clarify confusion please

running_mom

So I understand in order to lose weight it's basically calories in verse calories out. You have to burn more calories than you take in. What I don't get is when you add the exercise calories.

For example:
I am allowed 1200 cals a day. I stay within my cals. On occasion I do go over. I usually burn about 600-700 cals from exercising. I go to the gym 4-6 days a week. So does that mean I should potentially be eating an extra 600-700 cals a day when I go to the gym? And if I don't work out on that day I should just eat in my cal range?

I have tried to read other posts but still don't get it. I've tried to eat more when I exercise but it seems like I gain weight when I do that. Maybe I'm not tracking my food and exercise right. I don't know.

BrendaLee

Yep, you got it right.

Bobbie145

If you are logging your food, log your exercise, too, and it will adjust for the number or calories you should be having.

stormieweather

MFP already calculates a healthy deficit for you when you entered your goals. Your purpose is to maintain that deficit exactly, not increase it by exercise. Exercise is to help increase your metabolism and physical toning (among other things). Therefore, MFP adds your exercise calories to your totals so you keep the proper deficit for your goals.

MacMadame

It's up to you if you want to use your exercise to increase your calorie deficit or if you want to use it to "earn" more calories.

If you use it to increase your calorie deficit, there is a point of diminishing returns and you may find yourself "bonking" on your workouts or not recovering well between workouts. OTOH, not everyone finds that. Some people don't use their exercise calories and lose just fine.

If you do eat them and you do find yourself not losing, a common culprit is over-estimating how much you've burned from exercise. I personally found that a lot of the numbers in the MFP database are too high for me. When I wear a HRM, it shows me burning a lot less calories than MFP shows. (Except for running... for that one I was burning more than MFP said.) So, if I'd gone with what MFP said and had eaten every single calorie I supposedly earned from exercise, I wouldn't have lost weight. This is why some people eat only a portion of them or none at all.

running_mom

Thanks. I input everything- food and exercise. I always wondered how accurate the numbers were on this site. I use it as something to make me accountable for my eating and exercising.