Can Someone Answer this For Me?

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ValMartin79
ValMartin79 Posts: 65 Member
edited January 25 in Food and Nutrition
Good Morning Everyone!

After very little success over the past 3 months of exercising and eating way better then I used to I need some help. (To give you a better idea of how I used to eat I have it in my diary on February 23 and 24.)
Before I joined MFP I ate like crap everyday. Either by not eating enough (meaning skipping meals, still ate too many cals) or eating way too much. Mostly fast food. Also I did little to no exercise (closer to none, I used to get winded going up my 1 flight of stairs and that was my exercise for the day)
I know I do not 100% eat healthy but don't really care. As long as I am within my numbers then that is all that matters. However I changed my stats today with the ones I received from this website : IIFYM.com ( so if you look at my diary from previous dates then the numbers are not going to be the same ones I used to go by set by MFP. These are the new numbers I will be going by from now on. Probably a lot of red numbers that used to be green. Go figure Thanks MFP)

>>>My question is, now that I have changed them, when I exercise and it adds to my new settings, do I go by the original no exercise numbers or the new ones reflecting the exercises I have done. Cheers to anyone that can offer any help.<<<

Replies

  • AvalonsUnicorn
    AvalonsUnicorn Posts: 425 Member
    Are you asking should you eat your exercise calories back? If so then it is a personal preference whether you do so or not. some people will swear by eating them back and others swear by not eating them back. If that's not what you're asking than forgive me I just woke up lol :yawn:
  • mamosh81
    mamosh81 Posts: 409 Member
    if you do tdee then you do not eat back exercise cals since they are already accounted for if you go by MFP setting you eat them back since they are not added in yet
  • goodtimezzzz
    goodtimezzzz Posts: 640 Member
    simplify..totally confusing..what do u wanna know..
  • Denjo060
    Denjo060 Posts: 1,008
    I think if you are going by MFP numbers they have it set so you can eat back your exercise calories
  • footiechick82
    footiechick82 Posts: 1,203 Member
    I calculated my TDEE and I eat according to that... for me approx 1,850cals a day and I incorporate about 150cals of chocolate in that almost every day. It's worked for me. Look at my profile. Mind you, I work out like a maniac and I don't 'cheat' very often. My diet is mostly healthy and I binge on weekends.

    For example, I went nuts this weekend with a couple slices of pizza, some chips and 2 1/2 bottles of wine between Friday and Saturday. Mind you, that is a heck of a lot better then where I was a year ago... I would have eaten the whole pizza, the whole bag of chips and probably 4 bottles of wine. So, there's some improvement.

    You always want to eat as clean as you can. Stay away from processed foods, sugar, fried crap. Make sure you get your protein. I found that making sure I get my protein in every day (more then required most days) has helped A LOT!

    Anyway... this is obviously what's worked for me. Good luck!
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
    Try starting here:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974889-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

    Best of luck! :)
  • ValMartin79
    ValMartin79 Posts: 65 Member
    Thanks to all that replied so far. For some clarification I am not really asking about calories as like someone said, eating back exercise calories is a personal preference. Right now if I can eat my 'non exercising' TDEE of 1568 then I am doing good. Currently I struggle with just getting over 1200 calories unless I eat unhealthy foods. (Please don't get your panties in a bunch about this. I have read a million articles and answers on this site and others and know that eating anything less the 1200 calories is bad and I know everyone has different views on eating back exercise cals vs not eating them back. That is not what this is about)

    So my macros from the website mentioned are these:

    TDEE based on Katch-McCradle Formula with a whooping 51% body fat (OUCH! I am more fat then anything else) TDEE is1568 calories that is based on text book (20%) and aggressive fat loss (25%) Both are the same for some reason.
    I have carbs set at 10% (39g) Protein is set at 50% (196g) Fat is 40% (70g) and fiber is 44g based on recommended in-take of 39g-49g, I took the average.

    So when I logged in my exercise besides my calories all the other numbers changes too and I am just wondering should I stick with all the numbers above or try and reach the new numbers after I exercise. On the website it asks how often I exercise. I said 4 days but sometimes I do 5 days or more. So it has already calculated my exercise right? So then when I log it on MFP is it calculating it twice? I am confused and just need help. It shouldn't be so hard and I don't want to just eat healthy I want to find out how and what I should eat so I can maintain a healthier lifestyle. I am not one that is going to get mad at myself if I decide to scarf down a big bowl of ice cream with cherries on top, I am not going to stop drinking or only eat a cheeseburger once a month. I just want to know what all these stupid numbers mean and how I can still eat all that and lose weight. (I totally opened myself up for a bashing there didn't I):wink:


    I just checked and with little to no exercise my stats don't change.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    Assuming you factored exercise into the calorie calculation, then no you don't need to eat back the calories... just stick with the number IIFYM.com gave you.

    BTW, that's a great site/calculator.
  • Kettle_Belle14
    Kettle_Belle14 Posts: 246 Member
    I have my activity level set as sedentary due to my desk job, although I do work out 4-5 times a week. It was just easier for me to set it at sedentary and any cals I burned were "extra" (I do eat back some of my exercise calories, not always all of them). My TDEE is 1680, so if I take 20% off, that allows me 1344 cals/day. MFP set me automatically at 1200 when I first began, and I was successful for awhile, but then I increased my exercise and was hungrier, so I upped it to 1300.

    You can always start off with TDEE - 20% and if you aren't losing like you want, up it to TDEE - 25%...but I'd start off with 20%.

    :smile:
  • ValMartin79
    ValMartin79 Posts: 65 Member
    Again thanks for the help. Such great people on MFP. I changed my stats again. So ignore this post. I am doing the 40/30/30 as my carbs were set way too low for me. Got some great advice from some friends on here and think I have got it for now. Hope my new figures help me lose 20lbs by August so I can give my husband the best anniversary gift he could imagine, a skinnier me.
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