Confused

jtonyan

I am very confused about calorie intake. I am striving to lose weight by walking 5 miles a day but I notice after I log the exercise it adds additional calories I can eat. My question is...Am I suppose to add more food to my diet then or just try to stay at my goal of 1300 calories a day.

jadeyq1

MFP works in such a way that it expects you to eat your exercise calories back as well

babydiego87

yes :drinker:

Muchmoretogive

Hi it can be confussing can't it!! It took me a while to figure out that you have bmr (what your body burns off naturally with out doing anything i.e if you were in a coma) and then there is TDEE which is total daily energy expenditure. What you need to do is figure both these out can do this on any search engine. You need to make sure your eating above BMR else you will go into starrvation mode and your body will hold onto any fat and food that you put into your body.You need to eat below TDEE as if you eat above that you will gain weight if you eat at TDEE you will maintain weight and obviously below you will lose weight.
I don't eat back my calories when i exrecise as i have gone off the TDEE formula which takes into consideration any exercise that you do. Try doing TDEE - 20%
Good luck

drefaw

Yea, basically what Jadey said already ....

ihad

You should eat the additional calories it gives you. MFP keeps you at a constant gap below your calories burned for the day, so as you burn more calories, you should eat more too. Too big of a gap can become a problem over time (not a day or a week, so don't fret over small, short term differences).

jtonyan

Thank you all! Its my first time actually tracking what I eat and my exercise, so I was really confused about the added calories. Again, Thank you!

OriginalKatie

I always eat the extra calories to an extent. I have my pre-workout nutrition, and my post-workout nutrition - and I factor that in as my extra calories.

toutmonpossible

I am very confused about calorie intake. I am striving to lose weight by walking 5 miles a day but I notice after I log the exercise it adds additional calories I can eat. My question is...Am I suppose to add more food to my diet then or just try to stay at my goal of 1300 calories a day.

I would stick to the 1300 calories unless you find you are losing weight at an alarming rate. Many people underestimate the number of calories they consume and overestimate how much they burn from exercise. Walking does not burn that many calories. If you eat additional calories before observing than you actually need them you will will undermine your weight loss.

You need to use the scale to monitor your progress and make your own judgment.

watfordjc

Eat back your exercise calories so your daily deficit is in line with your weekly goal.

I've tweeted to NHS Choices because their recommendation of 1,900 calories a day for all men trying to lose weight and 1,400 calories a day for all women trying to lose weight just doesn't add up.

I plugged their recommendations into my calculator and came up with the following:

"1,900 calories for sedentary guys: "safe" 1-2 lb per week only applies if they weigh between 182 and 219 lb."
"1,900 calories for active guys: "safe" 1-2 lb per week only applies if they weigh between 129 lb and 156 lb."
"I burned 5,347 calories yesterday. Are you suggesting I should aim to consume 1,900 instead of 4,222?"

And yes, I burned those 5,347 calories from just walking, breathing, pumping blood around my body, blinking, digesting, replacing cells, thinking, sleeping, and everything else my body uses energy for.

ETA: Plugging in 1,300 calories and a lightly active female using a TDEE estimate calculation (in the opposite direction)...
(1300 + 1000) / 24 / 0.9 / 1.1 / 1.35 / 0.454 = 157.94 lb weight, lose 2 lb per week
(1300 + 750) / 24 / 0.9 / 1.1 / 1.35 / 0.454 = 140.77 lb weight, lose 1.5 lb per week
(1300 + 500) / 24 / 0.9 / 1.1 / 1.35 / 0.454 = 123.61 lb weight, lose 1 lb per week
(1300 + 250) / 24 / 0.9 / 1.1 / 1.35 / 0.454 = 106.44 lb weight, lose 0.5 lb per week

Given the weight for 2 lb per week loss, 1,300 calories is not enough food for any lightly active female to lose 2 lb per week safely (2 lb is more than 1% of the highest weight), and 1.5 lb per week is a judgement call. Unless you weigh between 106.44 lb and 140.77 lb, a 1,300 calorie diet without exercise calories will probably not be enough (I'm ignoring how low the low end of that weight range is).

If you use a TDEE-X% method, you may or may not reach a figure of 1,300 calories per day depending on the activity level you select and percent deficit.
If you use a fixed deficit and eat back exercise calories (the MFP method), you may or may not be eating 1,300 calories a day (except on days you don't exercise when that is possibly the case) - depending on your daily activity level and/or your goal weekly loss.