We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

I am confused

seadiamond1
seadiamond1 Posts: 19
edited January 7 in Health and Weight Loss
I have been doing MFP for about 5 months and I've lost about 20 pounds (I'm 61 so it comes off ever so slowly). I cannot seem to find an answer to the following

Do you count your calories (say 1600) before or after you exercise? For instance, if I've done 320 calories worth of exercise, does my food intake go UP to meet the 1600 calories or do I have a net calorie intake at the end of the day of 1280?

Thanks for any medically correct responses.

Replies

  • MountainMamaMarissa
    MountainMamaMarissa Posts: 202 Member
    II wish I had the answer to give you. It's my understanding that MFP is set to take all the guess work or figures away. You log your food and exercise and it's calculated for you.
    To be honest, I've never fully understood how it works and have always wondered this myself. I have tried not eating back any calories I've burned from exercise, eating back a few exercise calories and even eating back all exercise calories. I've had people tell me you should eat some, you shouldn't eat any and you should eat them all...very confusing.
  • lindsiswatchingyou
    lindsiswatchingyou Posts: 114 Member
    I would recommend calculating your BMR and TDEE and finding the number on your own. There are different free calculators on-line. If you use the BMR #, eat back your calories. If you use the TDEE #, don't eat them back (but remember to reduce this amount by XX% is trying to lose).
  • Cespuglio
    Cespuglio Posts: 385 Member
    What the above poster said. My opinion, I'd say do whatever works best for you. If you're hungrier than usual and want to eat back all of your exercise calories or would be netting way too few calories after a big burn, go for it. If you only want to eat some, that's fine too. If you don't want to eat any, that works. At the end of it all, your body will guide you through it - especially since logging your food and exercise will make you more attentive to it. Best of luck!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    It depends on how you've set yourself up on MFP. If you've set yourself up with a caloric deficit built in then you would want to eat your exercise calories back. For example, if your TDEE is 2,000 calories and you wanted to lose 1 Lb per week, you would consume 1,500 net calories per day (500 per day deficit built in). If you then exercised and burned another 300 calories and didn't eat them back, you would have an 800 calorie deficit, which, IMHO is nearing the limits of healthy weight loss and you'll probably be miserable to boot. If you ate back those 300 exercise calories, your net intake would still be 1,500 calories after the exercise and on pace to lose 1 Lb per week. Having too big a caloric deficit can be counter productive.
  • Barbellerella
    Barbellerella Posts: 1,838 Member
    Try this calculator its one of my favorites http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
  • Rays_Wife
    Rays_Wife Posts: 1,173 Member
    I've always eaten back exercise calories. It has not stopped my weight loss. I use an HRM though for more accurate calorie burns. The exercise numbers MFP gives you tend to be high. I would eat back at least 50% of those exercise cals MFP gives you. When you exercise you need to fuel your body. MFP already has the deficit built in so when you exercise you are making the deficit bigger which can be detrimental.

    Another way is to just eat between your BMR and TDEE. See here:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • seadiamond1
    seadiamond1 Posts: 19
    Thanks so much for the responses. I think I understand a little more clearly. I will look at the links to educate myself further. I'm happy that some of you are eating some of your calories back because I was really afraid of eating too little and gotten myself into the starvation cycle....been there done that many times.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    MFP sets your calorie goal so that you will lose weight without exercise. So then when you DO exercise, it gives you more calories to eat for fuel. You are supposed to eat to your Net calories.

    For example, if your MFP calorie goal is 1,500 cals, then you exercise 250, you would be eating 1750 total for the day.

    If however you set up your own calorie goal based on BMR and TDEE, you would not eat extra for exercise, it would already be figured in based on your activity level. I eat 1750 every day and don't log exercise calories.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories