Question about exercise and calories on MFP

findingskinnyme731
findingskinnyme731 Posts: 8
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
This is my first week with MFP and my daily calorie intake is 1200, whenever I add an exercise (for example Step aerobics class) the daily needed calorie intake changes to around 1600. Does that mean I have to consume 1600 instead of 1200? And if I do will I still lose weight?

Replies

  • Cindy393
    Cindy393 Posts: 268 Member
    Mine does the same thing. It's adding those calories back into your allowed for the day. This is in case you choose to eat them back. I just ignore them. I work too hard to eat them back :)
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    This is my first week with MFP and my daily calorie intake is 1200, whenever I add an exercise (for example Step aerobics class) the daily needed calorie intake changes to around 1600. Does that mean I have to consume 1600 instead of 1200? And if I do will I still lose weight?

    Welcome to mfp! The answers to your questions are Yes and yes.
  • I_love_frogs
    I_love_frogs Posts: 340 Member
    This is my first week with MFP and my daily calorie intake is 1200, whenever I add an exercise (for example Step aerobics class) the daily needed calorie intake changes to around 1600. Does that mean I have to consume 1600 instead of 1200? And if I do will I still lose weight?

    Welcome to mfp! The answers to your questions are Yes and yes.

    You should be eating some of them back anyway... they are not part of the deficit created by MFP for losing weight. It gives you a greater deficit which is bad in the sense that you are losing out on nutrients you need to make up for the exercise.
  • jerendeb
    jerendeb Posts: 55 Member
    I don't always eat the exercise calories completely, but I always eat some of them. And I am/have lost weight. Exercise keeps that fire burning hot.
  • Csitri
    Csitri Posts: 132 Member
    Welcome :)

    I eat my exercise calories only if I am hungry.
    This is something for you to choose. Some say its not good to eat them others say it is good to eat them.

    Feel free to add me as a friend if you would like. :)
  • mermx
    mermx Posts: 976
    I started this whole thing on MFP a year ago...and what worked for me is keeping in the MFP guidelines. I was on 1200 cals a day...and still am.

    Everyone one of those exercise cals gives you a little extra to eat. It is such a hard thing the first 3 months worrying about if you are eating enough, not eating enough!

    So my advice is follow MFP, if and when you stall, then you can change things!
  • findingskinnyme731
    findingskinnyme731 Posts: 8
    Thanks for all the help! :) I'm starting to like this community...everyone is really friendly and helpful. :smile:
  • ESP21
    ESP21 Posts: 13
    I'd always read that you're supposed to eat your exercise cals, so that your NET calories are 1200, but TOTAL can be, say, 1750, and you did 450 cals worth of exercise that day.

    They also bump up your individual macronutrient counts (say, you're counting carbs) for doing exercise, so if you're trying to keep carbs under 90, as I am, you'll get "extra" carbs if you train hard that day.

    So as long as you're very careful about not over-reporting burned cals, (which is easy to do, because many of the calorie burned estimates that are automatically programmed in are inflated) you should definitely be eating such that your NET cals = 1200. Reading these other women tell you not to eat back, say, 600 cals is startling to me!

    ...though, I bumped my cals down to 1125, and created new exercises with fewer calories burned per minute, and sometimes I under-report my minutes, just in case. I don't want to be accidentally overeating.
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