Adding exercise is lessening my daily intake?

Clowasa

I'm a bit confused. After todays weigh-in a message popped up saying that since I've lost over 10 pounds I should adjust my goals. So I did, but all I changed is the amount of time I spend working out (30mins to 60mins) since I've been making more time for exercising. So here's the thing, if I'm working out more then why is my food goal gone from 1350 to 1300? Is it because I weight less or ...? At the end of the day it doesn't really matter since with exercise I'm usually allotted between 1800 - 2000 calories a day but I'm curious as to why I'm loosing those 50 calories.

drmerc

Because you lost weight, congrats!

TavistockToad

The amount of exercise you ell mfp you do has nothing to do with the calories you are given. That is calculated based just on your height/weight/activity level and the amount of weight you wish to lose per week.

cyclenut64

The more you weigh the more calories your body needs, if you weigh less you need less. So the program adjusts accordingly.

bodiva88

You'll also find that as you lose weight, you'll be credited with fewer calories burned for your cardio. Because you're carrying, pushing less weight around. If you told it "yes" to adjusting your goals, it automatically adjusted your calories down so that you'll have roughly the same deficit to maintenance that you did for the last 10 pounds.

Congrats on the loss and good luck with the next 10.

Ejourneys

Bottom line: When you weigh less, you burn fewer calories for the same amount of exercise. I posted the text below on a thread about plateaus:

I found this article very helpful:
https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152

One thing the article says is, ”You burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight even doing the same activities. Your weight-loss efforts result in a new equilibrium with your now slower metabolism. At this new equilibrium, calories eaten equals calories expended. This means that to lose more weight, you need to increase activity or decrease the calories you eat. Using the same approach that worked initially may maintain your weight loss, but it won’t lead to more weight loss.”

I recently experienced a real-life example of this. The software I use to calculate the calories I burn on my mini-bike takes into account my height, weight, age, bike resistance level, speed, and duration.

In late October I was too sick to exercise for a week. When I started up again I dialed my resistance level down and then worked my way back up again. When I raised it to level 4 on Nov. 8 and biked for an hour at 13 mph, my software told me that I had burned 574 calories.

I checked my spreadsheet. I had done the exact same activity — biked for an hour at 13 mph at resistance level 4 — back on October 10.

But back on October 10 I had burned 747 calories! That’s a 173-calorie difference for the exact same activity!

Two things had changed in the interim:
1. I became a year older, and
2. I lost eight pounds.

Becoming a year older actually meant that I burned two additional calories during my November 8 workout than I otherwise would have. The main change occurred because I was eight pounds lighter on November 8 than I had been on October 10.

That means that to burn the same number of calories I had burned on October 10, all else being equal, I have to work harder! As it is, I’m quite content with having burned 574 calories. :-) But this is a concrete example of why weight loss can slow or plateau.

Cjoseph03

The amount of exercise you ell mfp you do has nothing to do with the calories you are given.

this is not true!!! I've adjusted my exercise without losing weight and it decreased my daily allowance as well. Maybe because it expects you to eat more on the days you exercise??? I'm not really sure

Madelinew22

its all crap the more weight ive lost ive added cals i started with 1200 net now ar 1600 net and still loseing, just slower