Wondering if I should use all my daily calories allowance??

lizstyles2013

Hi everyone I am pretty new to MFP and was wondering if its best to try and use up all of my daily calories allowance or not worry as long as I don't go over? I find it hard most days to eat up all my calories....what does everyone else do?

rosebarnalice

The way MFP works is that you should try to use up your daily calorie allowance . . . but it also depends on what your calorie allowance is.

Conventional wisdom says that 1200 is pretty much the minimum--below which you'll trigger the dreaded "STARVATION MODE" (cue Psycho ree-ree-ree sound effect please), in which your metabolism will slow down because it thinks youre gonna die.

So of your daily allowance is 1400, maybe you can relax a bit as long as you don't fall much below that 1200 minimum (I frequently fall in the 1150 - 1190 range myself).

Fury also rages over what to do with "eating back" your exercise calories. I fall in the camp of eating back some but not all of my exercise calories-- about half of them. So, since my allowance is 1200 and I exercise 300, I'll shoot for actually eating about 1350 that day.

lizstyles2013

Thank you for the reply I tend to leave my exercise calories alone unless I decide that I'm going to have a little splurge on something (I have a sweet tooth ) I have a lot of weight to lose and would rather not eat back what I just used.

megsmom2

On MFP you should be eating back those burned calories...you already have a deficit built in, you don't want a double deficit which can lead to slower weight loss and possibly metabolic problems. It doesn't matter how much you have to lose...do it smart..slow and steady wins this race.

lizstyles2013

Thanks will keep that in mind as I wasn't sure if they already had a defecit built in, now that I know that it does I can start planning my meals better using most of my calories rather than having so many left at the end of the day. I plan to lose 1/2kg a week, anything extra would be a bonus but I'm not in a hurry.