me. It is when they they they tell me after i burn 400 calories on the treadmill they say i have to 1300 :noway: That is a lot do i need to eat those back i was just worried if i don't then i will maintain but eat those back i go for stuff with lots of calories i had cereal one day for a snack :blushing: but if i do eat them back wouldn't that make the exercise pointless? :huh:

firstsip

... Could you rephrase that?

kuzurichan

I personally don't.

... Could you rephrase that?

She eats 1200 calories, but exercise burns some of them, so the net total becomes less than 1200. MFP tells her to eat them back, so she's wondering if she should.

loumaag

This seems confusing to a lot of folks. Look, MFP asks you some questions when you sign up, if you let it go for the recommended (automatic) settings it will establish your BMR then use it to establish a goal calorie that is already a deficit number. In other words, if you did nothing but what your normal routine is (based on what level you set yourself) and ate the goal calories, you would lose at the rate you specified in the interview. If you exercise in addition to the activity level you set, then you are burning additional calories, so you need to eat them back to keep the weight loss goal the same.

leanne9876

I have no problem eating the 1200 calories they tell me. It is when they they they tell me after i burn 400 calories on the treadmill they say i have to 1300 :noway: That is a lot do i need to eat those back i was just worried if i don't then i will maintain but eat those back i go for stuff with lots of calories i had cereal one day for a snack :blushing: but if i do eat them back wouldn't that make the exercise pointless? :huh:

Your body needs a minimum amount of calories each day just to survive.
If you eat 1200 a day and don't exercise thats fine but if you exercise you have to eat enough so that your body receives 1200 after exercise.
It wouldn't be healthy to eat 1200 then exercise 600, your body is only getting 600 calories and thats not good, your body needs fuel to work, to breathe, for all your organs to function properly.
Hope that makes sense, I seen another thread somewhere and someone had worded it so perfectly and easy to understand, I'll try and find it so you can have a read.

loumaag

I personally don't.

...

^^^^ This is basically my outlook on this also, unless I do a lot of stuff. I still keep my "net" over 1200 and usually somewhere close to my original goal number (currently 1800). I mean, I list myself as sedentary, if I go out and work on the lawn & garden and burn up 900 calories, I have to eat some of that back or my "net" for the day would be too low. If you don't eat enough you will stop losing weight; although, that seems counterintuitive, it is true.

htherrien0406

If you don't eat enough calories then your body will store fat because it thinks it's starving. So many people think eating less means losing weight but the truth is eating the right foods and enough of them is much more effective. Your muscles need the extra calories to rebuild.

luthergravy

It really couldn't be simpler.

If you eat 1200 calories and burn off 400 as a result of exercise, then you need to increase your exercise tolerance calorific value by a factor of 0.7 in order to maintain the allocation of energy required to maintain your weight or weight loss or weight gain, depending on the calorie levels in question. Equally, if you fall below the 1200 quotient when applying the factors above, you need to adjust the settings accordingly, so that you can synchronise your exercise level with the calories you are ingesting via your mouth. If you are ingesting via other means, this also needs to be taken into account with regards to the 400 calories you mention earlier. It definitely works if you remember to factor in the quotient (or energy co-efficient) levels. In the past, I have lost 18lbs over a 7 week period simply by stopping sniffing.

Good luck.

kuzurichan

If I walk around and burn a massive amount of calories in one day, there's no way I can eat nearly enough calories back to get 1200+ net. I'm not advocating starving at all - but some of us have a lot of trouble eating enough calories to begin with.

The answer seems to be "then, don't exercise so much" in such a case, but things like grocery shopping (or just shopping), general transportation, dog-walks, child care, etc. can make it hard not to burn quite a few calories - and even harder to eat them back, even if you add calorie-dense (but healthy) foods.

Starving isn't good. But I still kinda believe that as long as you get a bare minimum 1200 cals BEFORE exercise, you don't get a negative net, and then, have a minimum of 3 rest days where you don't exercise a lot and get a fair amount of calorie in, it's not so bad.

courtney3988

Thank you every one your help :happy: