Calories burned

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I am having trouble understanding why I can add the calories I have burned back into my food intake. I always thought to lose weight you eat less and exercise, like a one two punch. But if I add my calories back in doesn't that negate the exercise?

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  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    Because the way MFP is set up, it already calculates a deficit for you. So you will still lose weight if you exercise or not. When you exercise, you further increase that deficit that is already there. You need to fuel your body and make sure you're not into too large of a deficit that can be potentially harmful to your health.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Depends on how you setup your profile/goals with MFP. If you factored your exercise into your activity level, then you should not be eating back those cals as MFP arleady knows about them and has accounted for them. If you didn't factor them in, then you should be eating at least most of them back. Why? Because MFP calculated a healthy deficit for you not including that exercise.

    Read this for more:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/383956-exercise-calories-explained?hl=exercise+calories+explained