Calorie intake and burn. Am I doing this right?

las07002
las07002 Posts: 6
in Food and Nutrition
I currently have a 1,200 calories a day intake. When I work out, I typically burn anywhere from 258-458 calories (Which is 6 days a week). 3 days a week I do the harder workout and the other 3 days are less intensive. I'm just wanting to make sure that I am still being healthy enough while I'm trying to lose weight. I try to eat right, so that isn't really the issue I'm concerned with as much as burning too many calories and not eating them back if I need to. I don't know if this info helps, but I weigh 122 lbs and I'm 5'1". I'm planning to lose around 10-15 lbs. Sorry if this sounds stupid, I'm just new to this and thought it might be good to just make sure I'm doing things correctly. If I forgot to include anything let me know. Thanks for all your help in advance!

Replies

  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    You need to eat them back. MFP is set up so that your daily calorie goal already has you at a deficit, so if you didn't do any exercise at all, but ate to the goal, you'd lose weight. That's why when you log your exercise calories, it gives you more cals for the day - otherwise you are creating an even larger deficit, which is no bueno.

    Personally, I found the 1200 goal to be too low anyway. Most of us have a BMR higher than 1200 - if my coma calories are over 1200, shouldn't I eat at least that much and more if I'm out of bed, moving through my day, and exercising on top of that? :smile:

    Great info here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    I reset my calorie goals using the tools in that thread and am having great success, losing the fat and inches consistently, and fueling my body well. Stick to the 1200 if you want, but eat those exercise cals back - your body needs that fuel.
  • las07002
    las07002 Posts: 6
    Thanks for your feedback! I read that post, but I'm still somewhat confused by something. I checked my BMR and it's 1364.3. I read somewhere else that in order to lose 1 lb a week you need to have a daily calorie deficit of 500. Myfitnesspal has me at the 1200 calories a day. So that would already put me at a deficit of 164 calories. Based on that info, I would still need to burn another 336 calories a day without eating them back. But that would drop me down to only 864 calories a day, which doesn't seem healthy. So I guess my question is, how will I still lose weight if I'm eating all my exercise calories back? Is it just because I won't be eating as much as I was before starting this? I'm sure I sound dumb asking that, but it's something that's had me a little confused for a while.
  • greginnd
    greginnd Posts: 26 Member
    I think you should be able to get a healthy level of nutrition with 1200 calories a day regardless of the exercise. Even if your net calories after factoring in your exercise are less, you still put 1200 calories of nutrition into your body. So it is probably ok to use exercise to get your 500 calorie burn/eat deficit.

    1200 calories a day is considered to be a minimum for proper nutrition. So MFP uses that as the lower limit regardless of what your BMR is. If your BMR is that low MFP still will not recommend less calories. I hope this makes sense!
  • AllisonPlease
    AllisonPlease Posts: 48 Member
    Correct me if I'm wrong but I think your BMR is if you don't move at all. Like you were literally tied to a bed or in a coma. So going off what you're saying if your BMR is 1364.3 and you likely are regularly burning about 2000-2300 calories a day just by being up and doing your normal daily activities then you are already in a deficit of about 600-900 calories daily. If you add in the fact that you work out almost daily and burn anywhere from 250 to 450 calories extra that means your daily deficit is at least 950 calories a day (on your lowest intensity day).

    With you only eating 1200 calories a day, you are likely in fact putting your body into starvation mode. This is something that I too was struggling with. I was also eating about 1200 cal a day until recently. I realized that my body was indeed starving.

    Hope this helps.... you definitely don't sound dumb! I need to get more educated on this topic myself.
  • las07002
    las07002 Posts: 6
    Thanks you guys for all the info! It helped a ton!
  • segooey
    segooey Posts: 24
    I was wondering the same thing about eating back the burned calories from exercise. I understand what everyone has said in that you need to eat them back since there is already a deficit built in between BMR and MFP's recommended calorie limit.

    My question on top of what's been answered is I can't possibly eat back all the calories burned from my workout. I'm wearing a chest strap heart rate monitor that calculates calories burned and each hockey game I play burns between 1400-1700 calories. Today was a two hour session - 2300 calories burned. Is there a minimum of that I should absolutely be eating back?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/segooey

    All help is appreciated!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Thanks for your feedback! I read that post, but I'm still somewhat confused by something. I checked my BMR and it's 1364.3. I read somewhere else that in order to lose 1 lb a week you need to have a daily calorie deficit of 500. Myfitnesspal has me at the 1200 calories a day. So that would already put me at a deficit of 164 calories. Based on that info, I would still need to burn another 336 calories a day without eating them back. But that would drop me down to only 864 calories a day, which doesn't seem healthy. So I guess my question is, how will I still lose weight if I'm eating all my exercise calories back? Is it just because I won't be eating as much as I was before starting this? I'm sure I sound dumb asking that, but it's something that's had me a little confused for a while.

    The deficit is from your TDEE, not your BMR. Your BMR is the base line calories your body needs just to maintain proper organ function if you're in a coma. This is what they would feed you through a tube if you were in a hospital in a coma. 1,200 net calories is most likely somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 or so calorie deficit from your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). You have to remember that your body burns calories above your BMR because you're doing more than just laying there in a coma. Personally, I'd bump my goal to 1,300 - 1,400 net and eat back the exercise calories...you'll be happier in the long run. That said, so long as you are netting to 1,200 (eating back exercise) you should be ok as it's not considerably below your BMR. Only needing to lose 10-15 Lbs though, I'd go a little slower...you'll preserve more lean body mass going slower..
  • las07002
    las07002 Posts: 6
    You guys are great! Thank you for all the advice! I look up my TDEE and it was somewhere around 2094 calories. So I'm thinking I should probably bump up my calorie intake, but I'm getting pretty good results right now with 1200. But for all I know that could be because my body is doing the whole starvation mode thing where you lose weight at first and after a while stop losing and start storing fat. How much would you guys say I should increase it by? I was thinking around 1300 like cwolfman13 suggested, but will that be enough to keep me healthy? I lost 2 lbs in a week at my last weigh in, which was awesome. But I at least want to continue to lose 1 lb a week. Any suggestions?

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