question about my fitness pal calories counter

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joxlee
joxlee Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm on the diet chef diet (1200 cals a day) so i keep track of it all here, i like to see how many calories I've got left after i enter in what I've eaten and its good for that but when i enter in excercise I've done say i lose 120 cals walking, it adds it to how many calories i can consume and its confusing me, help?

Replies

  • cranberrycat
    cranberrycat Posts: 233 Member
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    Two simple solutions,

    Don't enter your exercise in until the end of the day. Then, your calories will only reflect the intake.

    or

    Don't enter your exercise in at all.
  • joxlee
    joxlee Posts: 5 Member
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    Good idea, didn't think of that :p
  • Fitness4Paul
    Fitness4Paul Posts: 166 Member
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    the theory of this site is you need to eat back calories burned doing excersice and increased activity. That being said if you can eat 1200 and have an activity for 120 you can eat that back for a total of 1320. This can be seen in an example like if you can eat 1200 and let's say you cycle for a couple of hours. That can burn 1500 calories. So in terms of what your body needs to function youd be at -300. it's starving your body of required calories to support your activity level.

    That being said the 120 is not really a big deal because every thing on here i.e. cal burn estimates have a margine of error and act as a guide more than a definitive number.
  • joxlee
    joxlee Posts: 5 Member
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    the theory of this site is you need to eat back calories burned doing excersice and increased activity. That being said if you can eat 1200 and have an activity for 120 you can eat that back for a total of 1320. This can be seen in an example like if you can eat 1200 and let's say you cycle for a couple of hours. That can burn 1500 calories. So in terms of what your body needs to function youd be at -300. it's starving your body of required calories to support your activity level.

    That being said the 120 is not really a big deal because every thing on here i.e. cal burn estimates have a margine of error and act as a guide more than a definitive number.
    Sorry if i'm missing the point here but woudn't that defeat the object of exersing? Say i lose a few hundred calories exercising then i eat 300 cals, wouldn't that mean i'm exercising for nothing?
  • CarmenLynn75
    CarmenLynn75 Posts: 118 Member
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    Mornin..
    I read your post, and everything I've read so far on here says to eat back at least 1/2 of the 'extra' calories you burn off. The reason everyone has been saying it in the forums is the same- and it does make sense.

    Let's say ur supposed to have no less (target) than 1200 calories. Ok, well at 1100 calories, your body (just like everyone else) will go into starvation mode which means everything you eat your body will store. So, if you eat 1200 calories and burn off 1000, ur starving your body and you will NOT lose weight. Our bodies do this starvation mode as a means of survival. If it thinks it's not being fed it will store every piece of food it receives incase it needs it. The people that have been saying this to other newcomers on here have huge weight loss- so I am going to think they know what they're saying.. and it does make sense if you think about it.

    so.. log your exercise and eat at least half the calories back :)
  • Fitness4Paul
    Fitness4Paul Posts: 166 Member
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    no because at 1200 cal you are already running a calorie deficeit. It's that deficiet is where you lose weight. The 1200 should be based on your age, height, weight and activity level. That is the key, activity level. If you're setup here a sedentary here is factors in that level of activity to figure out how many calories you need to perform the tasks of the day and allow your body to function (heart, breathing, nervous system). If I had a physical job like construction compared to an office worker sitting at a desk the person doing the physical job will burn more calories in their work day and will require more food (cals) than the office worker. On here they may be set to active and MFP will factor in more calories in their calculation. I think the rule of thumb is take what you need, say 1700 calories a day, you'd have a deficeit of 500 to lose a pound a week so MFP would ask you to eat 1200. If you workout and burn 500 more you'll now have a deficeit of 1000 instead of the targeted 500.
  • joxlee
    joxlee Posts: 5 Member
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    I've read all your replies but i really don't understand, my dad says if i want to lose weight then i have to burn off more calories than what i eat...
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
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    I've read all your replies but i really don't understand, my dad says if i want to lose weight then i have to burn off more calories than what i eat...

    Please tell me this doesn't mean that you're eating 1200 and exercising to burn 1200.
  • joxlee
    joxlee Posts: 5 Member
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    No he says he doesn't mean that, hes trying to explain but i dont get it.
  • kappyblu
    kappyblu Posts: 654 Member
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    MFP is set up with your calorie deficit built in. If you want to lose one pound a week, you need a 500 calorie deficit. You get that because the amount of calories your body actually needs to just maintain your current weight is most likely 1700 calories. So, MFP says ok, 1700-500=1200 and you should lose 1 pound a week.

    If you burn more calories than you eat, yes you will lose weight....in the beginning. Then you will plateau and you will come back on the boards and say "why am I not losing weight? I am doing this, this, this, why is it not working?" And the members will respond with the same things again. Do a search for "exercise calories" and read the message boards there. Some boards explain it really well. Trust MFP. It really works. But if you don't want to be confused about your numbers during the day, enter the exercise calories at the end of the day and see how it goes. Just remember that if you use MFP, that is the method they use. Look at the great success stories. It truly does work if you trust it and use it properly.

    Best wishes to you!
    :flowerforyou:
  • Fitness4Paul
    Fitness4Paul Posts: 166 Member
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    I've read all your replies but i really don't understand, my dad says if i want to lose weight then i have to burn off more calories than what i eat...

    Your Dad is right. This site let you do that in a safe way. You want to burn more calories than you eat but when you excercise the difference between what your body needs and how much you've eaten is too much. If you have a too big a deficeit you can damage your metabolism causing it to slow down. if that happen you start to gain weight even at a calorie deficeit. MFP helps you monitor your calorie intake with your calorie expenditure to keep your calorie deciceit at a safe level based on your weight loss goals or 1 or 2 pounds per week. two pounds per week is pushing things. Take your time, make it permenant weight loss.
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
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    I've read all your replies but i really don't understand, my dad says if i want to lose weight then i have to burn off more calories than what i eat...

    Your Dad is right. This site let you do that in a safe way. You want to burn more calories than you eat but when you excercise the difference between what your body needs and how much you've eaten is too much. If you have a too big a deficeit you can damage your metabolism causing it to slow down. if that happen you start to gain weight even at a calorie deficeit. MFP helps you monitor your calorie intake with your calorie expenditure to keep your calorie deciceit at a safe level based on your weight loss goals or 1 or 2 pounds per week. two pounds per week is pushing things. Take your time, make it permenant weight loss.

    What Paul said! Read the MFP Faq's, and there are several threads. (Such as In Place of a Roadmap) that will explain the nuts and bolts of MFP. 1200 is pretty low, especially if you're young and don't have lots to lose.
  • leska1216
    leska1216 Posts: 260
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    the theory of this site is you need to eat back calories burned doing excersice and increased activity. That being said if you can eat 1200 and have an activity for 120 you can eat that back for a total of 1320. This can be seen in an example like if you can eat 1200 and let's say you cycle for a couple of hours. That can burn 1500 calories. So in terms of what your body needs to function youd be at -300. it's starving your body of required calories to support your activity level.

    That being said the 120 is not really a big deal because every thing on here i.e. cal burn estimates have a margine of error and act as a guide more than a definitive number.
    Sorry if i'm missing the point here but woudn't that defeat the object of exersing? Say i lose a few hundred calories exercising then i eat 300 cals, wouldn't that mean i'm exercising for nothing?

    In your example here, you would be defeating yourself only if you ate more calories than you burned.

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