So far I have burned more calories than I've eaten today

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Klopford
Klopford Posts: 129
in Health and Weight Loss
That's good, of course, but does this mean I'm really allowed to eat more or do I still aim for my target of 1200-ish?

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  • stines72
    stines72 Posts: 853 Member
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    you have the option of eating back all of those calories you burned... but i personally dont
  • cheerchicksie
    cheerchicksie Posts: 51 Member
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    you look at calories by "net" - so like if your goal is 1200, and you burn 500, you can eat 1700 without gaining any weight.

    You probably shouldn't go too far below 1200 "net calories" though, or you could put your body into starvation mode. (your metabolism slows down a ton, and it'll be harder to lose weight.) but don't worry too much about exactly hitting a 1200-net! :)
  • juliesjuke
    juliesjuke Posts: 93 Member
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    :wink: You will do better if you stick to the 1200, but not less than that. Good luck.
  • ErinRibbens
    ErinRibbens Posts: 370 Member
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    If what you have logged in your diary is accurate, that is certainly not enough food for anyone to live on. You need to eat more! You can eat all your calories and still lose weight.
  • ixap
    ixap Posts: 675 Member
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    If what you have logged in your diary is accurate, that is certainly not enough food for anyone to live on. You need to eat more! You can eat all your calories and still lose weight.
    Agree. Eat more, and you will still lose weight, and feel so much better.
    You can eat up to the green number in your diary.
  • Klopford
    Klopford Posts: 129
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    I'm not worried about starvation mode... I hear it only happens when your body doesn't really have anything else to use... and I've got PLENTY for it to use (56% body fat at last check).

    And I've not had dinner yet, but I eat lunch and breakfast like that on a regular basis since I started tracking and I feel ok (hungry now though, and was a bit hungry during my workout.) I try to be real careful during work because I never know what dinner will be till I get home and my parents say "hey we're doing this for dinner."
  • TinaLRoman
    TinaLRoman Posts: 41 Member
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    I almost always burn more than I take in. I don't eat back exercise calories, I consider those bonus in my weight loss progress.
  • kms1320
    kms1320 Posts: 599 Member
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    I'm not worried about starvation mode... I hear it only happens when your body doesn't really have anything else to use... and I've got PLENTY for it to use (56% body fat at last check).

    And I've not had dinner yet, but I eat lunch and breakfast like that on a regular basis since I started tracking and I feel ok (hungry now though, and was a bit hungry during my workout.) I try to be real careful during work because I never know what dinner will be till I get home and my parents say "hey we're doing this for dinner."

    Right, no reason to worry because you heard something somewhere once..
  • ixap
    ixap Posts: 675 Member
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    I'm not worried about starvation mode... I hear it only happens when your body doesn't really have anything else to use... and I've got PLENTY for it to use (56% body fat at last check).
    But if you continue to work out hard for an hour each day and eat only 500 calories, you will very likely begin to feel very burnt out and run down.
  • ixap
    ixap Posts: 675 Member
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    I almost always burn more than I take in. I don't eat back exercise calories, I consider those bonus in my weight loss progress.
    No, she means that she ate a total of only 500 calories today - not net, a total of 500 calories - and worked out hard for an hour to burn almost 600 calories -- so her net is actually negative 2000 or so.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    it's a bad idea--and actually counterproductive. If you're not willing to eat back your exercise calories then maybe you should decrease your activity level some.
  • Klopford
    Klopford Posts: 129
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    As I said... I hadn't had dinner by that point yet. I'm not crazy enough to eat JUST 500 calories a day! Now I've had dinner (three slices of pizza) and I've got 100 or so left.
  • ixap
    ixap Posts: 675 Member
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    As I said... I hadn't had dinner by that point yet. I'm not crazy enough to eat JUST 500 calories a day! Now I've had dinner (three slices of pizza) and I've got 100 or so left.
    Oh good!! When I had first looked you'd had like some lettuce and a yogurt.
    As far as eating back all of the exercise calories, there is lots of debate. You can find loooong threads discussing/ arguing if you want. I do eat mine back, but I am confident that the numbers it gives me are pretty accurate for me. If you have reason to think that MFP overestimates your burn, then you may want to eat back only some.
  • Gennacy
    Gennacy Posts: 27 Member
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    Just out of curiosity., what do you drink? Is it just pure water? As you don't seem to log any.
  • Klopford
    Klopford Posts: 129
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    Just out of curiosity., what do you drink? Is it just pure water? As you don't seem to log any.

    I forget to log my water sometimes. I drink water with Mio added and that counts as water IMO. If not that, then I drink diet soda or Vitamin Water Zero.

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