Can I burn off my overage in calories for the day?

jennabennaG

I am trying to stick to 1200 calories a day but I also work out. According to myfitnesspal.com where I plug in my meals to track calories, it says I have 260 left for the day which isn't a lot and it's only 3pm.

This morning I had a banana & a small handful of raw almonds. For lunch, a salad I made consisting of romaine lettuce, colby-jack shredded cheese, a tomato, sunflower seeds, croutons and oil-based garlic vinaigrette in a 4 cup capacity tupperware container.

I know I will have dinner and probably a couple rum and Coke Zero's later because it's Friday and this week sucked. But before that I will be stopping by the gym.

If I burn 300 calories at the gym does that allow me to use up 560 calories tonight and be considered within my limits for the day? That seems like wishful thinking.

sammyneb

That is exactly the way I understand it. I'm also trying to stick to a 1200 calorie diet, but that is without any exercise. When you exercise you get more calories allowable. Look at this way...I am allowed 1200 calories but on Saturday I'm going to run 11 miles which means I will burn around 1100 calories, if I only consumed "my allowed" 1200 I would only being giving my body 100 calories...so in short, YES you get to consume your workout calories

Captain_Tightpants

Yes.

zombilishious

Exactly that.

bfcano

Just note that if you eat all of your workout calories you're basically just breaking even. To lose weight you need to have some workout calories left depending on how fast you're trying to lose. I leave between 250 -300 calories most days which for me equals about a pound of weight loss every other week. However I'm a lot smaller (i.e. shorter & already have a low weight) so losing a lot of weight quickly wouldn't work for me.

xiamjackie

Just note that if you eat all of your workout calories you're basically just breaking even. To lose weight you need to have some workout calories left depending on how fast you're trying to lose. I leave between 250 -300 calories most days which for me equals about a pound of weight loss every other week. However I'm a lot smaller (i.e. shorter & already have a low weight) so losing a lot of weight quickly wouldn't work for me.

This isn't true at all. Your deficit is already calculate by MFP so you don't need to leave any calories at the end of the day. You should be eating all "1200" of your calories in the day, including workout calories if you want. 1200 calories is already a deficit and there is nothing wrong with eating the calories back if you work out.


Edit- by not eating your exercise calories back, you are only netting 800-900 calories a day and that can lead to some dangerous side effects.

JesterMFP

Just note that if you eat all of your workout calories you're basically just breaking even. To lose weight you need to have some workout calories left depending on how fast you're trying to lose. I leave between 250 -300 calories most days which for me equals about a pound of weight loss every other week. However I'm a lot smaller (i.e. shorter & already have a low weight) so losing a lot of weight quickly wouldn't work for me.

No, that's wrong, that's not how MFP works. MFP gives you a calorie goal with a calorie deficit already built in, whether you do any exercise or not.

jellybeanmusic

Yeah, the number of calories allocated to you on MFP PLUS the number of cals burned from working out equals your total you can consume in a day.

jennabennaG

Thank you everyone! I really appreciate the answers. For some reason I thought it would be too good to be true.